Input needed for ideas

[toomanycalls1]

As new section manager at work I would like to do some team building excercises as we have almost doubled the staff and starting in late January we are going to be doing some stuff that will involve more teamwork.

Any ideas?

I think the Christmas party we had was a good start. I liked seeing people who normally did not talk much to each other talking.

One idea I had was everyone come up with 3 things about themselves one not being true. The others would guess which one was not.

[braindead]

Everything following is my own thoughts and feelings. I am not a manager but spent much time on the other end and I am an introvert. NO offence ment towards anyone.

I really hate doing that kind of stuff. I know that if I am in a room full of people they will group together in their own little cliques. I dont like sharing my personal info with people I am not really comfortable with. I know that some people dont mind doing fun getting to know team work stuff but I also know that other people hate it with a passion. If you are new to the position people are going to be fighting the change and going to be unhappy with you regardless of what you do. I am usually the person that isnt a team player though.

We had a consultant come into our company and do major personality testing on everybody. That was kinda cool. We all learned about personality types and how to best talk to each type. While the consultant was a useless sack of crap that part was pretty neat.

I dont think I was much help but I am always the worst type of person to work with. I like to be by myself.

[Bandit]

Having endured my boss's idea of "Team Building" exercises, the best ones I have found have all been outside the office. Something like going out for pool or bowling with food for a couple of hours worked pretty well with each team being drawn randomly.

What does *not* work is a "Quake Deathmatch" after a mind-numbing monthly meeting.

B

[AFpheonix]

Heh heh heh....
how about a field trip to a nudist colony, participation greatly encouraged? That'll get y'all good and close and personal

[Gurndigarn]

Whatever you do, please don't do the stereotypical ones (IE, the ones where you go to a presentation on "thinking outside the box", then do the exact same excercises every other "outside the box" presentation uses*). The best things you can do are simple fun activities where particiapation isn't mandatory (but fun enough that everyone wants to be there); basic shoot-the-bull-about-work sessions where you listen, not spout off company dogma; and just making sure that people think you value input by not shooting down the suggestions they make, but, if you see a problem with their ideas, point out what the problem (and allow ideas on working around the problem) is without, again, just spouting off company dogma.

* When we got to the egg one (one egg, ten straws, and tape: get the egg from 1.5-2 meters off the ground to the ground without breaking it. Usual solution: tape the straws together, tape the egg to them loosly, slide/lower egg down/with the straws), we took the egg to the bathroom, poked a few small holes in it, blew the insides out, then just dropped it. That was a little too far out of the box for the judges, who disqualified us. Corporate mentality at its finest: we want you to think outside the box, but only in the approved company fashion.