Team Building And Client Motivation example essay topic

How do groups cohere? Historically, strong leadership and a shared culture have been the primary factors in determining collective unanimity within social groups. Managers today might not have absolute power of life or death over their staff, being restricted to hiring and firing in their power to enforce the hierarchy, and their corporate mythology might shade by comparison with that of, say, ancient Rome; yet, although managers today need to unite different people without the traditional binding agents of shared ethnicity or religion, unifying them in pursuit of tasks which can sometimes appear dreary even to the most committed worker, it is becoming abundantly clear that negative motivation - the threat of unemployment - is at best a limited management tool. Although the knowledge that keeping one's job is contingent on performance necessarily informs every worker's consciousness, fear alone breeds hatred, discord and consequently inefficiency.

It is a truth almost universally accepted that a happy worker is a good one: aside from such prerequisites as a pleasant working environment and the avoidance of overwork, it seems clear that a good team-spirit is the key to healthy morale. Working as a team increases people's sense of purpose, their feeling of belonging and consequently their productivity. In fact, a properly functioning team is absolutely essential for any business with more than one employee. If the rugby pack doesn't push together, they lose the game. Fortunately, for the twenty-first-century corporate manager, a support-structure, a science and industry of positive motivation, fitted for the contemporary market, has evolved. And one of its principal methods is that delineated in this section.

The companies on show here specialize in removing workers from their normative contexts and involving them in challenging, unusual and entertaining activities, by which shared experience the group knits together, eliciting previously untapped interpersonal relationships and individual potential. It is important that we recognize the constructive use-value borne by play in relation to work, since the two exist not in opposition, but in symbiosis. The cooption of constructive play by the corporations is their masterstroke; for by simulating the activities of family and friendship within its aegis, the corporation inculcates comparable loyalties and energies among its workforce. Gamesman Productions are currently leading the way in the provision of innovative team-building games to the corporate event industry.

Neil Harvey, the owner (who previously made scenic props for such shows as 'The Phantom of the Opera'), aims to create a 'toy-box's ensibility in all Gamesman products, to effect a high visual impact and encourage a ludic attitude. Thus it is that Mr. Harvey's new game, 'Hell's Bells', uses imaginative play rather than the more divisive impulse of competition as its driving force. 'Hell's Bells' is designed to throw light on team dynamics, focusing on project management skills and team communication issues. For the manager, this is a handy side-effect of corporate team games, which become a means of observing one's colleagues at close hand, in a different light from usual, throwing their strengths and weaknesses into relief. 'Hell's Bells' itself is an unprecedented and impressive development, in which the participants have to construct a series of automata whose correct alignment will enact automatically a medieval story, which is the culmination of the game and the convergence of cryptic clues and riddles scattered throughout.

The game can accommodate fifteen to two hundred participants, lasting from a minimum of two hours to significantly longer, depending on how it is supervised, keeping everyone involved and, of course, thoroughly entertained. Now, a more martial model of group play is that perennial favourite of the corporate market, paintballing. Holmbush Paintballing has over ten years of experience at organizing paintballing events to boost morale and help to create firm business relationships with staff and clients alike. Situated on the prestigious 2,500 acre Holmbush Estate, they offer tailored 'Paintball' events for all sizes of companies, both small and Blue Chip, supplying an action-packed, adrenaline-fuelled corporate day out. Paintball highlights the absolute necessity of communication and teamwork from all levels of staff. Players have the opportunity to practice and develop their leadership skills.

Everybody is encouraged to be highly motivated to achieve success, and their decision-making and risk management skills are tested to the limit. Players have to combine their individual talents and create real working relationships, breaking down traditional work-place barriers in order to achieve the set objectives. Holmbush provides all the equipment necessary - which includes full camouflage uniforms, full-face masks and the paintball guns - and all players are given a full half-hour safety briefing before any of the weapons are issued and the players go to any of the twelve different playing areas, each of which provides a different objective for the players to achieve. All the staff are fully trained in-house and are enthusiasts of the game. Each team is assigned a Marshal who guides you throughout the day, ensuring safety and fair play while in the varying 'Combat Zones'. At the end of the day the Marshals hold a Presentation where the teams' results are discussed and an award is given for the first and second placed teams.

A different kind of marksmanship can be found at the National Shooting Centre at Bisley Camp, the home of competitive shooting since 1890. The Centre offers world class facilities for all shooting disciplines. This includes target rifle, gallery rifles, black powder pistols and air guns to name but a few. The Centre also plays host to international competitions. The National Clay Shooting Centre, which is incorporated within the National Shooting Centre, will open in July 2001, with evening shoots held twice a week in the summer. The impressive new clay layouts have been built with the aid of a Lottery Grant from Sport England for the Commonwealth Games in 2002 and include nine down the line as well as English and Olympic skeet, ABT, double trap and universal trench.

A magnificent new clubhouse provides a focal point for the complex and includes catering facilities with a terrace that overlooks the ground and finals layout. The superb new layouts are equipped with seventy-two Mater elli traps, covered stands, computer controlled scoring and acoustic release, all against a backdrop of over 3000 acres of unspoilt Surrey heath land. While the venerable Bisley Camp has been enjoying a makeover, a new kid on the block has been making waves in the home counties. Widdowson Enterprises, based in Berkshire, was set up only this year; but its youth is belied by an impressive client-list (probably ensured by Widdowson's experienced backers), including J. Sainsbury, Safeway, Coca Cola, Hampshire Police, the London Fire Brigade and the British Army. Widdowson can supply many forms of team building games, such as It's A Knockout, as well as casino evenings, American Rodeo Bulls, Jet Ski and other simulators, thereby living up to The Organiser's motto, 'fortitude in variis'; 'fortitude in variety' - power through difference.

In recent years, Call of the Wild Adventure Activities, at their location within the Brecon Beacons National Park, have become leaders in the provision of activity and adventure holidays for the corporate market. Those up for adventure can choose from activities such as canyoning, coa steering, caving, pot holing, climbing and abseiling, paintball, quad biking, treasure hunts, orienteering, hill walking, mountain biking, canoeing, pony-trekking, themed challenges, 4 x 4 driving, sailing and sports boat activities, archery, clay pigeon shooting, air gun skirmishing, survival exercises and fly fishing, while the center also offers reflexology and aromatherapy for those who want to unwind in a more supine fashion. Rural pursuits are also on offer at A Day in the Country attractive midlands location, which has just won its fourth Marketing Week / CHA Award in as many years. The various on-site sporting activities include clay shooting, 4 x 4 driving, fly fishing for trout, Honda Pilots, field archery, Virgin ballooning, skydiving and many others. A full day of activities can be arranged or activities can be added to a day meeting or product launch, especially since the unveiling of the spanking new conference suite, the Croughton Room, which holds 120 delegates 'theatre style' and has doubled the hospitality area. The conference suite is equipped to the highest standards with all the equipment that is expected of a cutting edge facility.

Unlike many modern conference suites, there is plenty of natural daylight and ample height for display material. Computer-generated audio-visual equipment and special set design are available on request. Again, Byron 4 x 4 Corporate Entertainment impose exciting entertainment on tranquil, sylvan Middle England, maintaining various sites, with their two main locations in the Midlands, at the Adrenaline Jungle in Sherwood Forest, Nottingham and the Acker's, Birmingham (just ten minutes from the National Exhibition Centre). The former is Nottinghamshire's largest paintball site, replete with such features as villages, castles, bridges, and town halls; but it also boasts its own off-road course for 4 x 4's, a purpose-built quad bike course, a race circuit for off-road rally karts with pits, sin bins et cetera. Flying round Robin Hood's old stamping ground in a fully roll-caged rally vehicle should satisfy the thrill-seeker in your most boisterous employee or client!

If, however, you wish to give your clients or staff the ultimate adrenaline rush, then get in touch with the UK Bungee Club. Imagine yourself 180 ft above mother earth, equivalent to the height of an eighteen-storey building, gazing down at your destiny far below, a fall which, though you undertake it willingly, all your instincts tell you will be fatal. "Three, two, one, bungee!" cries the Jump Master, as you leap head first into the void, hurtling towards the unyielding ground and a rapidly approaching moment of truth. When the elastic takes the strain and your quick descent is suddenly reversed, terror turns to elation, and the whole experience becomes the ride of your life. UKBC now operate four mobile rigs offering Bungee Jumping, Catapulting and Abseiling. Over 100,000 people have bounced back, living to tell the tale and collectively raising over lb 1 million for charity.

Recent locations for contracts include The Millennium Dome, Earls Court, Tyne Bridge and Wembley Stadium, and UKBC, established in 1992, have been party to over one hundred TV appearances including Don't Try This At Home, GMT, The Big Breakfast, Harry Enfield and London's Burning. All jumpers are videoed as a souvenir. Now, while the avoidance of sudden death is the UKBC's raison d'^etre, the enactment of untimely demises is our next company's forte. Murder On The Menu is the official provider of scheduled murders on the Orient Express. They commit murder every month as the luxury train runs from London to Brighton, and on The Northern Belle from Manchester. These very successful, full-day mysteries are available for corporate bookings.

As award-winning members of the Corporate Hospitality & Events Association they guarantee an event to suit your company's style, budget and team-building or bonding requirements. Recently, they have extended their menu to include training programmes especially created for our clients. Do you need to project a specific message to your sales staff, managers, executives or clients? Murder on the Menu will write a script to your brief, and provide professional actors to get your message home. With a wide repertoire of themed off-the-peg cabaret whodunits, and themed dinner entertainment including Pirates, Forties, Oscars and Mission Improbable, Murder on the Menu have the capability to kill to order. Envelop your clients or staff in a theatrical play-world of fantasy, and see their consciousnesses altered in line with your prearranged strategy.

Well, I hope you can see that team-building and client motivation are sciences shored up by an advanced, committed service industry, an industry represented in further detail in the following section. The techniques of constructive or strategic forms of corporate play are becoming ever-more refined; so get involved - your competitors probably are.