RE: Your Inner Brad Pitt: Team Building Nonsense

["Murrell, Thomas" <TMurrell -at- alldata -dot- net>]

Remember, Dysfunctional is a family-type, too. <g>

Seriously, I have had some experience with quote Team Building Exercises
endquote, and I agree with the seeming unanimous consensus that artificial
exercises of this type do little to actually foster teamwork.

This past summer I was involved in a team building exercise of another type,
one mentioned by another TECHWR-Ler earlier in this thread.  Our department
built a Habitat for Humanity house in our community.  It took most of the
Spring and Summer and involved working with people I seldom encountered in
my work day, and it involved working with people I do work with everyday in
tasks we don't do together.  It was a great opportunity to learn about
coworkers and do it in a different environment from that of the office.

Finally, this Habitat venture, which was successful on several levels by the
way, was totally voluntary.  And because of all of these factors, I think it
was marvelously successful.  We worked together to do a good thing for our
community--and one family in particular.  People felt good about themselves
and what they did, and we now exchange pleasantries and work together in a
much more open and relaxed way.  It was much better than any artificial team
building exercise I have ever had inflicted on me.

Tom Murrell
Senior Technical Writer
Alliance Data Systems, Inc.