Team building seminar: the guide to success
A happy employee is 13% more efficient and productive, collaboration in the workplace can improve the number of successful innovations by 15%: the path to such success goes through a team building seminar. Homanie advises you on how to make your corporate event a success by offering you beautiful venues to organize it.
Team building: what is it?
A 20th century invention
The concept of team building has its roots in the work of several 20th-century Anglo-Saxon researchers. First, Elton Mayo studied industrial relations in a Western Electric plant, proving that workers became more productive when their well-being was taken into account by management, and thus demonstrating the importance of team cohesion. Next came psychologist Kurt Lewin, who studied group dynamics in relation to different types of management. Finally, Bruce Tuckman and Richard Beckhard formalized group dynamics, describing the stages that all groups go through, and highlighting the need for training courses to help them evolve.
The success of team-building seminars has continued unabated ever since, thanks to the contributions of countless researchers and consultants, each of whom has made their own contributions and innovations to help companies, large and small, run smoothly.
Why organize a team-building seminar?
The term team building can be translated into French as "consolidation d'équipe" or "cohésion d'équipe". It refers to all the activities and strategies put in place to strengthen cohesion, improve communication and encourage collaboration between team members. The main aim of team building is to create a harmonious and productive working environment, where everyone feels valued and interpersonal relations are positive.
Team building activities can take many forms, from workshops and seminars to leisure activities and group challenges. They are designed to :
Improve communication by encouraging frequent and honest exchanges between team members;
Strengthen relationships by promoting positive interactions and mutual understanding ;
Encourage collaboration by promoting teamwork and synergy;
Increase motivation by creating a sense of belonging and commitment to the objectives set out by the company's general management.
Team building is often used to solve specific team problems, such as conflicts or ineffective communication, as well as to boost employee motivation and satisfaction.
How to organize your team-building seminar?
Before the idea oforganizing a team-buildingseminar arises, there has to be a realization. Is the marketing team lacking inspiration? Has the sales team failed to win any market share this year, or has a competitor come out with a highly attractive new product, even if it doesn't revolutionize the sector? How should the management team communicate with the younger generation? To all these questions, there are answers and possible actions, to be found through teams that communicate with each other and employees who inspire each other.
Identify needs
Before embarking on a seminar, you need to have identified your pain points and written them down as precisely as possible. Are there shortcomings in communication, collaboration or motivation? Which team is lagging behind? To find out, a non-nominative survey can provide some initial clues.
Setting goals
At the end of the survey organized internally, or with the help of an external consultant, describe as precisely as possible the desired improvement: who needs to communicate better with whom? At a trade show, in addition to sales staff, who needs to be able to present products, for example?
What's more, these objectives must be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. To make sure you don't forget anything, a SMART diagram can be presented.
Determining the list of participants
The definition of objectives allows us to clearly identify the teams that need to be invited to the event. Just as in a military campaign, each team should be able to be divided into units of 10 guests. For a creative team-building event, for example, we recommend a maximum of 30 guests.
Planning the seminar: budget, duration, date and program
To define the budget, you need to estimate costs item by item: the venue and its equipment, travel expenses, accommodation, catering (meals and coffee breaks), activities (sports and workshops, speakers), materials such as the printing of presentation materials. Remember to leave a margin for unforeseen expenses, by allocating 10 to 15% of the total budget to them. Prioritize expenses according to their importance to the success of your objectives.
To define the duration, estimate the quantity of content to be transmitted. If, for example, you're presenting a new application, allow extra time to test every aspect of it.
When choosing the date, it's best to opt for a relatively quiet time in the company. You can canvass future participants to make sure you don't forget any events that might affect a department. In any case, you'll need to leave at least three months to choose from a wide range of venues and draw up a detailed program.
Team building: which activities to choose?
The choice of activities must be adapted to the needs and preferences of the participants, the requirements of the corporate culture, and the specific objectives of the team building seminar. It is important to vary the activities to maintain the interest and commitment of all employees, and to ensure that each activity makes a significant contribution to the objectives set.
Objective: improve team communication
To hear each other better, we need to talk to each other better! Putting yourself in the other person's shoes helps us to better understand difficulties and the complexity of a situation. Role-playing workshops are a good way of doing this. Understanding the extent to which a telephone conversation or an incomplete e-mail can be misunderstood is also an essential part of successful team building. The "Arab telephone" game allows everyone to discover the distance between sender and receiver, in a relaxed atmosphere. A treasure hunt can combine the attractions of a participative success with the pleasure of winning the prize.
Objective: show the team's strengths
Increasingly popular in children's games, participatory games are those where you have to work together to win. The huge success of Loup Garou is based on the fact that no one can win without accomplices, and that everyone has a role to play. In the corporate world, you can choose to build a tower, or cobble together a raft, with limited materials. Ideal, since everyone has to get across to win! Escape Games, where you have to escape together, have the same objective.
Objective: build confidence
Letting yourself fall backwards, sure of being caught by a colleague: this oft-used exercise is one of the classics of team confidence-building.
Objective: stimulate creativity and innovation
New team-building practices include hackathons and design thinking. Hackathons are aimed more at technical teams, who seek to develop a new computer program or application in the shortest possible time, with no budget constraints. More suited to all types of business, design thinking is a methodology for imagining new customer uses, and moving rapidly on to prototyping. The approach is multidisciplinary, iterative and collaborative. Both practices are best explored during a seminar involving small teams.
Which venue to choose for a team-building seminar?
Carefully considered and selected, the location of the residential seminar must seduce, inspire and unite employees.
Practical details not to be overlooked
The location of the team-building seminar must of course be easily accessible, whether by car, train or plane, depending on the participants' home address. If it's not a big city, it can be useful and practical to organize shuttles to bring back those who don't come by car.
Single cars or vans mean that several cars can be parked easily nearby, ideally in a space that can be guarded or to which access is private.
Meeting rooms are of course essential, as is their versatility. Theatre-style, U-shaped, classroom-style, with the option of sub-groups: all configurations are possible. IT equipment (projectors, screens, microphones, sound systems, etc.) must be of the highest standard, not forgetting the possibility of calling in a technician. The Wi-Fi connection can be kept confidential to maintain attention, or cell phones can be set aside during meetings.
Everyone gets up to take a break and share a meal. It's even better when these breaks allow you to go outside, a pleasure not just reserved for smokers. It's an ideal time to launch informal discussions and create networking opportunities.
Seminar venues whose beauty and originality are immediately appealing
Most meeting rooms are unremarkable, and staff can be happy when they're not totally blind. For a team-building seminar, apart from when presentations need to be projected, bring in the light! It keeps the mind alert.
The various workshops and activities, which are essential to team cohesion, are ideally organized in close proximity, to avoid the downtime created by transfers. Treasure hunts and other fun ideas staged in a castle or vast park are more appealing than in a hotel complex... The same goes for sports activities and moments of relaxation: the team is more likely to talk to each other by the pool or on a beach, as the paradisiacal setting will spark conversations.
Why choose Homanie for your team-building seminar?
Homanie invites you to discover some of the most beautiful properties in France and Southern Europe. The finest chefs and experienced hotel services await you. The collection assembled by Homanie is made up of large private homes with up to 25 rooms bedrooms. These residences are set in remarkable locations and feature unique architecture and refined interiors.
Whether your team-building seminar takes place by the sea, in the Paris region, in the countryside or in the mountains, Homanie has a team of incentive specialists to take care of everything. Each seminar is tailor-made: identification of the most suitable property for team building, proposal of the ideal activities to encourage team cohesion, finalization of menus, timing of coffee breaks, and so on. Would you like to create more synergy within your executive committee, or organize an innovative and enchanting team building event? Les Maisons Homanie can accommodate up to 50 participants for timeless residential seminars and moments of sharing that are essential to your company's cohesion.
Homanie offers large domains where anything is possible
For a team-building seminar, wide-open spaces far from the office inspire teams. The more space there is, the easier it is to organize rallies, escape games, treasure hunts and even some sporting competitions.
Homanie propose l’inflation des hectares… Vous cherchez de la proximité ? 5 hectares pour inspirer vos équipes créatives à l’instar de Claude Monet pour un séminaire à Giverny. 10 hectares ? Découvrez ou redécouvrez l’Essonne, pour vivre un séminaire à Paris Château, pour par exemple pratiquer l’impro sur une vraie scène de théâtre pour vivre des moments inoubliables en équipes. Vous trouvez cela étroit ? Optez pour notre domaine près des châteaux de la Loire pour un séminaire, où un parc de 130 hectares va inspirer notre équipe d’incentive. Les équipes de direction apprécient l’intimité des piscines privées, le sauna et le hammam… Les grands domaines sont également nombreux sous le soleil, comme à Avignon, pour un séminaire en Provence, ou un séminaire dans le Lubéron, toujours aussi tendance ! Découvrir ces espaces peut se faire selon les préférences de chaque entreprise : à pied, à cheval, en VTT ou en Segway.
Fun activities that create new team dynamics
Les incentives de Homanie peuvent proposer de nombreuses activités ludiques qui renforceront la cohésion des équipes et accéléreront le team building. Cela peut débuter par un moment convivial, passer par un atelier culinaire, puis dépayser les collaborateurs grâce à des moments insolites. De la murder party dans un château sur la Côte d’Azur à des défis en pleine nature, faites revivre la compétition de la série Les Gouttes de Dieu dans les ateliers d’œnologie ou lancez des défis de mixologie pour mélanger les couleurs et les formes.
Sports activities that combine relaxation and team spirit
Do you need to reawaken the competitive spirit of your sales teams? Your team is efficient in the field, but not very sporty other than in front of a screen? Homanie proposes a truffle hunt or a classic car rally. A little more competitive? It's time to let them loose on the Castellet karting circuit on the Côte d'Azur. Homanie can propose countless other team-building activities...
Need more inspiration? Contact us to find the perfect team-building seminar venue!