CHAPTER 3
3.1. What is Team-building Education?
Team-building is the designation of a recently emerged form of education in the array of teaching tools, for the development of personal qualities necessary for any modern individual. In fact, the purpose and results of this special education surpass the strict understanding of the Team-building idea (that is, merely forming a team spirit), covering the formation of the entire range of attitudes necessary for a responsible, civilized person to coexist efficiently with their fellow human beings. Every individual will face difficulties in life. Success in career, health, happiness, are goals that are not easily achieved; they often require hard work. Achieving goals and overcoming obstacles cannot be done without qualification, without mastering certain skills. Some people are born with them, while others must work hard to learn them. However, every individual has an innate capacity to improve the skills with which they solve problems, and if they have the will, they will be able to achieve their goals.
The philosophy of the new education is that all people have their own resources (mental, emotional, physical), not only unknown, but even unsuspected by themselves. When given the opportunity to try in a conducive environment that supports and encourages exploration, any individual can discover this potential.
Inspirational Fact: Ever heard that?
The Japanese carp (Koi fish) is among aquarium fans’ favourites. This fish has an unusual trait: it grows as much as the available space allows. When the available space is small, it stops growing at 5-6 cm, but in a lake it can reach lengths of up to 1 m.
People behave just like Koi: their “size” becomes proportional to the environment in which they live. When the “environment” is narrow (lacking responsibilities, trust, etc.), the person’s personality withers, creative force decreases, and the individual becomes somewhat like a beggar or robot. When a person is appreciated, respected, and has responsibility (power) – the individual flourishes, progresses in terms of competence and character, becomes more optimistic, more creative, happier. Moreover, an educated person becomes a role model for those around them, because “what you give is what you get!” Someone trained for teamwork will influence their colleagues in this regard, which will increase the group’s productivity, and on the other hand, contribute to creating a constructive and pleasant atmosphere in the collective to which they belong (another factor that improves productivity!).
Two Types of Teaching Aids
Team-building education can be done with static or dynamic teaching methods.
Static forms take place in a classroom and address exclusively the mind, consisting of completing questionnaires and holding discussions.
Dynamic forms consist of special movement games in the gym or outdoors and constitute a new form of physical education. Our course deals with the Team-building variant with the help of physical education, as its educational efficiency is greater than that of the static games variant.
Physical education is part of the ensemble of formative methods. Although it primarily concerns physical condition and motor skills, lately its field has expanded to include activities that develop social interaction skills, psychological performance, and personal improvement.
For the education of young people, as well as for the “lifelong learning” of adults, a new form of physical education is used, which combines the attraction and excitement of experienced “adventures” (situations and exercises with apparent dangers, but ultimately completely harmless), with the stimulus of surpassing one’s own limits and the satisfaction of solving problems together with teammates. Unlike traditional schooling, which addresses only the mind, the new type of physical education addresses the entire human being, that is, all its components: body, mind, soul.
Thus, thanks to physical effort, the body becomes healthier, and the person has more energy and greater work capacity.
The mind is also solicited to solve educational tasks, so the students’ capacity to solve interdisciplinary problems based mainly on interpersonal relationships is developed. Moreover, the mind sharpens due to the increased capacity for effort, better health (influence of the physical component).
Furthermore, the new physical education positively influences the souls of the students in terms of forming ethical attitudes, by raising awareness of the importance and value of colleagues in solving educational tasks. Participants become more respectful, more helpful, more responsible. Moreover, the morale of the students improves also because of better health (influence of the physical component, activated by special physical education).
The basic principles of Team-building
The basic principles of Team-building education are:
- The individual’s ability to work in a team is a useful skill in life that brings great advantages. It can be learned and must be practiced.
- Any group of people has the ability to work efficiently together, as a team, to achieve a common goal.
- Putting the individual or group in stressful situations and facing (apparently) dangerous challenges can increase self-confidence and the ability to respond advantageously to problems (of any kind!).
- After members learn and practice (and improve) their ability to communicate, cooperate, solve problems, and trust each other, their group becomes more capable of performing common tasks and facing challenges of any kind.
Some educational activities have a relatively high level of (apparent) danger. For participants, this factor is both stressful and enjoyable. They muster the courage to try, and as a result, they begin to experience the joy of success, as well as realize that what seemed impossible is actually much more accessible. They will then apply this new attitude to any situation in their lives.
Five Stages of Team Spirit
The evolution of team spirit goes through the following stages (Tuckman):
- Forming: the group/team is immature, inefficient, its members (perhaps) are enthusiastic and optimistic, but they fear both tasks and relationships with colleagues;
- Storming: members have difficulties in communication and disputes regarding leadership and influence within the team, competition and conflicts arise in personal relationships with colleagues and in the organization or functioning of the group;
- Norming: the team becomes united, tasks and working methods are clear, conflicts disappear or are at a low level, there is a free exchange of opinions, values, information, and feelings among members, creativity increases, an atmosphere of mutual respect and trust appears, they are satisfied with participation, competence, and self-confidence improve, group leadership is shared, cliques disappear, a sense of common identity emerges.
- Performing: the team is efficient, members experience the efficiency of collective activity, they become more relaxed and satisfied. To avoid complacency and disconnection, systems for periodic review and revision must be organized.
- Termination of activity: because “time works” (generally degrades), some teams will be disbanded for objective reasons (changing tasks, etc.) or subjective reasons (some members leave the team, etc.).
In the case of young people, the effort afforded by these educational games is often the beginning of maturity, which means dealing with human reactions: fear, joy, tiredness, compassion, merriment, pain, love.
Team-building is especially important for adult education. They make up the segment of the productive population and constitute an important target audience for the new type of education. While “play” is a natural concern for young people, it is more difficult for adults to accept (not to be embarrassed). Therefore, to avoid rejection, the games used for Team-building are often named: “activities”, “challenges”, “problems”. Regardless of how they are called, if practiced correctly (with sincerity, without the tendency to mimic or skive), they practically have a great power to influence lasting positive change in groups or communities.
However, games must be used “wisely”, to create a sense of common purpose, passion for practical action, and recognition of existing possibilities. Without these higher purposes, collaborative games will remain mere tranquillizers for adults because, well managed, they also have a great capacity to melt the lust for power over the group.
In the case of adults, properly used Team-building education can support the effort to accomplish service tasks, to achieve the group’s lucrative goal. But also for the re-education of community spirit, tolerance, and mutual assistance.
Thus, in Team-building sessions, team members learn about teamwork: team communication, listening skills, conflict resolution, differences between personalities, personal values, etc., and professional knowledge: accounting, budgets, profit-sharing strategies, process improvement, etc.
Education for team spirit formation (Team-building) can be useful in the most diverse fields of social formative activity:
- Physical education programs, for leisure time, etc., in schools of all kinds; in the military;
- As an auxiliary activity in educational, tourist, recreational, and sports camps;
- For scouts;
- In professional training programs (training – for example, to increase work productivity), conducted inside or outside enterprises;
- In hospitals, sanatoriums, etc.;
- In student homes, immigrant communities, etc.;
- Programs for the re-education of troubled youth, delinquents, etc.;
- In communities and local assemblies (education for peaceful coexistence of citizens of various ethnicities, etc.).
The lessons of the Team-building course have both a theoretical aspect (it’s about the manual you’re reading now) and a practical aspect – through your participation in game sessions.
The games take place within a course (training) composed of one or more sessions (lessons) of 1-2 hours each. Ideally, they will be held outdoors, but if necessary (due to totally unfavorable weather conditions), they can also be held in a spacious room (gymnasium).
The present Team-building course aims to support the theoretical part of the entrepreneurship course, but the issues and solutions presented have a much more general character and can be successfully used in many training fields (schools, camps, etc.) and social activities (civic education, increasing ethnic cohesion, etc.).
3.2. Education Through Games
To be successful, education (or re-education) must be enjoyable, appealing to the majority of “victims.” Therefore, the primary formative means of the new education are activities or games.
Regular, classical physical education is conditioned by the existence of material resources and demanding qualifications of the instructor (sports teacher, etc.). In contrast, games are much more accessible and efficient than gymnastics, other sports activities, or usual leisure activities. Games can be played anywhere and anytime. For example, observing students’ behavior during a typical sports class at school, we will notice that the teacher is constantly giving them instructions or making remarks. But by engaging them in play, they will enthusiastically participate without showing signs of fatigue, with the only problem for the instructor being to supervise them to avoid accidents.
Team-building education is conducted through special activities or games. These provide a friendly framework for associating personal goals that motivate the individual, oriented towards usually individual results and benefits, with the creation of a true team spirit, concerned with the group’s (team’s) performance and success.
Competitive games (sports: football, volleyball, etc.) are well-known and widespread, aiming to defeat someone: some (few) win, others (many) lose. As a result, those who lose are unhappy, their confidence in their own abilities decreases, they become disconnected from the rest of the community, and tend to “emigrate.”
In contrast to these, the new type of games, for Team-building, aim at collaboration or cooperation and aim to increase the level of individual participation, develop the ability to solve problems collectively. They can serve to improve team spirit, break down psychological barriers and stereotypes, increase self-confidence, physical and mental condition of the players, increase solidarity and responsibility.
Each game requires players to work together to complete the theme or task of the game. To succeed, the group will be forced to use various means and skills: communication, collaboration, problem-solving, trust in teammates. A group of individuals working as a team can achieve things that no one can do alone. Skills practiced during collaboration games are necessary at any time, for anyone, to be successful in life.
By substituting reality, which often penalizes unsuccessful attempts, these games allow the experience and acquisition of unknown skills without the risk of punishment, shame, rejection. They become relevant and powerful means for: breaking down mental barriers between individuals, focusing attention, ensuring fair involvement of all group members, increasing the efficiency of collective activities, acquiring advantageous personal qualities.
All these characteristics contribute to the education of humanity and civic responsibility, addressing values that are essential for society and the nation. Therefore, in many situations, collaborative games can serve as an effective pedagogical tool for developing the character of good citizens.
Collaborative games are not just a modern invention. Many of the (competitive) games known from everyone’s childhood had as their main goal not the competition itself, but the apparently secondary activities – interpersonal relationships: forming teams, organizing action strategies, relationships between teammates and opponents, etc.
While many traditional folk, socialization, or leisure activities (board games, parties) aim to satisfy instinctual drives (survival), the new type of games refers to the regulation of instincts and the civilization of individuals. Current parties or gatherings, whether at night clubs or in concert, are rather animalistic activities, without any trace of spiritual concern, degenerate remnants of the ceremonial orgies with religious purposes within ancient Dionysian rituals.
In contrast, Team-building games are efficient means of regulating individual instincts to achieve goals of collective interest.
To develop and become human, children have a vital need to play. Their games are of two kinds:
- for relating to others – these help them learn the correct and efficient way to behave in society. For such games, children need models (adults) to copy, and playmates (other children). Unfortunately, today children no longer have models (parents are busy and spend very little time with them, totally insufficient), nor playmates (they don’t have siblings/relatives/neighbours, etc.).
- for discovering the world they will live in – these help them learn to appreciate and relate correctly and responsibly to the surrounding environment (to appreciate space – up/down, etc./weather – hot/cold, etc.). For such games, children need to spend enough time outdoors, in varied conditions. Nowadays, it seems that children often receive a lot of care from their parents, which leads them to spend much of their free time indoors, such as watching TV or using the computer.
As a result, many of today’s children may not be experiencing the ideal balance of playtime and guidance, which can impact their development. This sometimes leads to challenges as they grow older, such as difficulties in taking on responsibilities and managing their emotions effectively (often displaying neurotic behaviors).
Team-building games for young people and adults aim to provide opportunities for play that may have been missed in childhood, helping to support emotional well-being and reinforce positive values.
3.3. The principles of Team-building games
The principle of Team-building activities is that the group of participants (players) receives a task or theme that they must solve together, requiring both mental and physical effort (moderate, accessible to any healthy individual).
Each game is followed by a discussion with all participants (deciphering the experience – see #6), during which the teacher helps the players understand and become aware of the correct (constructive) behaviors that contributed to solving the task, and the incorrect (destructive) behaviors that harmed the group, delaying or even hindering success.
Team-building games are extremely varied. Here are a few categories:
- Introduction (for participants to get to know each other);
- Warm-up;
- Relaxation;
- Collaboration and communication;
- Creativity (problem-solving);
- Trust;
- Conclusion of the lesson.
In a collaboration game, the group of participants has to solve a problem, task, challenge or theme. This is done through the initiative or creativity of one or more players, through communication and the participation of all. Solving tasks requires players to collaborate, so that even the most isolated or timid person becomes an important part of the team. The practical activity of solving various games shapes (over time) the team spirit.
Another type of Team-building games are those of creativity, or initiatives. They also serve to understand the specificity of human leadership, what this activity consists of, and learning leadership skills. They develop trust among teammates and the group’s ability to cope with various common tasks. Another goal of the games is to teach individuals to have ideas to share with other group members, to think together as a team, so that each of them contributes to the group’s thinking. For the team to succeed, teammates are forced to communicate: to listen to others, to praise anyone with ideas, to use the ideas heard, to encourage teammates’ efforts.
Many games have tasks that appeal to several basic principles or aspects of teamwork. It is important that during the discussion or deciphering stage of the game, to understand the respective experience, all these aspects (as many as possible!) should be addressed and clarified, not just the main one.
The activities described in this Manual can be, and indeed must be adapted to the specific group. In addition, the creative instructor will invent new games or variations, drawing inspiration from those presented in the book, but also from other sources: children’s games from his neighborhood, specialist literature, etc. Sometimes the games discovered in this way are competitive, and in order to meet the needs of Team-building education and acquire a collaborative character, they need to be reformed; if they cannot be transformed, they will not be used!
Sometimes, however, the team fails to complete the game task, to achieve its goal. It can even disband – if the members do not know how to organize themselves, work with each other, plan the activity. Instead, skillfully directed educational activity by the instructor creates enthusiasm and interest in the group’s success, which is thus helped to learn the optimal way of working and behaving. By practicing these attitudes, individuals learn to work in a team. Even when the group fails to do what was required (what they set out to do) even though the members collaborated, they still gain something: the skill of being a teammate.
In addition, discussing the course of the game (deciphering the experience) after it ends helps to learn the process of thinking about (any) experiences lived, which allows the acquisition and practice of responsibility.
3.4. What is the purpose of the games?
Through Team-building games, several goals that are generally valuable for any group of people can be achieved:
- Breaking down psychological barriers between players, regarding factors such as ethnicity, gender, social background, social status, etc.
- Encouraging everyone’s participation, anytime. Emphasising the idea that each individual has different strengths, abilities, and talents that can contribute to the group’s success. Demonstrating that none of the players is more valuable or inferior to others, even if their skills and physical abilities are different, and that each can contribute primarily with goodwill and sincerity to the team’s (group’s) effort to achieve the common goal. The desire to dominate others must be combated.
- Building a mentality of group camaraderie and common purpose. The better players feel about each other within the group, the greater their chances of becoming friends and establishing long-term relationships, ultimately enhancing their competitiveness. Cohesion creates a “group pressure” that indirectly compels each member to perform deeds – whether good or bad. Team-building aims to internalize and generalize the good ones, but it should not be forgotten that the influence of the group can also lead a member towards drugs, antisocial acts, crimes, etc.
- Creating a sense of teamwork.
- During the experience decryption, guiding the group towards more generous goals, aiming beyond the framework of the game or lesson.
- Fun! Seriousness should not be overdone. As long as the group strives and behaves respectfully, participants will be allowed to joke, laugh, and play.
3.5. The actors in the educational process
The two actors in the Team-building educational process are:
- The instructor(s), and
- The student(s).
The instructor is the person who leads the educational activity conducted through games. Their contribution is essential for the success of the activity. The term “Team-building instructor” in other languages (cultures) speaks volumes about their role – in French: formateur (trainer) or animateur (animator); in English: leader, organizer, facilitator, or coach.
Instructors can be volunteers or professionals, often coming from the ranks of teachers or sports instructors.
“Students” (players or participants) can be children, young people, and adults of both sexes.
All participants form a group, which can be divided into smaller groups according to the needs of the activity. To solve the game task, each group forms a team.
3.6. How Personal Qualities Develop?
Participating in a game (actually in a session or in a game stage) has a strong formative influence on the players.
Experience is a hard teacher because it gives the test first, the lesson afterward.
(Vernon Law)
The mental effort to find a solution to the game’s task, the interactions with comrades, the observations regarding constructive and destructive attitudes that arise during the game – whether personal or those of colleagues – all contribute to forming conclusions and later to adopting new attitudes within each participant. Discussing the activity (for deciphering or understanding the experience) after the end of each game also contributes to clarifying and internalizing the factors that help – or, on the contrary, hinder – the team’s success, as well as that of each participant.
These factors are precisely the personal qualities necessary for an entrepreneur, but in a broader sense, for any individual (responsible citizen). Physical effort contributes to consolidating acquired reflexes, stabilizing skills resulting from educational play.
It should be emphasized that during a game, a person can manifest not only positive character traits but also reveal negative ones. Lack of interest coexists with selfishness, modesty with immoderate pride, honesty with cunning. Like any kind of interpersonal relationship, team-building games can serve both good and bad purposes.
The good option would be for them to be able to connect: the effort for social change, with education and community building, strengthening the need for communication, learning together, and making decisions together. Everyone is aware that the spirit of sacrifice is a quality. The awareness of belonging to a team prioritizes positive traits.
In the case of misuse, games can become means of oppression and alienation, used to support top-down education methods and isolate individuals, distancing them from each other.
“A true man is seen by his trust in other people and his participation in their struggle, not by a thousand merciful acts without trust in peers…”
(Paulo Freire).
It must also be emphasized that education is not a simple matter, neither easy, nor fast, or even definitive: changing mentalities – eliminating misconceptions (individualistic, etc.) and adopting new, correct ones cannot be done instantaneously, and the durability of new habits is not eternal, because they are in conflict with people’s natural inclinations, which act permanently in the subconscious against them.
To consolidate the newly acquired personal qualities, people need to refresh their educational experiences through repeated exposure to the formative conditions produced by team-building games. For optimal (sustainable) results over time, students are strongly recommended to participate repeatedly, periodically, in seminars or appropriate training sessions.
3.7. Building Self-Confidence
Success depends on many factors, one of the key ones being self-confidence. This trait largely depends on how others appreciate and react to our efforts. If we are encouraged and praised, we gain confidence and perform better.
As we become confident in tackling more challenging tasks, we feel better and have greater confidence that we will be able to handle more difficult tasks. With self-confidence, individuals can overcome failure; they will have the courage to try again, ultimately leading to success.
Self-confidence increases directly in proportion to an individual’s ability to master physical challenges. The new type of physical education thus ensures an increase in self-confidence for both individuals and groups.
When someone’s effort helps the group successfully complete a task, that individual is accepted by the group (team) as its “key” member. As the idea develops in the individual’s mind that they belong to a successful team, they will become increasingly active in the group’s activities, abandoning the role of passive observer.
Team spirit formation produces success without creating losers, as happens in traditional education (and life concept) – individualistic, competitive. Teammates learn that collaboration is important – gain becomes a side effect.
Games do not create a false sense of confidence. People can tell when something is earned or when it is obtained rightfully, with their own efforts and merits. The pride of possession is incomparably greater in the latter case. Therefore, the instructor will not give away the game solution but will let the players work to obtain it. The game must unfold with struggles and mistakes, conflicts and reconciliations, attempts and failures – until the final victory.
3.8. Familiarisation with Various Social Roles
When people work together for income, bosses and subordinates usually inevitably appear, with different social roles and tasks. Usually, the division of labor, the clear differentiation of work character, and the relationships established lead to a strong inequality of status and income within the respective organization.
On the other hand, in collaborative games, all players equally participate in physical effort, and each benefits emotionally as much as they can, so no one will feel unfairly treated.
Talented or skilled individuals in sports will be put in unusual situations because they will depend on obviously weaker teammates. Individuals unaccustomed to movement and physical effort will discover new personal possibilities and gain new motivations. Otherwise withdrawn individuals will unwittingly become leaders, gaining a different appreciation from their peers. In games, everyone has the chance to encounter unusual problems and play new “roles” within the group.
We all feel better when we can influence the direction in which the group we are part of is heading. And in a collaborative game (Team-building activity), the group’s success rewards everyone, not just the few who are good at scoring, shooting, jumping, etc. – as happens in competitive games.
And after experiencing the joy of hard work and the pleasure of others’ appreciation, a person will want to feel it again – either in the same setting (for example, another game) or within the enterprise where they work.
3.9. Enhancing Communication Efficiency
Teamwork means spending half your time explaining to others why they’re wrong – so said a jester. Then, it seems the other half will be lost when they prove you wrong!
To avoid such absurdities, genuine, constructive, and efficient communication is needed. Communication occurs through 4 “channels”: words, tone of voice, facial expression, and body language. Studies show that words convey about 10% of the message, tone of voice about 30%, facial expression about 30%, and body language about 30%. Therefore, it is incorrect to rely solely on one channel, such as speaking alone. For successful communication, it’s essential to utilise all available channels.
This information is useful for both instructors and players because the ability to communicate well is one of the basic teachings for fostering team spirit. To succeed together, everyone must fully engage, both physically and mentally. Students learn that personal commitment and good communication with others contribute to the group’s success, while refusal (intentional or unintentional, overt or covert) to collaborate divides the group and hinders success. Through playing games, teammates quickly understand that it’s preferable to encourage each other and communicate well, speaking clearly and listening attentively to others.
Encouraging teammates is a skill that must be learned and reinforced (see # 8.1) to be used as often as needed. Likewise, the ability to accept praise doesn’t come naturally and must be learned. The exchange of encouragement strengthens team spirit, creates a desire for engagement, and builds trust – essential characteristics for forming a winning team.
During game sessions, participants must believe that their teammates listen to their opinions. Clearly, some ideas will be good, others not, and some will need practical verification. Collaborating in the game, students learn to disagree, make hypotheses, wait for their turn to speak, and how to ease tension. In this way, they learn to become good citizens or family members.
3.10. Accepting Risks
As teammates become more relaxed and confident in their own abilities, they also become more inclined to make decisions as a group, instead of letting someone else decide for them. The team’s good decisions lead to increased individual and collective trust, and along with it, the desire to accept intellectual, physical, and emotional risks.
Often, members of our community, whether children or adults, find themselves in situations where decision-making is influenced: parents often make decisions on behalf of their children, while politicians may play a significant role in guiding decisions for adults. This is also an attempt to protect children or adults from mistakes. However, life requires everyone to make decisions, regardless of age, in order not to become social dependents, thus a burden to society.
Learning the vital skill of making good decisions is only achieved through practice – and often through making mistakes. From an educational perspective, putting individuals in appropriate situations, mistakes can become the path to success. By accepting the risk, individuals learn to make the right decisions, to self-direct, and to lead others. In this way, they assimilate the physical, social, and psychosocial skills necessary to succeed in life on their own, without the assistance of family or the state.
3.11. Educational Outcomes of Team-building
Team-building education aims to change participants’ attitudes and foster their personal development, towards acquiring new useful skills and personal qualities.
In this regard, we mention:
- Increasing self-confidence. After successfully (or unsuccessfully) participating in progressively challenging games, which include physical and emotional “dangers,” many individuals gain self-respect. After being “tempered” through the challenges encountered in a game, participants courageously tackle new and more complicated issues in the next game (or those in everyday life). Being autonomous at an individual level means constantly testing oneself and knowing one’s own limits – for example, knowing where to act and where to stop. Limits of responsibility and competence should show people what they can do and overcome, not what they cannot do. They create both freedom and timely restraint. Without them, the team could end up running through the stands, not on the playing field.
- Increasing agility and neuromuscular coordination. Many exercises stimulate balance-based and smooth-flowing movements. These physical performances are easier to achieve than other types of movements or physical exertions (such as sprinting, jumping, etc.), and mastering bodily control encourages and instils confidence in all areas of activity.
- Increasing satisfaction with one’s own body and the joy of being together with others. A fundamental criterion for assessing a game is the level of fun it arouses. This compensates for the stress caused by the sense of danger, while also supporting and strengthening the educational process.
- Improving the health of participants.
- Increasing the level of mutual assistance within the group. The philosophy of games is based on the assumption that anyone who sincerely and conscientiously attempts to solve the game’s task deserves the respect of others. Personal effort, trying, matters more than success or failure, because in many games, these depend on other teammates. The friendly and encouraging atmosphere tends to support participation. Therefore, in many games, the use of competition with other teams or individuals has been reduced or completely avoided (although such variations exist).
- Increasing familiarity with the natural environment. Young people and adults living in cities no longer know what rain, mud, wind, cold, heat, autumn, winter, fatigue, sweat, etc., are. Many outdoor games familiarize them with rolling in mud, the smell of grass, the warmth of the sun’s rays, the bite of the cold, in various forms. The uncertain weather contributes to increasing the “danger” (apparent) of the activity and strengthening its educational effect.
The purpose of educational activity, as well as practical everyday activity, is for the team to become more efficient, meaning to achieve greater performance in the following directions:
- Fulfilling the tasks for which it was created;
- Member satisfaction (mental health and improvement);
- Viability (probability of continuing to exist, of not falling apart).
3.12. What Do Players Learn?
The ultimate goal of collaborative games is, on one hand, to reconcile the participants with themselves, to feel good, and on the other hand, to acquire the skills and confidence to collaborate effectively with other people, in any situation. It is evident that this generous goal cannot be fully achieved in just a two-hour session. Many lessons are necessary for changing mentalities.
However, even in a single session, the group is at least introduced to the subject, and people are left with a model or scheme of operation, based on which they can continue to work on their own if they wish. If during this first (single) lesson the students manage to collaborate well with the group, if they come to trust themselves and their ability to work with others, then there is a possibility that they will be able to apply what they have learned here in other situations in their daily lives at home, at school, or at work.
Upon completing a team-building course, participants will know at least: the rules of the games practiced, the skills, the concept of teamwork, and the etiquette for teamwork and physical education.
They will be able to:
- Demonstrate the ability to communicate within a small group to solve problems, resolve conflicts, and share information;
- Interact and communicate positively and constructively with colleagues, regardless of their gender, age, culture, or viewpoints;
- Adapt their communication style based on verbal and nonverbal feedback;
- Express themselves with a tone, attitude, and vocabulary appropriate to a given situation;
- Demonstrate the physical skills necessary for individual or group activities;
- Demonstrate appropriate politeness and the ability to collaborate in a team, in activities with a partner or group.
CONTINUE READING:
Malaysian Guide to Team Building
- CHAPTER 1 : Non-Formal Civic And Entrepreneurial Education
- CHAPTER 2 : The Team Spirit
- CHAPTER 3 : Team Building Education
- CHAPTER 4 : Guidelines for Team Building Instructor
- CHAPTER 5 : Safety & Accident Avoidance
- CHAPTER 6 : Understanding The Experience
- CHAPTER 7 : Introductory Games
- CHAPTER 8 : Warm-up Exercise & Games
- CHAPTER 9 : Calming Games
- CHAPTER 10 : Relaxation Games
- CHAPTER 11 : Creativity Games
- CHAPTER 12 : Cooperation Games
- CHAPTER 13 : Communication Games
- CHAPTER 14 : Trust Games
- CHAPTER 15 : Fun Games
- CHAPTER 16 : Closing Games
- Conclusion
- ANNEX
- Proofreading & Editing