This question comes from a new manager in a pharmaceutical company who met WSA President, Paul Plotczyk, in an airport.

She was heavily recruited by her current employer and very much a Gen Y'er - full of ideas, confidence and impatience.  She is considered a "Hi-Po" and has been on a fast track program for three years. 

The following question is an extension of the airport conversation about team building.

QUESTION:

My current employer loves team building events - especially what I call "fancy dress team building exercises". Recently all managers were required to attend a 2-day team building "advance" (the word "retreat" was deemed too negative).

The exercises were not intellectually challenging, nor did they have anything to do with the real work of our company. We raced sail boats and built bicycles in teams! We talked about how we felt after each segment. And we had fancy dinners every night. I don't know why companies waste time and money on this stuff.

I think we have more important things to do! Our sales have stopped sliding and we can see an up-swing in some products and geographies. However, we still need to:

• Repair the damage done by all of the lay-offs and take-aways of the past three years
• Respond to some of the evolving regulations and reporting requirements on the state and federal level
• Figure out how to communicate more effectively with a sea of healthcare providers - who don't race sailboats!

We are scheduled to continue this forced fun in May. My boss and I plan to suggest a change in the program to our company President.

Please elaborate on your ideas for anchoring team building to what you called, "real work." Any help you can give us will be greatly appreciated.

ANSWER:

Sad to say, your experience is not unique. We often field questions from prospective clients asking for some type of team building exercise similar to the ones you described.

While we don't doubt some are very helpful in building a sense of team by enhancing camaraderie, we are biased toward conducting team building exercises that focus on what we call the "real work" of the team. That is, all teams have a purpose or mission - a reason for being.

The technique we use is called Action Learning. Industry research and our own experience have shown how critical it is to design team building activities focused on the work of the team.

In addition to being the right thing for adult learners, it also makes the most sense in a time of tight budgets. Who better to work on the issues that will help your organization get through this crappy economy and achieve sustainable success than your people?

The goal of Action Learning is to create opportunities for participants to apply what they are learning in a context that mirrors their real work environment.

Skill transfer is effectively made through the use of Action Implementation Assignments that can be planned during the session and continue after the formal session has wrapped. Having an intact work group - the designated team - do real work under the banner of training fosters a foundation of teamwork.

It helps to reinforce the application of new learning to real work situations and ensures that the issues participants need to address to achieve specific outcomes- such as solving a vexing organizational problem - receive attention in the session.

Also, immediately applying new methods and tools to live work examples serves to personalize learning for each participant and increase the skill transfer to their work environment - which in turn will help increase the company's ROI, and keep people like you feeling like your time has been well spent.

We hope this helps. If you would like more information please contact Beth Chartier at 781-343-4008 or bchartier@wsa-intl.com to set up a no obligation conference call.

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