Re: team building

[Mary Reinhardt <mbreinha -at- us -dot- oracle -dot- com>]

Since everyone who's had experience with team building exercises has put their .02
in...

Yes, I've actually had two good experiences with team building exercises! Once, when
I worked in HR my co-workers and I went to a Chuck-E-Cheese for grownups type of
place and ate pizza and played video games. I raced my boss in a simulated drag race
and had a great time. The second time, at a software company, we split up into teams
and were faced with the challenge of working to shady specs and creating a liquid
delivery machine from flimsy plastic tubing and pipes. Our usual roles: tech writer,
engineer, marketing person, etc. were thrown aside, and we appreciated new qualities
in each other.

OK, it was a little corny at first. But, I can definately say it helped a lot with
my work back at the office. People who were "uncommunicative" and "uncooperative"
before were much more open to working with me. People who had no idea what I did or
appreciated my work in any way before were coming up and saying, "Hey, could you
help me out with... " or, "hey, you might be good at this. Would you be interested
in... " And lo and behold, I was getting lots of helpful information without having
to go out and hunt it down!

I realize sometimes these exercises are a bit over the top (dancing naked and
anything having to do with fire). But, you might want to give them a chance. There
are definately positive aspects.

Mary Reinhardt