“If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.” So said industrialist Henry Ford, inventor of the assembly line. Though he was referring to workplace teamwork, his words ring true on a number of other levels for the beleaguered corporate meetings industry, which has found itself on the defensive lately. So much so that the next time your thoughts turn to teambuilding programs, your very next thoughts will be transparency, accountability and results. The times might be different, but human nature never changes: Getting a diverse group of people to work well together is no simple task. As the legendary baseball manager Casey Stengel discovered, “Finding good players is easy. Getting them to play as a team is another story.”

Yet, effective teambuilding is about far more than creating internal camaraderie. It can be about building character and communities. When done right, these activities can have a significant impact on a company’s success — and its reputation. People who learn to collaborate and execute as a team are the glue that will hold the company together when a shaky economy threatens to pull it apart. You might say we’re in it together now more than ever.

Trading Places

Arizona Outback Adventures (AOA) is a Scottsdale, AZ-based company that creates teambuilding programs for clients all over the world. “Teambuilding means different things to different people,” said Bernard Philippe, general manager. “Often it means doing a group activity, and for other groups, it really means doing a business simulation. They are looking at teambuilding to increase communication and

This Arizona Outback Adventures charity bike-building activity helped Toyota Financial Services employees bond through a shared sense of purpose. Photo courtesy of Arizona Outback Adventures

obviously teamwork, but also to look more at some of their specific business processes and the efficiency within those processes.”

Amanda Martin-Palmay, collections development manager for the Center of Excellence at Toyota Financial Services (TFS) in Chandler, AZ, hired AOA to design a teambuilding activity that would address some communications challenges the company was facing.

“We have a layer of leadership we found was a little disconnected from each other,” she said. She explained that these front-line staff managers, called team leaders, work in different departments, including customer service, collections, administration and inventory control, yet they need each other’s cooperation to resolve customer issues.

“We thought it was important to bring them together for some teambuilding so as to facilitate more comfort in having dialogue with each other and resolving problems together rather than going to the next level of management to resolve,” Martin-Palmay continued. “One of our main themes was ‘being in the other person’s shoes.’”

Philippe and Seth Heald, AOA’s president, worked with TFS officials to plan the event. “They started out by really digging in for probably the first three meetings we had, just trying to understand what was going on in our business, and it really was not about the teambuilding event,” Martin-Palmay noted. “That’s probably what impressed me the most. It’s quite difficult to come in and figure it out and then come up with a way to

Team dynamics are tested during Pluto’s Pursuit, a Disney Institute scavenger hunt through Disney theme parks and resorts. Photo courtesy of Walt Disney World Resort

help. They did a great job on fact finding and researching and trying to understand the real need that we had.”

“Ultimately, it was about customer service,” Philippe noted. “How do we help people understand each other better and increase the efficiency of dealing with the customer?”

AOA staged the program at Fort McDowell Adventures, a scenic outdoor venue located on the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation just east of Scottsdale. To build in a little friendly competition, AOA turned the event into a bike-building contest. Teams were formed with one member from each department, and each team visited a series of stations where they could win a bike part by answering a question related to handling a customer situation.

Team members were not allowed to answer questions from their own areas of expertise, however. “If I’m in customer service, I have to answer from the administrative perspective and tell the customer service person why it is the way it is,” Martin-Palmay explained. “It’s really funny. You really see people taking the other side and owning it.”

Philippe added, “We put them in a role they’re not comfortable with. We also engaged them by forcing them to communicate as a team, so they can get advice from the real customer service person or the real administrative person.”

If the team answered the question correctly, they won a bike part, but if they answered it exceptionally well, they got an “extra” such as a bell or streamers. “Whoever had the most souped-up bike won,” Martin-Palmay said. The bikes were then donated to the local Boys and Girls Club.

After the teambuilding exercise, AOA held a debriefing session to clarify what was learned and help develop an action plan for going forward. Afterwards, the group wound down by riding a mechanical bull, having a quick draw contest and taking pictures at an old time photo booth.

“We had guys dressed up in women’s dresses taking pictures. We have teams of team leaders from two different departments taking pictures together. You see all those pictures on people’s desks,” Martin-Palmay noted.

In addition to donating the bikes they built, each team planted a cactus on the reservation to help preserve the desert area. “TFS is really about being the global good citizen, and that absolutely was key for us,” she added. Martin-Palmay said she could not have been more pleased with the outcome of the event. “They were so into it. They were so energized. It’s absolutely talked about here still. It far exceeded my expectations.”

Building Teams AND Communities

Teambuilding programs with an emphasis on corporate social responsibility are increasing in popularity and importance, and the choices are virtually endless.

The Kauai Marriott Resort & Beach Club in Lihue, HI offers an outrigger canoe racing event that enables groups to give back to the community while enjoying an authentic Hawaiian cultural experience. As participants learn about the Hawaiian traditions of this ancient ocean sport, they also learn that the harder they work at coordinating their efforts as a team, the farther and faster they can go, not only in the ocean, but in the workplace.

The races are led by members of a local canoe club on Kauai. Since the resort is located right on the beach, no transfers are necessary. The event costs between $120 and $150 per person, and all proceeds benefit the local community.

“The money that the groups pay will go directly to the kids’ program of the supporting canoe club,” stated Jay Heidenreich, director of sales and marketing for the Kauai Marriott Resort & Beach Club. “It is a really great way for a group to have an interactive teambuilding event that incorporates culture and then the money paid goes right back into the community.”

The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel in Dana Point, CA offers a variety of socially responsible teambuilding activities called “VolunTeaming.” Groups can elect to participate in a build-a-bike competition or clean up a local beach for the nonprofit environmental organization the Surfrider Foundation. They can also have a competition to create sculptures out of cans of food. After the event is judged, all of the food is donated to

Odyssey Teams’ Helping Hands teambuilding program gives corporate groups the opportunity to assemble artificial hands for later donation to children in developing countries. Photo courtesy of Odyssey Teams

the Second Harvest Food Bank.

Odyssey Teams, a teambuilding and leadership skills development company based in Chico, CA, has formed a partnership with Rotary International to create a philanthropic program called Helping Hands. Groups participating in this program assemble artificial hands to be donated to youth and adults who have been injured by land mines or political violence or who have irreversible birth defects. The recipients live in developing countries where the average cost of a prosthetic hand can be $3,000.

As a teambuilding activity, Helping Hands inspires employees to work together toward a common goal while gaining an appreciation for things they take for granted. According to the company, “As participants realize what they’re building, a profound sense of responsibility emerges. An amputee, after all, is going to use this hand.” Odyssey’s goal for the program is to provide 10,000 hands to those in need.

Learning The Ropes

Outdoor adventures are another popular choice for teambuilding activities. Bruce LaSurs, director of facilities for Hardee’s Food Systems Inc. in St. Louis, MO, chose to take his nine-person team to Meramec Wilderness Learning Ranch to experience a ropes course. The facility, located in Steelville, MO, occupies 1,200 acres along the Meramec River and is operated by Boys & Girls Town of Missouri.

“I searched for a unique activity where not one of us was an expert, and everyone was vulnerable — especially me,” LaSurs said. “Our group needed expert trainers to challenge us and bring us together, earning that bond in trust.”

LaSurs was familiar with the work of the Boys & Girls Town through charitable activities. “I was

Simulated steer roping instigates some hootin’ and hollerin’ at metroConnections’ Western round-up and chili cook-off teambuilding competition. Photo courtesy of metroConnections

impressed with the quiet confidence and flexibility demonstrated by their leaders, and more impressed with the results I witnessed in the children they steward, shape and guide — children who learn to transform themselves beyond the most difficult circumstances.

“These folks know how to break down barriers and deal with intense obstacles at core levels for acceptance and growth,” he continued. “They can get through to the toughest corporate groups and provide them tools to sustain teams and continue growing together.

“The high ropes course is, at once, both exhilarating and sobering. It is the equalizer. It is composed of large wooden poles, climbing spikes, and platforms and cables, laced with more familiar elements in boxes and benches, pipes and logs, ropes and swings. It embodies the very human fear of falling, and entwines that with the excitement of height and the power of a commanding vista.”

LaSurs explain­ed that the course can be navigated by nearly anyone who has average balance and strength and who is capable of climbing a ladder. Participants who completed the course were rewarded with an opportunity to go ziplining, which LaSurs described as “as close to flying as you can get.”

LaSurs summed up his group’s ropes course experience. “Success is often showed in ways other than completion of physical challenges: Successes came in the struggles and drive people showed to challenge themselves beyond their perceived limits. Some addressed their biggest fears, multiple times, to reach farther at each attempt. Others benefited from the group’s encouragement and support to take risks and successfully participate in ways they did not expect. There is a renewed sense of dedication and purpose in our group. Wonderful results are stemming from a shared experience at the Meramec Wilderness Learning Ranch. The impact from this event is profound.”

The Drum Café experience puts corporate conference attendees on the same page as they learn the universal language of drumming. Photos courtesy of Drum Café Atlanta/Orlando

The Beat Goes On

It’s not always easy for an organization to drum up support for its latest product or strategy, but one company has discovered a unique way to do just that. Drum Café, which has offices around the world, utilizes the universal language of drumming to help groups break down their barriers and align to a common goal.

David Graves, senior vice president of metroConnections, a Minneapolis-based event production company, has used Drum Café at least three times in the past and has another engagement coming up.

“One thing I like about them is that they’re able to adjust the program to what we’re looking for to meet the needs of the client,” he explained. “We bring them in when the client’s message is built around getting everybody on the same page, when we’ve got people from all over the country and now we need to get

Universal In Production challenges teams to produce a one- to two-minute video, the content of which can support any number of goals the organization may want to achieve. Photo courtesy of Universal Orlando Resort

everybody thinking about the new product, the new direction or the new message.”

The Drum Café team begins the program by placing an African drum under the chair of each attendee before they enter the room. Then, as Graves explained, “We have the drumming start on stage, the doors open, and everybody floods in the room. It’s upbeat, it’s fun and it’s powerful drumming. Then they get in there and they find that there’s a drum at their spot.”

Graves described the dramatic way in which Natalie Spiro, director of Drum Café’s San Diego office facilitated one of his events. “She comes out on stage and for the first 10 minutes of the program she never says a word. The drummers are drumming and she’s pointing at the audience. She’s making facial gestures and demonstrating, but she never speaks. Within 10 minutes she’s got the whole room drumming together — one half doing one thing, and the other half doing another — and she’s got rhythms being created. It’s a really neat experience. Then they go into the messaging: ‘Look how easy it was to get all of you on the same page. That’s what we need to do.’?”

Graves continued, “It’s interesting and fun, and a great way to open a conference. It’s kind of funny to watch the group in the first few minutes. They don’t know what the heck is going on. Then once they start the program, they start to get it.”

Graves has done the Drum Café program for groups of up to 300, but he said they can accommodate much larger groups, as well. “You get caught up in their energy. If you want to go the extra step, they’ll take the group and really get them moving.” Graves noted that he has seen groups form conga lines because they were having so much fun.

The Games People Play

When they’re designed with specific goals in mind, games also can be an effective teambuilding activity. Ronald Roberts, president of Action Centered Training (ACT) in Eagleville, PA, and a professor of leadership and motivation at The Pennsylvania State University, has invented more than 70 games for corporate training. Planners can arrange for ACT to facilitate the games or they can purchase the games and implement them on their own.

One game is called “What Goes Around, Comes Around.” “It’s about blaming people,” Roberts explained. “You have 25 people stand in a circle. You put eight hula hoops on the ground about six feet apart in a giant circle. Each of them puts their left foot in a hula hoop and the goal is to pass a beach ball around from one hoop to the next as many times as possible. But if any one person drops it, the entire team’s score goes to zero. Literally, if anyone drops the ball, everyone suffers. That’s the analogy.

“It’s what I call an incremental process improvement game,” he said. “One of the trends in teambuilding is to back off task-driven behavior and focus on process-driven behavior to understand the underlying processes behind everything. It’s a big trend. In the beach ball hula hoop game, if somebody drops the ball, does the blame go to him or the person that passed the ball to him?” Or, as Roberts explained, is the problem really the system because everyone was passing the ball too quickly?

“On all of my games I try to get people to fail or perform less than stellar in the first run because then their ego is hooked,” he detailed. “Then performance increases, times cut down dramatically as they buy in and commit and are actually connected to the process.”

Roberts shared an example of a paintball program he facilitates where 25 members of a corporate team compete against seven of his highly trained marksman scouts. “The scouts kick their butts for the first three or four games until they say ‘What the heck is going on? Why do we keep losing 25 against seven?’ The seven people understand that you have to work smart, not hard. They outflank them, they outmaneuver them, they sucker them in and draw them in.” Roberts explained that once the corporate group starts to understand this, they begin to strategize and function in true team unity. “When they win, it’s a very sweet victory. You can hear the cheers a mile away.”

Keeping The Focus On Results

As Roberts noted, “Great teambuilding is a simulation that teaches people about soft skills. It’s a simulation for the real workplace where they can practice the skills necessary. Soft skills drive hard skills, whether you’re an engineer, a doctor, an accountant, a manager or a salesperson. Your ability to communicate, work as a team, demonstrate leadership and plan strategically all affect your performance at those hard skills.”

Philippe has learned through experience that the amount of time a company spends on a teambuilding event is critical. “There’s only so much that people will be able to retain and stay focused on. We do so many teambuilding events that we know there’s a magic time of 2½ to three hours to see the end result and have a vision of the goal.

“Once you go past three hours, people start wondering, ‘What am I doing here?’ The idea of a teambuilding event is that it’s always great to have a big rah-rah at the start, but you have to have the same feeling of accomplishment at the end.”    C&IT