1

TEAM BUILDING

and

AWAY-DAYS

GUIDANCE FOR MANAGERS.

Prepared by The Organisational Development and Learning Team

April 2011

2

TEAM BUILDING AND AWAY-DAYS –

Guidance for managers.

Page Number

1. Introduction 3

Preliminary considerations

2. What’s your aim? 3

Thinking about outcomes

How will you know you’ve succeeded?

3. Using a facilitator 5

4. Some principles about groups and teams: 6

Group norms

The life of groups

Size matters

5. Structuring the day 9

6. Admin and related issues 11

Beforehand

Agendas/timetables

Venues

Catering and breaks

7. On the day 12

Take back up.

Things to take

Setting up the room:

Layout

Stimulate the senses

Technology and media:

Finally

RESOURCES 14

3

1. Introduction

If you manage a team within the university, whether small or large, it’s likely that at some point you will want to bring them all together for a day or half-day, whether it’s to

Build or rebuild a team following reorganisation or restructuring

Plan how your team (or ‘top team’) will meet its strategic goals

Celebrate achievement ...have some fun ... take time out to think more clearly about the challenges ahead...

....or any combination of these. Whilst the team in Learning and Development is always delighted to help you with this, we’ve pulled these notes together to get you thinking and even, perhaps, if you have some experience, to have a go at running it yourself. In the current financial context, of course, we need to be aware of our choice of activities, venues, facilitators and so on, not merely in terms of actual cost, but also in terms of the messages our choice can send out to staff and students. We’ve written this with these factors in mind. Preliminary considerations There are some questions you will want to consider right at the beginning, as the answers to these will affect the venue, cost, mood and ultimate success. You might want to jot provisional answers down right away – you can always alter them if you change your mind:

Who’s coming on your away day? (Whole team? just the leadership team? etc.)

How many of them are there?

What is your purpose? What are your aims/outcomes?

How urgent is this?

When? When are you likely to get the majority of the team available?

What’s your budget?

How long – a whole day? Half day?

2. What’s your aim?

Success factors

It’s important to decide in advance what you hope to get out of the day – what the aim/s of this is. It’s not formal training or education, so you can’t expect to have behavioural or learning outcomes and objectives. However, it’s obviously critical to identify the purpose, what you want to have achieved and what would tell you afterwards that the event had achieved your goals.

Integrate the team building with real-time work goals, and let people know what they are. If they are planned and executed well, people feel good about themselves and

4

about each other and feel they’ve used their day productively. Staff get to know each other better and have a common experience to talk about back at work.

Without this attention to integration, staff can become cynical about the whole thing, and lose productive hours complaining about the time and energy invested in the away day or planning the activities.

Involve key team members in your discussions about what you want to achieve from the day, even when using a facilitator. A good starting-off point might be a consideration of what is not happening now that you would like to see differently in the future.

A couple of examples might be:

a. A newly created team or a team following restructuring or a large existing team, perhaps where relationships need building.

Example Aims:

To get to know each other better, break down barriers, improve relationships

To understand what each person does, how tasks performed interrelate and how I can support them.

To decide how the team/team members will work together in the future (‘contract’).

To agree a common ‘vision’ or ethos

To clarify team aims and alignment with department/faculty’s overarching strategy

To create an excitement about the future

Success might be evidenced by:

Improved informal relationships – higher levels of openness – less cliquing-off, less ‘us and them’.

Better levels of communication - constructive dialogues

Working in a consultative/collegiate manner with colleagues across the team

Cross-team working parties

Concern for quality, customer satisfaction etc.

Offers of support

Morale – e.g. laughter and positive behaviour, increased socialisation out of work, less time off, sense of need to support colleagues etc.

b. A senior management team needing to work together to develop a plan to implement future strategic aims

Example Aims:

To clarify strategic aims, tactical objectives that will help meet them and specific actions that will need implementation.

To identify specific, measurable formative and summative indicators of progress

To identify critical stakeholders and plan a communication strategy to influence stakeholders and others.

To work together as a ‘top team’.

5

Success might be evidenced by:

Clarity of priority goals and tactics – an overt understanding throughout the senior team and their staff

A united senior management team – reduced ‘politicking’, increased mutual support

Ongoing short – relevant – progress-review meetings

Achievement of objectives

3. Using a Facilitator

Reasons for using a facilitator – whether internal from within the University, or an external consultant – include:

They provide experience and expertise in running similar events

They provide a relatively independent, objective and disinterested point of view

They have the time and resources to concentrate on the matter in hand – this is ‘what they do’

They can act as ‘an extra pair of hands’, freeing you up to become part of the team. In fact, you can use them as much or as little as you and they agree – from designing the whole day for you through to merely delivering or facilitating a specific session. In addition, using an internal facilitator, for example a member of the L&D team, gives you the following advantages:

Cost! – at the moment, there is no additional fee.

They have inside knowledge and understanding of the culture & politics.

They are able to understand systems and issues around implementation.

They have a certain amount of ownership and responsibility for success of outcomes – they want to see you succeed!

All internal facilitators here at CU are qualified and experienced and will certainly observe strict confidentiality. On the other hand, there might be some other factors you need to consider, particularly in a highly sensitive environment.

How independent is their view – or at any rate, what is the perception of their independence?

Do they have perceived credibility? Will they be accepted by senior managers?

An external facilitator, on the other hand, brings the following advantages:

They are likely to be seen as completely objective and independent, may be far more willing to question the established norm or accepted practice, and are less likely to be constrained by internal politics.

They may be perceived as having higher credibility than internal staff (sad but true!)

They may have access to wider sources of information and may well have worked with other organisations undergoing similar issues.

They may bring a required specialist subject expertise – for example in customer service, strategic planning etc.

6

HOWEVER! They will certainly incur considerable additional cost – an external facilitator could be charging anything between £500 and £2500 a day. This might still be worth it if the cost of getting it wrong is potentially worse.

Other potential disadvantages of external facilitators: they can potentially just walk away at the end, so there may be a lack of accountability, and unless they’ve worked with the university before they will have less knowledge of our systems and culture. With some less ethical ones there may be a tiny question about their personal agenda - more work for them? In the end, you’ll need to make the decision about this for yourself. Your L&D Advisor or HR Business Partner will give you objective advice on whether an internal or external facilitator is suitable in your particular situation, and we hold the names of external facilitators and approved suppliers who have worked positively with us before.

4. Some principles about groups and teams

In designing your day, it’s worth reminding yourself about a few relevant theoretical models about groups.

Group norms

Members of every team and work group develop particular ways of interacting with each other over time based on shared values relating to beliefs, behaviour and conduct held by individuals within the group. These ‘norms’ bind them together. They can be formal or informal, positive or negative, explicit or never openly discussed – but they are very powerful indeed. Typical norms include formal and informal dress codes, behaviour to each other, social arrangements, attitudes to ‘work-life balance’ issues (‘late hours’ cultures), quality of work performance and so on. How a group behaves, makes decisions, assigns work, and holds people accountable determines team success.

Norms are built through shared, overt statements, the sharing of critical events and the wish of individuals to conform. During an away day, include activities that build the positive norms we want. For example, designing a shared event or experience that people will recall and discuss with each other afterwards – the more vivid and interesting the better for those ‘do you remember...’ conversations – will build your team in the way you want.

Other activities could include contracting sessions (How do we want to work together? How will we run our meeting?), or the recognition of achievement – not just the obvious high-flyers, but individuals whose positive contribution has helped build the team. A group I worked with regularly voted on a ‘Good Egg’ award for otherwise unrecognised colleagues who were seen as particularly helpful and supportive of others.

The life of groups

The next idea is Bruce Tuckman’s well-known model of small group development, which identifies four stages through which most groups pass. A primary purpose of team building is to assist your group through the painful early stages of this model, at any rate as far as ‘Norming’, and allow them to carry on with this process when they get back to the workplace. Therefore some of the things you need to factor in to your design should include activities to support this process. For example:

STAGE BEHAVIOURS AWAY-DAY CONSIDERATIONS

Forming In which the group’s members orientate themselves, characterised by fears, high levels of anxiety but fairly high expectations. You’ll see confusion - guidance and reassurance is essential.

Icebreakers to get people relaxing and finding out more about each other, lots of clarity about the structure of the day, reassurance that they aren’t going to be embarrassed – even well in advance of the day.

Storming In which group members sort out how the group will work, test limits, positions and roles. People may appear dissatisfied, cynical or even hostile, challenging each other and the leadership. They may withdraw physically or emotionally, questioning the activity - 'Why are we here? What's the point?’ in larger groups, they may ‘clique off’ into smaller sub-teams or pairs where they feel safe.

Structured exercises, perhaps giving them the chance to work off energy. Mixing up groups deliberately so they have to work with people they know less well. Examining differences in an objective, positive way – MBTI, team presentations etc. Not rising to the bait if you overhear grumbling or hostility!

Norming If all goes well, having tested each other out, the group starts to agree on ways of working, on rules, roles and responsibilities, and a more realistic appraisal of what they can accomplish. Morale begins to improve, people begin to be more open and cliques break up. They start to behave more like a team than a group of individuals, perhaps focussing on performance of task.

Overt exercises asking them how they want to work, what the priorities are, what they’ve learned about each other. Lots more opportunities to focus on ‘business’ to keep them anchored in reality.

Performing At this point, group members start to actively co-operate with each other, both to achieve the goals of the group and to meet each other’s needs. People start to enjoy working together. You’ll see high energy, lots of talking, laughing and positive in-jokes. People feel free to challenge without danger of hurt feelings, and look after each other by helping, sharing information etc. Not all groups get as far as this stage.

If you’ve got this far, well done! If time, a good, creative consolidation exercise works really well, in which they can genuinely demonstrate where they’ve got to, with perhaps outcomes they can take back to work. What you don’t want to do now is lose that sense of high adrenalin, fun performance; you want them to take the memory of this back to work the next day.

Adjourning Sometimes called Termination, this stage describes what happens when a group breaks up. Bonds start to loosen, and a reversal occurs of the last three stages. People start to withdraw from the business of the group, whilst others don't want to accept the fact that it's over. They may well experience a feeling of unfinished business and anticlimax.

There’s a real need to celebrate achievement before moving on – a ‘wake’. The ‘Performing’ exercise will help here, but as senior manager present make sure that you close it down properly, with lots of praise, jokes etc. If less time, incorporate a brief final fun exercise to pull it together (they may well be tired by now) – leave them on a high.

8

Size matters

A final important issue to bear in mind as you think about your away day is the size of the group. A great deal of research, notably that of Wilfred Bion and the Tavistock Institute, has confirmed that the larger the group, the greater the level of personal tension for individuals and therefore the harder it is to get to ‘Performing’ or even ‘Norming’.

In broad, very generalised terms:

No. CHANGING CHARACTERISTICS IMPLICATIONS FOR FACILITATORS

HI <-

-------------------------------> L

O

NO

RM

ING

2-6

Little need for structure or formal organisation, leadership informal

Roles move between members People ‘norm’ quickly Risk taking - they become braver.

Need little or no formal leadership - may resent too much intervention

‘Storming’ shows through challenge to leadership

May become almost too cosy - create more tension?

Facilitator needs to act as ‘devil’s advocate’.

TEN

SIO

N

LO

<--------------------------------> H

I

7-12

Face-to-face interaction less frequent

Still largely informal, but structure starts to become more necessary

More formal leadership and other roles - group seek more guidance

Ideal size for learning/training is 10-14.

You will need to offer more direction.

Will see slightly more tension - competition, challenging.

12-25

Face-to-face interaction difficult, formal structure vital

Sub-groups (cliques) and friction may emerge

May see evidence of ‘Fight/Flight’ behaviour:

‘Fight’: challenge, rudeness, whispered criticism, overt negative body-language

‘Flight’: silence, texting, picking up emails, arriving late/leaving early, ‘urgent’ meetings, failing to engage.

Formal, stable co-ordination by leadership essential

Keep good-natured, don’t react negatively

Will need direction, instruction and clarity - write down instructions to prevent confusion.

Divide into sub-groups, but mix them up to prevent 'solid walls' emerging.

Work harder at keeping members engaged.

25 +

Sub-groups form – ‘us and them’ issues

Stereotyping and scapegoating individuals and other groups

Positive leadership vital – managing sub-groups!

Individuals feel anonymous and tense within groups – ‘Fight/Flight’ behaviour likely

Structure, direction and clarity essential.

Lots of energy and effort required – maybe even 2-3 facilitators.

Allocate sub-groups- make people work with ‘strangers’.

Encourage socialisation and forming - create 'safe havens’ for individual members to speak up.

9

So, in summary, groups will pass through a range of stages, and your role is to help them. This is harder if you’re dealing with a larger group – but even small groups hold challenges. The larger the group, or the more complex the issues, the more effort you will need to put into structuring and facilitating – for big groups you may need 2-3 to lead it. In addition, it’s important to bear in mind that if your team have been through a restructuring process, it is likely that they will be more sensitive, nervous or cynical than usual. Finally, two key points – the clearer and less ambiguous the messages before and during the event, the better, and the more vivid, memorable and relevant the activities the stronger the impact will be.

5. Structuring the day

Design an agenda with realistic timings. Rushing breathlessly through an exercise clearly designed to take longer and then failing to feed back because of lack of time diminishes the value of doing it in the first place.

Include an icebreaker. These aren’t a silly luxury, but as we’ve seen serve a useful purpose to warm up the group, raise energy levels and perhaps find out about each other. They don’t have to be too whacky and don’t need to last too long. You could even get people doing it as they arrive for coffee, so by the time the event formally starts they’ve been chatting, talking to people they don’t know well, having a laugh and so on.

Include a range and balance of activities. Too much sitting still listening will lower energy levels; on the other hand too many jolly ‘games’ will irritate and people may see this as a waste of time. People also like to learn new things, so don’t dismiss a really interesting, well-delivered short bit of training on a relevant topic as part of your day (examples: Customer Service (’Fish’), Group Process, MBTI, Belbin etc.).

Speakers can be very popular – senior managers from elsewhere in the university are often happy to help, or a really good external speaker you know. Don’t forget to mention the fact they should be relevant and that the relevance / link should be emphasised when the speaker is introduced (there’s nothing worse that thinking what’s the point of him/her being here...)

Think about energy levels. People often appreciate welcoming refreshments first thing - even a light breakfast if they’re warned in advance. After this and an icebreaker, most of us are generally able to sit and listen for a while as we’re reasonably alert – now’s the time to input. Immediately after lunch however – known in the trade as the ‘pudding session’ – our bodies want to have a nice siesta, so as facilitators we need to structure in an active session that will get people moving through this dangerous period! And don’t expect too much high level cerebral activity after lunch either.

Closing the day. There is nothing worse than things just fizzling out, all the more so if everyone has really engaged and if the day has been successful; it’s really important to have some kind of consolidation exercise, long or short, which pulls it together. At the least this should be something positive about celebrating the group, its activities, its sub teams, its individuals or its future. As the leader, even if you haven’t facilitated at all, you do need to say something positive to see them on their way, and perhaps thank those who have contributed.

10

Half days. Fairly obviously, you can’t do as much in half a day as you can in a day, so make every minute count and get the balance right between input and activity. By convention, these seem to occur in the mornings and then people go back to work; we’d suggest that you run them in the afternoon as this gives people the option of going home at the end of the day. It also gives you the choice of lunch first: this provides a transition between work in the morning and the away day sessions in the afternoon. Buffet lunches force people to move around; team members can do informal warming up and possibly get started on an icebreaker.

Here is a typical indicative layout for a full team away day.

Time Event Options

8.30-

9.00

Arrival, refreshments

9.00 Welcome by manager :

Purpose of day

Icebreaker

Option - start icebreaker during refreshment session.

9.30 Guest speaker Options:

Member of Senior Management Team/VCG

Subject expert from CU

External speaker

10.00 Input session: Options:

Strategic update?

Input presentations by colleagues?

Training session?

11.00 Coffee Break

11.15 Work-based activity – mixed groups

Feedback

12.30 Lunch

1.15 Post lunch activity - energiser

1.30 Consolidation activity

Presentation back Refreshment break - approx. 2.45

3.30 Manager closes day

Next steps

'Awards ceremony'

Depart

11

6. Admin and related issues

Whether you do the administration yourself or delegate it, it’s useful to think about these aspects as you plan it.

Beforehand

Issue the invitations well in advance, and at that point identify whether team members have any special requirements in terms of dyslexia, diet, disability etc. For example, visually impaired colleagues may appreciate copies of slides etc in a larger format – check with them exactly what suits them best. (However, the individual may not appreciate the whole group knowing this so don’t make a big issue out of it, for example by standing at the front yelling “here are your large print handouts”.)

Agendas/timetables

For small focused management team events, you may wish to consult with them beforehand to ensure you’re including their important issues on your agenda. Your facilitator may be the best person for this.

For larger team building-type events, include your aims, so that people can see the relevance. Again, you may wish to consult their team leaders and include them in your planning. It may be preferable to send an outline timetable only, rather than a detailed one. Make sure you put in start and finish times.

If your team is anxious or has been through a recent difficult time, their anxiety and concern may come out as gossip and negative speculation. Take every opportunity to reassure and be upbeat or your Forming and Storming stages may be prolonged. You may even find people finding reasons not to come or to leave early.

Venues

Where you hold your away day and the physical environment you choose can make a real difference to its success. In the past, departments in CU have been able to use a range of external venues: hotels and conference centres, outdoor development centres and even Warwick Castle. Sadly, for the while at any rate those days have gone, but we are very fortunate in having a range of excellent facilities at the Technology Centre, the Serious Games Institute, the Westwood Suite and other sites. They all offer catering and are geared for these sorts of events.

At a pinch, a large lecture room can be used: however, check it out first and make sure firstly that it’s of the flat floor variety, and secondly that it’s got windows. It’s worth strolling over to actually have a look. You will need to set the room up to your requirements and return it to its original state when you’ve finished.

Check for access if necessary. If in doubt, take the colleague with the special requirement to have a look at the venue you’re thinking about.

Don’t forget as well that the numbers that a room can comfortably hold will depend very much on the layout you choose: theatre style (rows of seats) will hold many more than ‘cabaret style’ (grouped round tables), but you’ll get much less interaction. See below for layout advice.

12

Catering and breaks

Remember to have a chat in advance with Hospitality (024 7688 8218/7629).

Refreshments on arrival: breakfast is a popular option.

Throughout the day: teas, coffees and water of course, but you might want to think about fruit or healthier snacks as well as biscuits and sweets. (Small pieces or bunches of fruit are much more appetising than large whole fruit, and are more likely to be eaten.)

Lunch: people don’t generally want a sit-down meal nowadays – light buffet lunches are all that’s required. But see if there is an additional option to only having sandwiches or wraps. And you don’t need to take a full hour; thirty or forty-five minutes are fine.

Breaks: people like to have tea and coffee on tap, but a formal mid-morning and mid- afternoon break is still desirable, particularly if you have smokers. It also provides a break in tempo and mood, allows people to stretch their legs, gives them time to reflect, and allows the facilitators to set up. Don’t be afraid to give people additional five minute comfort breaks if you think they need it. If you intend to work through and finish earlier in the afternoon, a three minute break is still a good idea.

Finally, don’t forget to tell the caterers of any special dietary requirements.

7. On the day

Take back up. Even if you are using a facilitator, unless this is a very small group, make sure you’ve got someone with you to help. Your facilitator will probably need some physical support to move furniture, organise the technology and so on. If you’re facilitating yourself, take a colleague with you. Get to the venue early, even if you’re not facilitating. The more time you allow the less you’ll be panicking.

Things to take: Apart from your presentation, handouts, notes etc, check or take with you:

Flipcharts (and easels) – one for each sub-group. If your budget is up to it, there are some neat desk-top mini flipcharts available for events like this. NB Don’t take it for granted that all rooms will have them – you may need to take your own.

Pens – thick coloured ones

Name cards or badges if a new or large group or where there are new members.

Post-it notes

White tac (less likely to mark walls than blue tac)

Option: Trainer ‘toys’ – very popular. May be worth buying some themed giveaway ones if the day is themed (e.g. mini ‘fish’, ‘bendies’, stress balls etc.)

For more ideas, see ‘Stimulate the senses’ below.

Setting up the room:

Layout: because you want people to engage and interact you almost certainly do not want to put them in rows, so you’ve probably got two main options here: cabaret style and a ‘clear deck’.

13

Cabaret style: Groups of tables with six-eight chairs arranged round them. This enables them to see each other and interact in small ‘safe’ sub-groups, they can write, you can put things on the table – and when you mix them up it allows you do this easily. (Seating plans, colour coding etc.). There are also some exercises that really only work in this type of layout.

‘Clear deck’: this can be done at a pinch if you’ve had to compromise on space but you want to include activity. Basically you move all the tables outside the room (preferable) or out to the walls and seat people in a large circle, thus leaving a wide clear area in the middle for activity, movement etc. You can ask people to move into small groups for particular exercises. This works best with arm-desks, but you can use clipboards if you want them to write. People do feel a bit exposed at the beginning, so you need to think about the opening session.

An option is to start off in ‘Cabaret’ and then move to ‘Clear deck’ in the afternoon.

Stimulate the senses: think of the following to cheer people up, add colour, texture and so

on. These should be out before they arrive:

On your tables o Name cards or badges o Cheap paper table cloths – also useful for writing on, ‘world cafe’-type

activities, a substitute for flipcharts and so on. o Writing paper, post-its. o Coloured pens. o Sweets, fruit, water. o Toys?

In the room o Music – lively and fun, on as they enter. Run from your laptop through the

room speakers, or from an MP3 through small speakers. o A relevant poster-based activity to cheer up the walls. o Flipcharts and stands ready. o Think about having your icebreaker activity already out for them to have a go

as they arrive or as they sit down. As an additional activity, devise a simple team quiz they can be solving which you can leave out on the table. Prizes are always welcome!

Technology and media:

Remember the golden rule: if things can go wrong they will. This is particularly true for technology and anything you’re doing in public, so have a backup plan.

You’ll probably need access to a data projector. If you intend to use film, ‘clickers’, smart boards or to access the internet, get the technician in early and practice.

14

NB: Don’t rely on accessing the main network if you’re at the Technology Park as they’re on a different system – it is quite possible, but it’s fiddly, so take a back up of your presentation on a USB stick, or take your own laptop. They’re always very happy to help, but try to minimise your own stress levels.

Finally:

At the end of the day, make sure you’ve roped in some colleagues to help you and your facilitator clear up, move the tables back etc. There’s little more depressing than everyone else clearing off, excited and positive, leaving you to spend an hour tidying up.

Have a fantastic away day!

RESOURCES

Coventry University

Organisational Development and Learning Unit: Ext. 8115 or development.hr@coventry.ac.uk

Hospitality team: 024 7688 8218/7629 or e-mail cater.ss@coventry.ac.uk

Room hire:

Technology Park: Conference.cad@coventry.ac.uk

Main campus: timetabling.reg@coventry.ac.uk

Westwood Heath – The Place: 7646 5642 or 07974 984749

Other resources and reading

51 Tools for Transforming Your Training, Kimberley Hare and Larry Reynolds (2002), Gower

The Openers and Closers Pocketbook, Alan Evans, Paul Tizzard, Phil Hailstone (2005), Management Pocketbooks. (The great thing about these little pocketbooks is that they are very reasonably priced and you can get them easily on Amazon.)

The Training Shop: sells a range of books, props, games, activities, energisers, stationery and toys to maximise learning and development. http://www.thetrainingshop.co.uk (Reasonably affordable costs, but also worth trying Amazon.)

Kaizen Training Limited: www.kaizen-training.com