How do I create a team day?

So far this year has been stressful for my team, we are all overworked, tired and tempers are getting frayed. I wanted to organise a team day using an outside company but I’m not able to due to a freeze on spending.

How do I create a team day to help us feel more connected, understanding of each other and working more harmoniously together?

Taking time out with your team is important and a great way to get in touch with each other, as well helping to understand each others’ challenges.

It is important to address the reasons behind the stress, overwork and emotional state of your team. A team day that doesn’t address the real issues will be a bandaid solution and ineffective long-term.

As always, I have some questions for you to consider before you start planning your day.

Take some time to answer these questions and write them down, it will help you to plan your day and ensure that the time spent together provides valuable and tangible outcomes.

1. What are the current challenges that you are aware of?
2. What’s getting in the way of your team working harmoniously together?
3. How are people in the team feeling right now?
4. How do individuals communicate within the team? (Are they direct and open, do they talk about each other, gossip, etc, do they avoid difficult conversations?)
5. What changes would you like to see within the team?
6. How will you know that the changes have been achieved? What will you see? What behaviours will be evident?
7. Describe what a more connected, energised and harmonious team looks like.
8. In your opinion how receptive do you feel that the team will be to participating in the team day?
9. How well is your team operating with regards to their responsibilities? How can you improve?
10. What is your role in the team day?

I have designed a framework for you to use below. If you have any questions please feel free to email me and I will clarify.

Frame Work for Team Day

Introduction: 10 minutes

Welcome everyone and introduce the reason for the team day. What’s important to you about today? What outcomes do you want from the day? And, what is your commitment to achieving this? Tip: be mindful to make this about positive outcomes and not an opportunity to be critical of the team. How you set the day up in your introduction will be an important factor to your teams’ engagement. Think about what atmosphere you want to create with your introduction.

Icebreaker: allow 30 minutes

There are many icebreakers around, you can Google “icebreaker” and get hundreds of responses. The ice breaker serves to create atmosphere, relax participants and achieve an outcome. With the icebreaker below, the outcome is to connect individuals to their passion, to create connections with each other by learning something new about each other.

Exercise: Get everyone to stand (this does not work around a table, you need to get people up and moving) and share what they have always wanted.

Say: “Before we begin we are going to do this…. I want everyone to stand, in a moment I am going to ask you all to share with each other something that you have always wanted. Here’s how we are going to do this.” Model this by walking over to one of your team members and shaking their hand and asking them what they have always wanted, then share what you have always wanted. “Now as curious as I am to know more, I am going to resist asking any questions and move to another person.”

The idea is to share what you have always wanted and hear what others have always wanted with as many people as possible. Once you have done this move on, as curious as you may be to know more, refrain from getting into a conversation and asking questions.

Join in on this exercise with the team.

Debrief: It is important to debrief each exercise and link to the theme of the day and your outcomes. Create a conversation with your team. Below are some questions you may wish to use to create meaningful conversations with each other. Add your own questions.

• What was that like?
• What is the atmosphere like right now?
• How long did it take to create?
• What would it be like if we started our team meetings like this?
• What happens when we connect and engage with each other?
• What happens when you communicate from a place of passion?
• How beneficial is it to get in touch with your passion?

Frame Up: 10 minutes

Walk through the day, you may wish to have a visual (flip chart or Powerpoint). Communicate how the day will flow connecting to the outcomes of the day.

Agreements: 10 minutes

Set some agreements on how you will be with each other during the day. Some things to consider are:

• Confidentiality: agreeing to confidentiality will create a safe and trusting environment which will help people to open up. Ask people to show their agreement by raising their hands.
• Ask what’s important to each individual for today.
• Request team members to be fully engaged (we need everyone to participate and show up fully for today to be successful).
• A flip chart to capture ideas and questions to be looked at later on.
• Permission to intrude if people are getting heated or off track.
• One rule today: no one gets to be wrong! All voices are to be heard.

Objectives: 10 minutes

State the objectives of the day (you may wish to put this on a flip chart or Powerpoint).

Teaming Exercise

What it’s like to be me (1 hour)

Using masking tape create a circle on the floor. If you have a larger team you can create two circles or split the group into groups of four, all with their own circles. Eight wedges to a circle works well. It is important to get people standing up and inside their wedge of the circle while doing this exercise.

Each person to stand in the wedge with their names on it (prepared on a card).

Say: “I want you to really sink into what it’s like for you in your role.” Ask the following questions (after each question get someone to share their answer with the group):

• What’s good about it?
• What’s hard about it?
• What are the privileges?
• What are the responsibilities?
• What’s the biggest thing that really sucks at times here?
• What are the perks?
• What do you love about it?
• What excites you?

Ensure that you also do this exercise with your team.

Get everyone to sit in one group or groups of four or five and continue with this exercise, have them share their reality of ‘what it’s like to be me’. The pain and the joy – use the questions above as a guide (you may wish to put them on flip chart or slide).

Say: “To be respectful while people are talking, refrain from offering advice or solutions – when someone is talking your role is to listen.”

Have the group go back to the circle and move to someone else’s space from their group. (Keep them in the circle).
Use the same questions as above as a guide. Each person in turn now shares with the group what it’s like to be this person, answering the same questions on the flip chart.

Assumptions (get everyone to stand back in their own wedge)

Say: “This is where we get to check out our assumptions about each other’s role and how that fits with the reality of the role.”

• What are the assumptions?
• Are they real?
• So, let’s do some reality checks.

Choose one person to start, encourage everyone to speak their assumptions. Keep this succinct.

Say: “What are your assumptions about this role?” Get them to check in with the person whose role it is to see their assumptions are true.

Group Debrief: encourage participation and group conversation.

• What was your experience of this exercise?
• What was it like sitting in another’s role?
• Anyone not able to get into the exercise? If yes, what was that like?
• What did you learn about each other’s roles?
• What did you learn about each other?
• What are the challenges in someone else’s role?
• Did your assumptions match reality?
• Anything else to add?
• How can you continue to appreciate the other person’s reality/role?