The term “team building” covers a lot of ground and means different things to different people. In this article, we take a closer look at how Moodmaker makes its team building activities both FUN and relevant.
At Moodmaker, we divide our activities according to theobjective – what do you want to achieve with the activity? We therefore distinguish between the following 3 levels:
- Just for fun
- Message creators
- Creators of ideas
What all these levels have in common is that they are dynamic activities that strengthen team spirit and increase motivation. The differences lie in the objective and the way in which it is achieved and measured. We therefore advise you to think carefully about what you want to achieve with your team (ROI), and then choose the right level of team building.
Just for fun
Just for Fun ” activities focus on entertainment, conviviality and socialising. Activities at this level are chosen mainly because they meet a number of ‘external’ requirements such as duration, available space, logistics and budget, but without paying too much attention to other aspects such as the objective.
In the Moodmaker range, for example, the soap box race falls into this category.
Just for Fun” activities are designed in a linear fashion. In other words, the flow of the game is fixed. Given that team building represents a cost (the employees are not at work), it can be interesting to go a step further – a team building where the final objective is fixed, but where the process for achieving it is determined by the participants themselves. In this way, we have an activity that is more relevant, adapted to the reality of companies and, of course, always fun, dynamic and energetic by nature. Steve Jobs and his famous quote are not far off:
“It makes no sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do, We hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.” 〜 Steve Jobs
Message creators
Message creators use a team-building activity to get a corporate message across. Think collaboration (information flow, asking for and offering help, developing a plan together, breaking down silos – see also: “Is collaboration a natural human way of working?“) or finding opportunities in change (how to get everyone on board in a changing context).
Today, team building is already becoming more interesting. Without sacrificing the fun content, team building becomes a meaningful and stimulating activity with an extra layer.
In the Moodmaker range, we list Chain Reaction, Detour and The Chocolate Factory, among others, as Message Creators.
Idea Shakers
Idea Shakers are stimulating business games, a useful method of simulating a work situation. Organisations that choose this level want to test, analyse and improve their own strategic thinking and actions. Idea Shakers aim to stimulate creativity, entrepreneurship and innovation in participants… and to integrate them into the corporate culture. Idea Shakers are always ‘fun’. Fun, however, is defined here as “hard fun”, where happiness comes not from doing an easy job, but from the satisfaction that follows the completion of a difficult task that has demanded the maximum from us, as individuals and as a team.
Idea shakers are not boring coaching sessions. On the contrary, it’s often in this type of activity that we see the greatest intrinsic motivation.
In the Moodmaker range, Before Mars is an idea agitator. Here, data about how you, as a team, performed the task is measured objectively (for example, the balance between cooperation and competition, the emphasis on high or low added value tasks, etc.) and a reality check is performed.
You can also interpret the difference between the two categories above as follows: entertain (just for fun) – inspire (message creator) – engage (idea agitator).