p66 Postcards PASSED 11/18/08 11:17 AM Page 66
POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE
There’s no ‘I’
in team
Mention the words ‘team
Paul
building’ to your employees and
www.bgdf.co.uk
Stephenson
many would run a mile at the thought of
assault courses and team treasure hunts, but it
Printwear
needn’t be like that as Paul Stephenson &
Promotion
discovers... no doubt to the relief of his own team!
Y
ou find me, hideously ravaged by the most This is going to be a tough one – the early We need a
galloping and malevolent of all morning tea break at our place looks like a group meeting to
ailments….INFLUENZA MANITUS! Muppets reunion – short of a blond pig we’ve got assess the changes we can
Known to the medical wilderness that is the lot – Sweetums, the Swedish Chef, Sam the make to improve our performance – contributions
womankind as ‘merely a cold’. You can imagine Eagle, and of course Dr. Julius Strangepork – you like ‘We’d all do much better if Frank wasn’t such
the copious levels of sympathy I’ve had to endure. know who you are. How in the wild world of a knob’ are not to be included.
‘Man Flu… He was a famous Chinese pilot sports are you going to get that lot barking up the We need to be sure the activity will achieve
wasn’t he? same hymn sheet? these changes – this means that if communication
Have you been to the doctor’s? Dragging my leg and drooling for effect, I is the problem, anaesthetising your face with eight
Have you taken any paracetamol?’ passed my significant other en route to the pints of snake bite is not the answer.
‘Not yet love’ telephone and called a team building company – Can we find the time, budget and appropriate
‘Well shut it then and get those bins out you why not, I’ve got another three hours to kill before venue – obvious one – I may not be taking our lot
steaming great wuffter!’ I ask Carol to pick one from the bottom and two on a Patagonian Pan Pipe Adventure.
Now, I’m not one for drama; but dosed up on from the top. Pleasantries over, I suggested to the Make sure there’s no physical risk – I can’t see
laudanum I loaded my revolver, tuned up the chap on the other end that presumably team where the amusement is in this. I managed to
Stradivarius, and retiring to my chambers awaited building was a case of us all tramping off to the smuggle one of the lads into the navigator’s seat
the inevitable onset……of death. river with two poles, some rope and an oil drum. in a world rally pre-stage testing run once –
Yes, I’m having a day off work, a most unusual Once there we would re-enact a scene from Dad’s listening on the intercom to the screams and what
sensation. Naturally one attempts day time Army, and build enough tension to result in a sounded like a horse after a large Madras, remains
television, but unless you’re interested in Will minibus punch up on the way home. one of my happiest work memories.
Young, how to avoid the embarrassment of a Apparently it’s far less enjoyable than that – And all that’s before he got onto the
collapsed soufflé, or a new brand of inconto-pants, Team Builder Boy hit me with a list of to do’s: ‘psychological risks’!
you’ll find little comfort there. I soon longed for Participants need to be treated equally with
the daytime television of our childhood, respect – no addressing The Great Gonzo as ‘Oi,
the test card: remember that smiling Big Nose’.
girl and her clown, happily playing There must be no potential to stir anger
noughts and crosses….the laudanum between members – if Miss Piggy
it seems, is taking hold. Slipping in and comes onto you in the store
out of consciousness, I was soon cupboard, go with it, how bad
marooned in an imaginary hilltop can it be?
convent, where the sisters supported Anything that could
themselves by manufacturing lingerie. expose a sense of failure
Two Mother Superiors, an egg whisk and a must be avoided – don’t ask
smouldering negligee later, it seemed less Fozzie Bear to do any macramé.
exhausting to think about business – and so for And so it went on – would the
no reason, I stumbled across a subject I’ve never Team building: activities build trust and openness;
considered in the last twenty years – team
worthwhile exercise
or just a ‘total pile
what was I going to do to instigate ‘buy in’
building. of pony’? from the team; and did I have a contingency
| 66 | December 2008 www.printwearandpromotion.co.uk
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