Part 1: Is 'team building' really worth the investment?

 (Excerpt from an article originally published in ‘MICE International’ magazine, Dubai about Tirian) by Kathi Everden 

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Tirian is a leading organizational development company that focuses on innovative leadership and team development.

What does Tirian do?

Tirian creates positive intervening experiences that build platforms for open discovery and exploration of important issues. These experiences break down barriers. They drive individuals to work toward structured outcomes, and to achieve full potential within the context of the organization. 

5 UNIQUE TARGETED TEAM SOLUTIONS

Designed as unique pre-packaged programs with specific targeted solutions. These module sets reach clear deliverable outcomes identified as the greatest areas of need in teams today.  Invaluable to any team.

1) Teams in transition

2) International teams

3) Teams under pressure

4) Project teams

5) Leadership teams 

 

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REPRESENTATIVE OFFICES:

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MIDDLE EAST (Jeddah / Muscat)

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www.tirian.com
info@tirian.com

Unfortunately, the US failed to play in harmony and suffered yet another defeat, but the attempt to bond together a group of normally individualistic golf players signalled the value of teamwork, an area increasingly highlighted as a key to success in the corporate world.

Across the world’s mature markets, teambuilding continues to enjoy intrinsic value as a corporate tool but it is a sector where ROI has entered the equation, upping the ante for organisers to add in a measurement tool to justify expenditure.

Director of Asia-based Tirian, Andrew Grant, concurs with this view of the increasing sophistication of the market. “Most organisations now recognise that good teams require ongoing targeted improvement, not a one-off fix,” he said.

“Basic games that focus on the ‘feel good’ factor can be perceived as childish and are no longer as popular as programmes that are more intelligent in their approach, as companies have to justify the outcomes and see the results.”

And, while fun and games has become serious business, Grant emphasised that ‘teambuilding’ itself is a term that now has more depth than the perceived notion of homogenising a cross section of people into a harmonious whole.

“Quality teambuilding programmes should help people recognise their personal strengths and areas of challenge in the context of a team.

They should also enable individuals to become more tolerant of each other and develop communication strategies vital in multi cultural regions such as Asia and the Middle East.”

He stressed that teambuilding events should not simply promote ‘group think’ between like-minded people but instead encourage expressions of diversity while working with a common goal in mind.

But, as the science of teambuilding reaches more sophisticated levels and aspirations are on the rise, achievable results are not always matched by budgets or delivery.

Many companies still tend to view teambuilding as a discretionary expense. Companies have to be more creative in what they present and the key challenge is to differentiate yourself in the market by presenting options that focus on applications – however, clients are rarely realistic in their expectations.

Thornley-Brown (Oasis) said a cost per person of between US$200 and US$350 could be justified for a business related teambuilding session, dropping to US$100 for a team recreation session, but many companies allocate just US$50 and request multiple facilitators, debriefing and business applications.

“One factor contributing to this ‘sticker shock’ is customer confusion about teambuilding versus team recreation since many organisers market activities that are strictly recreational and try to pass them off as teambuilding.”

It’s a trend that Tirian’s Andrew Grant also robustly decries: “We design programmes, we don’t just run games,” he said. “Many companies that try to copy us have no concept of the thinking behind our events and why particular activities were set up.

“We had one exercise where a team of bankers had to develop a strategy to cross a river and the whole point was they had to consider risk versus return, which is integral to their business – it was not just a matter of building a bridge, which was what outside observer would have seen,” he said.

“There is a need for education as the market expands as clients often don’t know what to ask for, while a hotel might offer a teambuilding product that simply entails the recreation manager supervising a beach Olympics.”

Orgueil has found similar trends in Europe, where teambuilding is moving away from the old image of outdoor games and bungee jumping.

“Events should be based around learning and team dynamics, but it has to be a fun environment away from the office where participants can relax and have a good time away from office politics,” he said.

While there is market for longer away-day retreats and survivor-type exercises, Tirian sees a great deal of growth in the conference-related sector.

“By taking the intellectual content of the morning conference and building on this with a team session, participants can apply what they have heard about and it becomes a three-dimensional exercise from learning through to facilitation.”

In response to this demand, those companies specialising in team development have become more cerebral in their product offerings, moving on from simple song and dance between-speech sessions to intricate games and events...

Part 2  will follow in our next TIRIAN Thoughts: "MICKEY MICE GAMES / TEAM BUILDING MEETS INCENTIVES"

WHAT’S NEWS?
Andrew & Gaia Grant (Tirian Directors) celebrate 11 years in Asia and 21 years of marriage. Still based in Bali they are now in high demand throughout the world.

Saudi Arabia:
▪ Andrew Grant & Dr Martyn Newman have delivered a series of leadership keynote talks to business leaders in Saudi Arabia. A great achievement to see that the content of these keynotes can reach across all cultural boundaries.

Thailand:

 APM Group is Thailand’s leading training and development company. After 2 years of searching & looking at over 200 partner options, APM has chosen Tirian to partner with them to provide high quality experiential programs. Earlier this year Andrew and a team began training the APM team to deliver Tirian programs under license and we are pleased to announce that as of May 1 APM will be ready to run the first suite of modules to their clients.

The first modules included are from the ‘INVENTING THE FUTURE’:
- MISSION POSSIBLE
- TAKE 2
- THE CREATIVE APPLIANCE PROJECT

▪  APM assisted with delivery of a program to long term client SDV, who enjoyed exploring THE COLLABORATION CONCEPT and TAKE 2 in Chiang Mai recently.

Moscow / Beijing:
▪ Lloyd Irwin (Singapore),  Raksha Sukhia (Singapore), &  Ryan Parker (USA) have run a successful series of programs utilizing the popular  ON THIN ICE module to  SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC to help international project teams learn to communicate and work more effectively as cross-cultural virtual teams.

Bali:
- Tyco’s management team ran a unique conference on a remote island off Bali, engaging Lloyd Irwin from Tirian to run TAKE 2 to help the group explore brand values.

▪ TNS learnt the value of building a positive corporate culture through participating in Tirian’s signature program for Bali – VILLAGE CELEBRATIONS – beautifully presented by Yoke Darmawan.

▪ Klueger learnt that NO ONE IS AN ISLAND in an entertaining program also led by Yoke Darmawan.

▪ Yoke captivated the imagination of BASF’s Jakarta team and helped them to learn to manage projects more effectively through the MAXIMUM RESPONSIBILITY and RAMAYANA RESCUE programs.

Malaysia
- Anita Billings and Lloyd Irwin have helped IMI Cornelius develop their brand and internalize values through a highly interactive CREATIVE APPLIANCE PROJECT program.

▪ Carol Fusek and a team have delivered a successful ON THIN ICE program to Watson Wyatt helping them to align their international team and share ideas resources more effectively.

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