Air Products Team Scores in New Philly Treasure Hunt
Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. brought 46 of its Business Process Improvement team members together in Philadelphia to learn team effectiveness principles through our energizing Team Building Treasure Hunt. Enjoying the glorious spring weather, the new hunt had teams solving challenging clues, problem solving, and working together to find unique locations in Philadelphia's Historic District. Feedback was unanimous...it was a great day! Click on the pictures to enlarge and enjoy!

Tommy Hilfiger Canada Goes Hollywood!
Looking for an innovative way to teach leadership skills, Tommy Hilfiger Canada chose Teambuilding, Inc. to work with about 80 store leaders using our Team Hollywood session. It was "lights-camera-action" as 8 teams produced movies tying Tommy philosophy to such blockbusters as Titanic, Top Gun, Forest Gump, and more. After an instructive discussion of the 8 Secrets of Inspirational Leadership by Dan Lyons, and some intriguing Hollywood background by Lord of the Rings' Sean Astin, teams launched into the day's filming. A gala Academy Awards Ceremony capped a thrilling day. A special thanks to our Montreal friends at Gearwerx for coordinating the event. Click on the pictures to enlarge and enjoy!

Just Showing Up for a Paycheck
The Conference Board, a non-profit organization for management and marketplace information, reports from its February 28th Job Satisfaction Survey of 5000 households that 25% of workers "are just showing up to collect a paycheck." Only 14% say they are very satisfied with their job.

Avon Grove School Does Create a Company
Wanting to boost their collaboration skills during their in-service day, the teachers and staff at the Avon Grove School in West Grove, PA, conducted three team building sessions with our Create a Company exercise. This exercise clearly demonstrates how team collaboration results in tremendous team creativity. Click on the pictures to enlarge and enjoy!

Team Energy a BLAST at Phoenix Contact, Inc.
How do you turn on an already energized group of sales tech's and their compatriots? Have them spend a few hours in our Team Energy program. Dan Lyons and his team of facilitators engaged 155 hearty Phoenix Contact diehards in 10 challenging team building activities, culminating in one of the most dynamic, rocking conclusions we have seen yet. The Phoenix folks were AWESOME!  Click on the pictures to enlarge and enjoy!

Get Employees to Brainstorm Online¹
Are your suggestions boxes gathering dust lately? If so, consider harvesting ideas online. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, 45% of lucrative ideas generated in organizations come from employees. To encourage such ideas in today's high-tech environment, companies such as Georgia-Pacific, W.R. Grace, Sun Life Financial, and ChevronTexaco are using specially-designed software for use on the Internet to gather ideas. Brainstorming sessions conducted online with people in far-flung locations hash out solutions to problems and conceive new products.
  At W.R. Grace, for example, 34 online campaigns solicited 2,685 employee suggestions yielding 76 new products and 67 distinct improvements to work processes. To achieve this, Grace used new innovation software from Imaginatik². As competitive pressures continue to build in the world marketplace, innovation will be the key to success. And with employee ideas waiting in the wings, the potential is clearly there. Did we mention that this kind of involvement promotes team building?
1. FORTUNE magazine, Nov. 29, 2004, page 72, by Anne Fisher
2. Teambuilding, Inc. has no professional or financial relationship with Imaginatik.

Wells Fargo Small Business Cash Management Gets "Style" and a Mystery
How do you reward, appreciate, and train in one fell swoop? How about an offsite meeting that incorporates an understanding of personal style and a chance to use it in a unique and challenging mystery caper. Wells Fargo's Small Business Cash Management group recently invited us to perform training on personal style using the What's My Style? profile, then blend this learning with our Mission Impossible Caper. Small teams tackled the challenge while others played roles such as fortune teller, bar maid, Elvis impersonator, pet walker, gambler, and others. According to Wells Fargo Marketing Consultant, Rhoda Cataleta, "Team members rated the afternoon a '10', our best team building yet!" Click on the pictures to enlarge and enjoy!

Peter Grazier Speaks at University of Washington
Recently, Teambuilding's Peter Grazier was asked to speak to the University of Washington's Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs Executive MPA Program participants. Mr. Grazier spoke on "Employee Engagement in the New Millennium," focusing on the need to harness the vast intellectual potential of the workforce in making ALL segments of our economy, from private to public more efficient. Both government and industry will need to find new ways to lower costs to businesses that are struggling to survive the onslaught of super-low-priced goods and services from abroad.

Appreciative Teambuilding for the American Heart Association
There are many approaches to team building, and one of the most positive and insightful is what we call "Appreciative Team Building." Recently Dr. Jay Cherney spent a morning with about 20 very dedicated leaders of the American Heart Association meeting in Washington, D.C. The group developed powerful images around "great collaboration" to help them begin to design a highly-collaborative and communicative management process. Read more about Appreciative Team Building.

Teambuilding, Inc. Supports New Reality Show on FOX Television
Recently Teambuilding, Inc. was contacted by the producers of Renovate My Family, a new reality show on FOX Television that helps families in distress remake their lives. Hosted by Dr. Phil's son Jay McGraw, the show remodels the home (or one might say "rebuilds" it) while teaching the family ways to rebuild the family "team." For the upcoming episode on Friday, November 5th at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Chef Jim White, who conducts our Pressure Cooker team building session, worked with the Senteno family to help them learn to prepare meals together. Jim said this was classic team building with a twist. Click on the picture of the family to enlarge it.

Renovate My Family^TM and © 2004 Fox and its related entities. All rights reserved.

Access Group, Inc. Takes on Baltimore's Inner Harbor
How do you bring people together in unique and energizing ways? Design a 2-day team building session full of creative learning activities. Access Group, Inc. of Wilmington, Delaware, called on us to work with their excellent sales team that was meeting in Baltimore. Day 1 included learning activities such as our What's My Communication Style? profile, Values and Beliefs exercise, and Portable Ropes team activities. During Day 2, the team was joined by their executive team for additional learning that included such exercises as Create a Company and a challenging Treasure Hunt in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. With beautiful fall weather for both days, it was a training and development opportunity to remember. Click on the pictures to enlarge and enjoy!

Are Crowds More Effective at Decision-Making Than Individuals?
A new book called The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies, and Nations challenges the notion that crowds of people are generally considered an "ugly phenomenon" and certainly no replacement for good independent decision making. This interesting piece, adapted from the recent book review in Business Week magazine, is available as a pop-up on our site by clicking here. Note that clicking on the link to the book title link will take you to Amazon.com for more information about it.

Building High Performance Teams for Forest Service Recruits
The United States Department of Agriculture - Forest Service, recently requested a day of team building for 30 college students who may choose to become employees of the Service. The session was intended to build team skills and collaboration. Part of the day's activities included our collaboration exercise The Polygon Puzzle, our team development exercise Jungle Escape, and our team creativity exercise Create a Company. The day-long session received rave reviews from the student participants, as they were challenged continually with high-energy exercises. Click on the pictures to enlarge and enjoy!

It Was a Quiet Riot at Radian Guaranty, Inc.
Quiet Riot gave a stimulating keynote presentation to a large group of Radian's Risk Management people meeting at the New Jersey State Aquarium. According to Radian's Donna Williams-Griffin, "They did their homework and included our values in their presentation. It was poignant, meaningful, and funny. I was still laughing on the way home!" Quiet Riot's David and Bill Mettler are totally unique in their approach to inspire empowerment, team building, and a sense of community. See our video.