In association with Machwuerth Team International
The importance of kick-off events in developing management
In these days it is very important that not only companies as a whole, but also people within departments, work together as a team. However good everyone’s skills, teamwork improves thereon.Therefore the most important step at the beginning of a new project or cooperation is the building of a team.
Trainers who support this process are often faced with challenges and opportunities in equal measure as a result of the different background of newly made team members. Opportunities present themselves since during the process of becoming a team various practical issues, problems and/or ways to handle them will emerge upon which participants will be able to reflect. The result is a very wide range of topics that will benefit everyone.
The challenge is to form a team out of people who did not know each other before, so that common learning can take place on a foundation of trust.
At this point a kick-off event can be very useful; motivating participants and creating a “we-feeling” that naturally has a great team building effect.
Objectives for an example two and a half day kick- off event could comprise the following:
(i) For participants to get to know each other and for a foundation of trust to be laid for a mutual learning process
(ii) To make participants aware of the objectives, processes and content of their future work as a team
(iii) For the participants to reflect on their own personalities and the impact thereof
(iv) For participants to experience teamwork and work as a team in a mutual development process
(v) To motivate participants for the learning process
(vi) To agree on the organization for mutual work
Such an event could commence with an ice-breaker game. At this point the team is still in the formation phase, in which people tend to treat each other warily, yet nevertheless respectful but distanced. Upon the game’s conclusion the group should discuss the emotions they have just experienced. What follows next depends on the organiser of the event and its specific occasion but it should generally provide more possibilities for the participants to get to know, and to lose their caution around, each other. Why not let the evening end in a cozy get-together over a nice dinner?
The following days should continue to build on the results from this first day, improving communication and cooperation between team members.A good way to achieve this would be an outdoor activity which challenges the abilities of the group as a whole.
At the end of the event participants will be able to reflect on their work together; realising what they learned about themselves, about forming groups and about group cooperation.
With this foundation their growing together as a team will immediately accelerate, a fact that hopefully will also be clearly visible in the results of their work.
