SUCCESS:  Team-building Facilitation with Sta. Catalina Multipurpose Cooperative @ BlueJaz Resort, Davao City

On June 30, 2015 at around 6:56am, Tuesday we made a proposal specially for this organization.
Our email goes like this.....

Great Day Sta Catalina Multi-Purpose Cooperative!

We, the Avielle Travel and Tours were very excited to present our Team-Building Facilitation Package. 

We've been facilitating various type of organization's and you can see it in our Facilitator's profile.

Our package includes;

1. Facilitator's Honorarium, 
2. Team-Building Program Design and delivery including
3. All Presentation Materials to be used during the entire activity.

Our package promo rate is P150 per participant per day (4-6hrs).  We will be facilitating the entire program of activities.  All team-building exercises materials, including presentation (LCD projection) are provided by us. For out of town venue, the company will shoulder facilitator's round-trip transportation, accommodation (budget room) and meals.

From our perspective, a Facilitated Team-Building activity has five primary elements to ensure its success.  These elements are:

1. Facilitator's Orientation - the understanding, mindset and commitment of the facilitator to create the best experience possible.
2. Designing - the planning and preparation that goes into creating the experience.
3. Framing - how the activity is introduced to the group.
4. Delivery - what the facilitator does during the activity to ensure its success.
5. Debriefing - the learning conversation that happens after the activity

These elements were carefully crafted in every team-building activity to ensure success, targeting the core objectives.

Sample 1-Day Team-Building Program Design (If you have your own program already, kindly furnished us a copy so that we can craft our activities appropriately)

9:00am - Invocation

9:05am - Welcome Participants

9:10am - Welcome Message - C/O Sta Catalina Multi-Purpose Cooperative (Company Leader)

9:20am - Team-Building Introduction, Its Importance, Rules and Mechanics

9:30am - Ice Breaker Activity: Group Chants Creation (Groupings c/o Facilitator)

9:45am - Team-Building Exercises (Outdoor Activities)

10:30pm - Coffee Break

10:45pm - Wrap Up Summary, General Evaluation, Acknowledgement of Positive Team Character and Debriefing

12:00nn - Lunch Break

1:00pm - LCD Presentation by Facilitator on "Teamwork"

2:00pm - Team-Building Exercises (Indoor Activities)

3:00pm - Coffee Break

3:15pm - Wrap Up Summary, General Evaluation, Acknowledgement of Positive Team Character and Debriefing

3:30pm - Message & Announcement C/O Sta Catalina Multi-Purpose Cooperative- Lead Person

4:00pm - Closing Prayer

4:15pm - Pictorial/Documentation

4:30pm - End of Activity

Sample Team-Building Exercises   (Exercises will be modified depending on the terrain of the venues chosen)

• Zipline/Water Empower Slide (empower and boost employee's confidence)
• Mat Pass (establish rapport between employees)
• Project Building (Tower/Castle/Boat) - (cultivates creativity and communication)
• Water Banking (value individual efforts)
• Dragon Fly (encourage trust, support between employees)
• Ball Maze (create awareness that company success depends on the sum of all individual efforts)
• Spider Web (makes each employee aware of the importance of his/her colleague's support)
• Trust Circle (encourage trust between co-employees)
• Figure Formation (its all about following instruction, comprehension to prevent any untoward misunderstandings)
• Floating Stick (creates awareness that unity, cooperation and respect is the key to team success)
• Empowering (its goal is to empower one's talent's and capabilities)
• Catch My Tail (its all about protecting one's colleague and the company's image) 

Note:  

Facilitator will facilitate the entire activity from start til finish.  This Team-Building Exercise will Not Only strengthen employees relationship, camaraderie, trust, respect but will also  In-Tune their minds to the company Vision, Mission and Goals and creating awareness as to the IMPORTANCE of team-work in their respective workplaces.

Hope you find our proposal interesting.  We are also willing to visit your office for an open discussion regarding this matter.  You could also visit our office otherwise located at Kristy Dawn College of Davao building, km.5 Guadalupe Village, Matina Crossing, Davao City Tel.No. (082) 321-4691. 

Attached is the Facilitator's Profile for reference.

Best Regards,

Michael Pat M Badeon, RN

Team-Building Facilitator (Davao based)

After sending this brief information we did send them also the program sequence (Final) for approval.

After setting an appointment for thorough discussion of the details of the activities, then we finally come to a conclusion.  IT's A GO!

The Day came and this is what happens...

 

Wow! It was amazing... Thank God for the wisdom and everything HE provided to made this possible.  All of the 180 participants made its realization, that in "UNITY" there is sure "SUCCESS"!

At the end of the program, the organization made their sincere thanks by giving us a Certificate of Appreciation and gifts.  It touches us deeply.. 

Success in facilitation will never be a SUCCESS if everyone will NOT be in-TUNE to the Core objective of the said activity.  We thank Sta. Catalina Multipurpose Cooperative for their trust and confidence in us.  Specially to all the participants who made their sincere cooperation, to the venue - BlueJaz Beach Resort and Waterpark in Samal for a great place, making the event a very  Successful One!

We thank God Almighty for bringing everyone safe and sound...

TO DIRECTLY CONTACT OUR FACILITATOR, please email him directly at teameventfacilitator@gmail.com  (expect reply within 24hrs)..

Twelve Tips for Team Building

How to Build Successful Work Team?

Recently we have come across an article:  12 Tips for team Building - How to Build Successful Work Team by Susan M. Heathfield, Human Resource Expert.  The article says:  People in every workplace talk about building the team, working as a team, and my team, but few understand how to create the experience of team work or how to develop an effective team. Belonging to a team, in the broadest sense, is a result of feeling part of something larger than yourself. It has a lot to do with your understanding of the mission or objectives of your organization.  In a team-oriented environment, you contribute to the overall success of the organization.

You work with fellow members of the organization to produce these results. Even though you have a specific job function and you belong to a specific department, you are unified with other organization members to accomplish the overall objectives. The bigger picture drives your actions; your function exists to serve the bigger picture.

You need to differentiate this overall sense of teamwork from the task of developing an effective intact team that is formed to accomplish a specific goal. People confuse the two team building objectives.
This is why so many team building seminars, meetings, retreats and activities are deemed failures by their participants. Leaders failed to define the team they wanted to build. Developing an overall sense of team work is different from building an effective, focused work team when you consider team building approaches.

Twelve Cs for Team Building

Executives, managers and organization staff members universally explore ways to improve business results and profitability.

Many view team-based, horizontal, organization structures as the best design for involving all employees in creating business success.  No matter what you call your team-based improvement effort: continuous improvement, total quality, lean manufacturing or self-directed work teams, you are striving to improve results for customers. Few organizations, however, are totally pleased with the results their team improvement efforts produce.

If your team improvement efforts are not living up to your expectations, this self-diagnosing checklist may tell you why. Successful team building, that creates effective, focused work teams, requires attention to each of the following.

• Clear Expectations: Has executive leadership clearly communicated its expectations for the team's performance and expected outcomes? Do team members understand why the team was created? Is the organization demonstrating constancy of purpose in supporting the team with resources of people, time and money? Does the work of the team receive sufficient emphasis as a priority in terms of the time, discussion, attention and interest directed its way by executive leaders?
  Read more about Clear Performance Expectations.                                                                              
• Context: Do team members understand why they are participating on the team? Do they understand how the strategy of using teams will help the organization attain its communicated business goals?  Can team members define their team's importance to the accomplishment of corporate goals? Does the team understand where its work fits in the total context of the organization's goals, principles, vision and values?
  
• Commitment: Do team members want to participate on the team? Do team members feel the team mission is important? Are members committed to accomplishing the team mission and expected outcomes? Do team members perceive their service as valuable to the organization and to their own careers? Do team members anticipate recognition for their contributions? Do team members expect their skills to grow and develop on the team? Are team members excited and challenged by the team opportunity?                                                                                                                                       
• Competence: Does the team feel that it has the appropriate people participating? (As an example, in a process improvement, is each step of the process represented on the team?) Does the team feel that its members have the knowledge, skill and capability to address the issues for which the team was formed? If not, does the team have access to the help it needs? Does the team feel it has the resources, strategies and support needed to accomplish its mission?

• Charter: Has the team taken its assigned area of responsibility and designed its own mission, vision and strategies to accomplish the mission. Has the team defined and communicated its goals; its anticipated outcomes and contributions; its timelines; and how it will measure both the outcomes of its work and the process the team followed to accomplish their task? Does the leadership team or other coordinating group support what the team has designed?                                                                     
• Control: Does the team have enough freedom and empowerment to feel the ownership necessary to accomplish its charter? At the same time, do team members clearly understand their boundaries? How far may members go in pursuit of solutions? Are limitations (i.e. monetary and time resources) defined at the beginning of the project before the team experiences barriers and rework?
  
  Is the team’s reporting relationship and accountability understood by all members of the organization? Has the organization defined the team’s authority? To make recommendations? To implement its plan? Is there a defined review process so both the team and the organization are consistently aligned in direction and purpose? Do team members hold each other accountable for project timelines, commitments and results? Does the organization have a plan to increase opportunities for self-management among organization members?

• Collaboration: Does the team understand team and group process? Do members understand the stages of group development? Are team members working together effectively interpersonally? Do all team members understand the roles and responsibilities of team members? team leaders? team recorders?  Can the team approach problem solving, process improvement, goal setting and measurement jointly? Do team members cooperate to accomplish the team charter? Has the team established group norms or rules of conduct in areas such as conflict resolution, consensus decision making and meeting management? Is the team using an appropriate strategy to accomplish its action plan?                                                                                                                                                                                 

• Communication: Are team members clear about the priority of their tasks? Is there an established method for the teams to give feedback and receive honest performance feedback? Does the organization provide important business information regularly?  Do the teams understand the complete context for their existence? Do team members communicate clearly and honestly with each other? Do team members bring diverse opinions to the table? Are necessary conflicts raised and addressed?

• Creative Innovation: Is the organization really interested in change? Does it value creative thinking, unique solutions, and new ideas? Does it reward people who take reasonable risks to make improvements? Or does it reward the people who fit in and maintain the status quo? Does it provide the training, education, access to books and films, and field trips necessary to stimulate new thinking?In the first part of this article, three tips for effective team building were presented. In the second, six tips for team building were provided. Here are three more tips for effective team building.
  
• Consequences: Do team members feel responsible and accountable for team achievements? Are rewards and recognition supplied when teams are successful? Is reasonable risk respected and encouraged in the organization? Do team members fear reprisal? Do team members spend their time finger pointing rather than resolving problems? Is the organization designing reward systems that recognize both team and individual performance? Is the organization planning to share gains and increased profitability with team and individual contributors? Can contributors see their impact on increased organization success?

• Coordination: Are teams coordinated by a central leadership team that assists the groups to obtain what they need for success? Have priorities and resource allocation been planned across departments? Do teams understand the concept of the internal customer—the next process, anyone to whom they provide a product or a service? Are cross-functional and multi-department teams common and working together effectively? Is the organization developing a customer-focused process-focused orientation and moving away from traditional departmental thinking?

• Cultural Change: Does the organization recognize that the team-based, collaborative, empowering, enabling organizational culture of the future is different than the traditional, hierarchical organization it may currently be? Is the organization planning to or in the process of changing how it rewards, recognizes, appraises, hires, develops, plans with, motivates and manages the people it employs?
  Does the organization plan to use failures for learning and support reasonable risk? Does the organization recognize that the more it can change its climate to support teams, the more it will receive in pay back from the work of the teams?

Spend time and attention on each of these twelve tips to ensure your work teams contribute most effectively to your business success. Your team members will love you, your business will soar, and empowered people will "own" and be responsible for their work processes. Can your work life get any better than this?

Can Team Building Beat Workplace Stress?

September 22, 2014 by Team-Building Solutions

In the high-pressure “now” culture in almost every work environment in the 21^st century it seems stress is almost inescapable. To a certain extent stress in the workplace is needed. A reasonable amount of stress is natural to ensure employees are constantly meeting deadlines, reaching appropriate standards, and keeping organized within individual roles and job descriptions. A team with a strong infrastructure can combat internal stresses.

Stress at Work Can Have An Effect On Revenue
There are many common causes of stress at work but when that stress becomes excessive employees tend to cease to function, become chaotic and make mistakes. This in turn can have a catastrophic effect on company processes, systems and productivity as well as affecting the individual’s health and safety. Those people in your team who you consider team players are more likely to cope with the stress of every day confrontations because they have more effective resources than those who are more likely to work alone and in isolation.

Why Team Building is Essential
Where employees feel safe in sharing ideas, experiences and tips, innovation is sure to follow. In the same way, inter-staff trust and reliance also leads to opportunities to share stressful situations, grievances and enjoy peer support. Working in tandem with a much needed element of competition is effective collaboration which leads to a much happier workplace and a productive environment.

Clearly investing in ways to help your employees work successfully within teams is absolutely essential for streamlining company strategies in order to maximize long–term returns. There are numerous professional companies which offer team building opportunities. The great thing is “team building days” can be de-stressors in themselves as well as giving your team a whole different concept on work relationships and how to enhance working together.

Team-Building Days Can Reduce Stress
Just like a holiday or vacation can relieve stress – so can a team building day. It can be a welcome departure from the daily grind and still be productive for corporate goals. Unlike mandatory training it is likely to have nothing to do with work tasks and if administered professionally will challenge participants in a fun and unique way. Even more so the team are meeting the challenge together and so form fresh alliances, trust, and new skills in a safe environment. Where stress has worn down staff, a day of team building can really be a boost to confidence and offer new gateways for support.

Team building days are very effective when they happen outside of the work environment and are focussed on fun skills. So consider the opportunities of a professional team building company, who can offer a wide selection of days out. But also remember the value of the types of challenges which involve the team working together for a single goal.

8 ways to get your team to listen (when you don’t have a whistle)

by Sean Glaze | Apr 23, 2015 |

The truth is that whistles aren’t necessary.
As a young coach, I thought I needed a whistle to get my players’ attention and ensure they were listening to me.

Turns out, a few years into my coaching career I learned that it wasn’t the whistle that truly earned their attention.  Sure, it was disruptive and caused them to stop and look at me for a moment – but it wasn’t the reason they listened to me. 

I eventually began to coach without a whistle – and my teams responded to my voice… but not just because I was their coach. 

They listened because I built trust and was concerned with helping them succeed.
Your people won’t REALLY be invested in listening to you because of your whistle or your title.

Whistles and titles are only a crutch for inexperienced leaders, and they don’t inspire lasting attention or loyalty.
If you want to earn their ears and ensure that what you have to say is really being heard and valued, there are 8 ways you can get your team to listen:

1 Stop dancing around the issue –be clear and get right to your point.  People appreciate directness.

2 Talk with them, not at them –don’t turn them away by being an angry preacher who just yells

3 Deliver it in a relevant way –say it so they know how it affects them and their values

4 Know what you are talking about –be informed and experienced enough to gain their confidence

5 Demonstrate your resolve –let your actions prove that you will follow through with your words

6 Cut out the complaints–don’t waste their time with whining if you aren’t going to take action

7 Connect with your people –get out of your office and interact enough to build relationships

8 Be committed to your common cause –if you aren’t energized and passionate they won’t be either

All of these ways to get your team to listen can be summarized in two words – build trust.

Trust is a three legged tool, and Like Rapid Teamwork, it is something you can establish in minutes instead of years if you understand how it is created and maintained.

If you and your teammates are struggling to listen to or interact effectively with one another, you may need to step back and address those communication issues by scheduling a custom teamwork or fun team-building event that will energize and equip your people with useful tools and ideas.

Don’t depend on your title (or your whistle) to inspire hungry eyes and ears.  As a team leader or teammate, with a title or without, focus on implementing all of the above 8 ideas to ensure your people are truly listening to and valuing your words.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF TEAM-BUILDING EXERCISES FOR ANY ORGANIZATIONS?

Having FUN Working As One

Combining play with work is the best way to create an effective team building event.  Experts call it "The Power of Play."  The goal:  Teams will be more productive, creative, flexible and motivated.


Fun "ICE BREAKERS" to Break the Ice at Work

Icebreaker activities are a great way for new employees, and teams from different departments, to get to know each other.  This will make them discover similar interests and unique talents, they will build relationship that gets carried back to the office.

Improving "COMMUNICATION" Skills at the Workplace

Hands-on team-building exercises can actually help improve communication skills at workplace by placing employees in situations that require real teamwork, collaboration, negotiation, and non-competition.



MOTIVATING Employee or Members

Employees who feel rewarded in ways other than direct compensation are more motivated to be successful, both for themselves and for their employers.  Helping employees build strong human connections in fun settings outside of work will boosts morale and gives motivations to the entire team.

15 Fun Team Building Exercises That Breed Cooperative Excellence  by marrywarner on October 6th, 2013 

The word TEAM has literally transpired into a buzz word in the corporate world. There are countless books and articles written about the importance of teams while each year, management consultants, scholars and researchers continue presenting theories and research that debate over various aspects of team building. But the million dollar question is; What is a TEAM and why does the world of business accentuate so much upon it?

When individuals with similar interests, attitudes, and tastes come together to work towards a common objective, a team is formed! If there is no common goal there is no team. Team members strive hard to live up to the expectations of each other and successfully accomplish the assigned task. A team must synergize and achieve excellence or as the acronym goes, T.EA.M. Together Everyone Achieves More.

A team cannot do well or achieve more than the individual unless and until each and every member is focused and understands his or her responsibilities.

Every individual must feel motivated to perform at his or her  best. For best performance, whenever possible, avoid imposing tasks on team members; instead, allow the individuals to take initiative on their own. Optimally, team members come forward and accept challenges with resilience and spirit. This is where team building comes in.

Team Building

Team building refers to various activities undertaken to motivate team members and increase overall performance of the team. A motivating factor is a must. Team Building activities consist of various tasks undertaken to groom team members and motivate them to perform to the best of their ability.

Team Leaders can and must undertake fun team building activities that help their team gel. These activities can be specially planned, for instance, corporate picnics, movie days, scavenger  hunts, sport matches, holiday/vacation/travelling together or themed events.

Alternatively, team building can be integrated into daily tasks like meeting openers, presentations, , conferences and work lunches. Various activities can be undertaken to address different team issues but ensuring the element of fun will increase the effectiveness of the activity.

15 Team Buiding Exercises

Fun team building exercises that nurture team spirit and breed excellence include:

1. Helium Stick – Deceptively simple teamwork activity.  Form two lines facing each other.  Lay a long, thin rod on group’s index fingers.  Goal: Lower to ground.  Reality: It goes up!
2. Toxic Waste – A popular, engaging small group activity.  Equipped with a bungee cord and rope, a group must work out how to transport a bucket of “Toxic Waste” and tip it into the neutralization bucket.  This activity can be used to highlight almost any aspect of teamwork or leadership.
3. Mine Field – Objects are scattered in an indoor or outdoor place.  In pairs, one person verbally guides his/her partner, a blindfolded person, through the minefield.
4. Zoom – A group tries to create a unified story from a set of sequential pictures.  The pictures are randomly ordered and handed out.  Each person has a picture but cannot show it to others. This activity requires patience, communication, and trying to understand from another’s point of view in order to recreate the story’s sequence.
5. Pipeline/Gutter Ball – A fast paced activity that can be modified to suit age and setting. Each participant gets one gutter or half pipe tubing. The object is to move a marble or assorted size balls using lengths of guttering from point A to point B without dropping them.
6. Keypunch – A powerful teambuilding exercise for medium sized groups. Participants must touch the randomly placed numbers, in sequence, within a given time frame in multiple attempts.
7. Warp Speed – A team building exercise based on the icebreaker “Group Juggle”.  Groups are challenged to juggle as fast as possible.  Invite group to “tender” a time they can deliver.
8. Balloon Activities – Group activities that can be done with balloons.Promotes gentle, fun physical movement, people getting to know one another, trust and working together.
9. Multi-Way Tug-of-War – Fun, physically demanding, competitive team activity.  Several teams pull against each other, requiring communication and tactics as well as strength to out manoeuvre and win.
10. All Aboard! – A classic teambuilding activity in which a group is challenged to physically support one another in an endeavor to occupy an ever diminishing space.
11. Survival Scenarios – “Your plane crashed…your group needs to choose the 12 most useful items to survive…”
12. Great Egg Drop – Small groups design an egg package to save an egg from breaking when dropped.  Plus a 30 second jingle to sell their package.  Followed by the Great Egg Drop-Off.
13. Amoeba Race – A simple, close physical contact group cooperation activity.  The group forms the three parts of an Amoeba: protoplasm, cell wall and nucleus.  Then the group travels, splits into two amoebas, and the amoeba have a race.
14. Group Mandala – Group dynamics exercise.  Each person is represented by an object.  The objects are “caste” like dice and group members share their feelings and re-arrange the objects.
15. Create Your Own Group Activity – Involves small groups in designing and presenting a new group activity.  A challenging exercise which requires all the elements of teamwork – communication, goal-setting, planning, cooperation, creativity, task orientation, etc.

Sucesssful team building

No matter which activity is selected for team building, the success of your activity will be influenced in no small part by:

• Congruence between the activity and the required learning outcomes.
• The environment and the atmosphere the facilitator creates.
• Enthusiasm shown by and created by the facilitator
• Acknowledgement that some people are more comfortable than others in undertaking activities.
• How the teams are made-up(mix, size and method)
• The quality and way the debrief is run.
• The post activity follow-up

Perhaps by adopting a few of these activities for  your unique team building situations, you’ll be a step closer to providing  an environment that promotes team spirit and breeds corporate excellence within your company.

Original Article:  

http://tweakyourbiz.com/management/2013/10/06/15-fun-team-building-exercises-cooperative-excellence/

by marrywarner on October 6th, 2013 

5 Reasons Why Team Building is Very Important

Just recently, our facilitators facilitating a Team Building activity of one of the big organizations in Zamboanga City and during the said activity we discover more deeply that Team Building activity is very important for all organizations.

One of the participant told us after the activity that he realize how luck he is to be a part of a company/organization where leaders values team building.

Team Building and special planned activities will not only boost morale of employees, but it can also increase the success of an organization.

Here are some of the few reasons why team building is important in the workplace.

1.  Facilitates Better Communication - activities that create discussion enable open communication among employees, and between employees and management.  This can improve office relationships and in turn, the quality of work done.

2.  Motivates Employees - Team leadership and team building go hand in hand.  The more comfortable your employees are to express their ideas and opinions, the more confident they will become.  This will motivate them to take on new challenges.

3.  Promotes Creativity - Taking a team outside of an office setting and exposing them to experiences will force them to think outside of their normal routine.  Working together with other team members can ignite creativity and fresh ideas, which are great qualities to bring back to the office.

4.  Develops Problem-Solving Skills - In public relations a crisis can happen at any time.  team building activities that require co-workers to work together to solve problems can improve the ability to think rationally and strategically.  Teams that are able to determine when a problem arises and know what they can do about it, can effectively take charge when real crisis occurs.

5.  Break the Barrier - Team building increases the trust factor with your employees.  Often in corporate settings there is a disconnect between the leadership team and employees sense too large of a gap between the two.  Team building exercises give leadership the opportunity to be seen a s a colleague rather than a boss, which can do wonders for employee morale.

Overall, team building in the workplace enables better communication, better relationships and ultimately increases productivity.

Original Article:  http://redshoespr.com/5-reasons-why-team-building-is-important/

This group is from Sangali National High School of Zamboanga City.  They (43 participants) travel from Zamboanga City to Cagayan de Oro City then crossed Balingoan Port to Benoni Port of Camiguin Island.

Their activities lasted for 3days and 2nights with various activities like countryside tours, visiting popular destinations in the island, island hop in Mantigue and White Island.  In between we designed and facilitated their Team Building activity.

As we can see in their faces.. each one made a unforgetable experience.

Evaluation says, they are more open to one another in opinions, suggestions, criticisms and discussions.

Team building works!

Join our call in building STRONGER, UNITED teams!