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On the right track with Olympian Bruny Surin, Part 1

We are pleased to announce our collaboration with four-time Olympian and gold medalist Bruny Surin!

Bruny Surin, Chef de Mission for Team Canada for the Paris 2024 Olympics has competed four times at the Olympic Games, where he won the gold medal in the 4x100m relay in 1996. He is a member of the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame, Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame and Quebec’s Sports Hall of Fame.

To date Bruny has inspired thousands of people across Canada and around the world through hundreds of speaking appearances.

The themes we will be exploring are Teamwork, Belonging, Motivation, and Action.

In this newsletter we would like to simply set the table and provide a quick snapshot of what, in our experience, are the elements preventing teams from reaching their full potential.

TRENDS:

  • Managers are looking for solutions to get people working better together.
  • Managers want people to feel compelled and motivated to achieve more as a team.

TRAPS:

  • The belief that any activity with the words team building attached to it will do.

Often a group activity is labelled as team building to attract a corporate clientele. Thus, many managers make the mistake of settling for anything that gets their team doing something/anything together.

  • Fake Harmony on behalf of the employees during said activities provides the illusion of cohesion, alignment, and motivation.

Fake harmony manifests itself in people simply nodding in agreement at everything and putting on a brave face because they don’t want to cause any trouble. Some just want to get the day over with and go home.

TRUTHS:

  • To get any traction as a team, people need to first feel like they BELONG. They need to feel valued, add value, and have a shared purpose and values.
  • The motivation they get from keynote speakers, posters, podcasts, and books needs to be put into ACTION.
  • The best team-building activities require participants to ACCOMPLISH something together rather than simply DOING anything together. Thus, reinforcing everyone’s sense of belonging.

 Here is a very simple diagram created by Aga Bajer :

The collaboration between Bruny Surin, TBMOQ, and Beyond Team Building will provide the full package.

Inspiring and motivational insights from a world class athlete and accomplished entrepreneur, practiced immediately with professionally facilitated team building challenges.

In the next edition of Team Building: Trends, Traps, and Truths we will hit the ground running with more insights and solutions.

We hope you’ll join us on this journey.

Read the original article on LinkedIn here.