Team building people do not resent

Start with the objective, not the activity

"We need a team building on the Thursday afternoon" is a slot, not a brief. Integrating two merged sales teams, getting a new leadership group talking candidly, and rewarding a department that has had a hard year are three different objectives that point to three different formats. We ask what you are trying to change before we propose anything.

Designing for who is actually in the room

Every group contains people who will not say they cannot manage a two-hour beach race in 34-degree heat. Designing around the fittest third guarantees a quiet minority has a miserable afternoon. We build parallel roles at different intensities so that participating fully does not require athleticism, and we brief facilitators to watch for people quietly opting out.

CSR that is not theatre

Corporate social responsibility activities are worth doing when the beneficiary genuinely benefits, and embarrassing when they do not. We work with established local organisations, agree the outcome with them in advance, and are willing to tell you when a proposed activity would be more useful as a straight donation. Where a build or a restoration is involved, we confirm afterwards that it was completed and used.

The debrief

Most of the value sits in the twenty minutes after the activity ends, and most programmes skip it. We schedule a facilitated debrief that draws the line between what happened in the exercise and what happens in the business, and we give you a short written summary of what surfaced.