Team Training
Team building - programme duration
Team training - programme duration
What would a typical team training programme achieve?
How is the team training programme designed?
Examples of such problems.
Establishing a programme to provide the right solutions.
An example of a Team Training Programme.

Team Training

The difference between team building and team training.

Simply put, team building programs are designed to enhance the 'team spirit', to improve interpersonal relationships, and foster effective communication between team members.

Team building programmes are also used to assess the leadership abilities of individual team members, and of their ability to work well as part of a team.

Equally, they are a tool to identify weaknesses in how a team works together, so that those weaknesses can be corrected.

In nearly all cases where the team building programme is well run, the result is a definite improvement in team performance thereafter. This is generally the result of better 'bonding' between the individuals, and is often fairly short lived, say 6-12 months.

Team building related programmes should therefore be a part of the annual training regime established by the human resources manager, or senior managerment of any company seeking to establish and maintain a competitive edge.

Team training on the other hand is designed to 'resolve' particular problems that are affecting the ability of a given team to perform to its full potential in general, or on the specific tasks it had been allocated.

For long lasting benefits, team building should be used to identify the problems that team training should be employed to resolve.

Team building - programme duration

To be effective, team building should consist of a one or two day program filled with challenges and activities, from low intensity 'ice-breakers' through to higher intensity 'team challenge' level.

The programme should be animated and ensure that everyone has 'fun' whilst achieving the objectives of the excerise.

Low intensity 'ice breaker' exercises are not really effective team building tools.
They are best used at the start of of an event to create an environment in which communications between participants/delegates are meeting each other for the first time and reach a more relaxed level sooner, rather than later.

Team training - programme duration

A team training programme will have a duration from 3 to 5 days and specific team targets are set. A professional team trainer will lead the group to achieve those targets.

The objective of team training is always to make a group work together more effectively and more efficiently.

What would a typical team training programme achieve?

It would establish the different team roles and how they relate to each other.
Bring strengths and weaknesses to the surface and restructure the team to best work with and around those strengths and weaknesses.

It would teach teams to achieve tasks in a planned and assertive way.
Learning how to plan as a team effort to reach the companies goals.
Learning how to communicate in the most efficient way.
Being made aware that being 'passive' more often than not inhibits the group in reaching its targets.

Creating the right leadership structure for the group.
Where each individual is different and each group is different.
Each group therefore needs its own kind of leaderhip structure to be most effective.

How is the team training programme designed?

Team training programmes are designed by our company team trainers in cooperation with each particular client, and aimed at resolving the problems the client identifies.

Examples of such problems:

• A lack of respect between team members.
• Problems relating to 'unfair' promotions.
• Too many passive team members.
• Poor communications flow.
• Poor leadership etc.

Establishing a programme to provide the right solutions.

Our staff will discuss the following points with the client, and from the information derived, will be able to submit a programme proposal.

• Discuss the fundamental problems of the group with the client.
• Establish the clients motivation to participate in a team training so that targets and goals may be established.
• Determine the structure of the working and social relationships between the team members.
• Select the most efficient didactic learning style that will best suit the particular group.
• Determine the most effective group size.
• Determine the duration of the team training programme.
• Select the most suitable training activities.

An example of a Team Training Programme.

4 day programme

Day 1
Morning:
o Individual challenge activities: rock climbing / cargo net ascent.
o Power Point presentation about how the human brain functions.
o Each individual makes an analysis of his or her brain function.
o Making a team profile and discussing that profile.

Afternoon:
o Team building activities, mental and physical puzzles.
o Review on the different team roles.
o Mountain bike puzzle activity.

Day 2
Morning
o Time pressured team competition (using a bamboo team-activity park).
o Review on the effect of competition and time pressure, discussion on how groups make decisions and communicate them.
o Introduction to Yoga or meditation, or, a discussion on Steven Covey's 7 effective habits of successful people.

Afternoon
o High rope activities.
o Review,feedback and motivation.
o Raft building.

Day 3
Morning
o Mental test activity.
o Review on planning and organisation / working thematics.
o Introduction of GPS (Global positioning System) use.
o Depart on a canoe trip in the direction of our jungle camp.

Afternoon
o GPS orientation trip to camp walking through jungle and visit a hill tribe village where the teams have to get information about the different social rules.
o Team presentation of the hill tribe information. (Water and soft drinks will be served)
o Review on different styles of leadership.
o Instruction about bamboo cooking.
o Dinner preparation activity. The teams must make their own eating tools, 'catch & kill' their own food, then perpare and cook it on self made fires.

Day 4
Morning
o 6 team activities.
o Review including a projection to the work situation.
o Depart with a river barge.
o Stop for an elephant ride.

Afternoon
o Review of the whole program.