…and the importance of flexibility
Signature Teambuilding is a Richmond-based, small business that provides facilitated team building and leadership development programs to businesses of all sizes. The key differentiator to our type of team building are the expert facilitation and learning that come through our experience-based, hands-on process. Our programs are specifically and intentionally designed to be outcome-based and promote individual growth in order to foster deeper connected teams. We thrive on connection… so when our world was thrust into the unknown, and we were told that to keep one another safe meant doing the OPPOSITE of what we had always done by practicing social-distancing, we knew we had to make some changes.
We had to get flexible.
The work we do at Signature Teambuilding has always been hands-on and experiential so it is difficult to make it work in a virtual environment where people cannot be together. There have been requests for virtual team building in the past but have always resisted it because it just didn’t seem to fit with the kind of work we have been successful doing. However, as they say…”Necessity is the mother of invention”. So we did what we ask our clients to do during our programs. We put our thinking caps on and looked at our small business through a different lens. We needed to think outside of our own box so we reviewed literally hundreds of activities we have on hand and asked three questions…
1. Do people HAVE to be together for this activity?
2. Can it still engage participants?
3. Can people still have the “A-ha” learning moment that makes Signature Teambuilding unique?
After a solid week of review we did it. We found 10 different activities that we have confidence in for a new program called Virtual Teams. This was only able to happen because of our willingness to be flexible. Our team worked together to design a brand new program. Trust us, we went through MANY versions of Virtual Teams! before we were able to get it just right. What allowed us to be successful? Flexibility. Had we remained “stuck in our ways” because of “the way things had always been done” we would have missed a chance. A chance not only to impact our business model, but also- and more importantly, to be able to serve the community around us.
We practiced what we preached.
Luckily for us, flexibility is not only something we have gotten good at, but also a pillar of teamwork and teambuilding. We promote being flexible in our programs. Our small business aims to help other businesses be better, and so we had to be willing to do what we asked them to do. Being flexible is a cornerstone to teamwork. If a company, group, or team is not able to bend without breaking that can spell disaster. How often do things go perfectly according to plan? In our experience… rarely. For a team of people to be successful they must be willing to pivot and make changes. In many of our teambuilding challenges our staff throw curveballs at groups to help them problem solve in real time.