Successful Meetings - January 2008 - (Page 61)

The Dark Side of Competition Dr. Pamela Brill, a Boston-area consultant who works with professional athletic organizations and corporations on teambuilding, says while competitive games can play a role in teambuilding, planners should consider negative behaviors that can be reinforced inadvertently. “It’s an efficient and cost-effective way for a company to build a sense of team. But for a group to really be effective they have to work way beyond a scavenger hunt,” Brill says. “My experience, having watched clients before and after doing it, is that it doesn’t have [a transformative] impact. In fact, what generally happens is that people on the team that already had clearly defined roles like ‘the tellers’ [those who order action] became stronger at telling. It became very competitive.” Brill says she Dr. Pamela Brill has even witnessed subversive action such as one team endeavoring to get their competitors (who were fellow employees) drunk to put them at a disadvantage during the game. To avoid such undesired behavior, companies should keep fun activities separate from their serious goals of teambuilding, she added. According to Brill, it’s important that the classroom component of the training teaches the attendees how to work together in the face of fierce competition. “Planners should combine a competitive event, such as a scavenger hunt, with some real training about how to team, strategize, and coach when working in a group.” Visit www.inthezone.com to learn more about Brill’s consulting practice. pictures for a presentation. “They really knew what they were doing. The project leader for the day had studied acting at NYU [New York University]. The way he would ad lib going through the photographs, despite not knowing the people personally, was so entertaining and refreshing. It was really on the money, being able to ascertain what had gone on and how the interactions had been,” LoPinto says. Alger, a member of the winning team, received an engraved Tiffany platter from AIG as well as a “super sleuther” coffee mug from City Hunt. PLEASING THE “INTERNAL CLIENT” Viki Steenhuis, training director for AIG Executive Liability, recommended City Hunt to the head office after using their services for another corporate training SUCCESSFUL MEETINGS JANUARY 2008 event earlier in the year; she discovered the company through an Internet search and booked the vendor with just threeweeks lead time. Steenhuis says she has used other scavenger hunt activity organizers as well in other cities, and likes the way hunts can be built to tie into corporate goals. “A lot of my responsibilities include manager meetings,” Steenhuis says. “In those, I build different kind of activities for teambuilding or whatever the skill set we’re looking to build into our management team.” Putting the event together didn’t take long, though Steenhuis says the crucial component was whether City Hunt had availability. The company organized a hunt through the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for her group, using a theme from the movie The Da Vinci Code. LoPinto says she is considering booking the mimegasite.com 61 http://www.inthezone.com http://mimegasite.com

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Successful Meetings - January 2008 Contents Editor's Note Associations Research Events Suppliers Associations On the Record Associations Suppliers Planner Spotlight Websites of the Month Management Matters Meeting the Law Personal Success Mouth for Sale Food & Beverage Professional Development On Site Pre-Event Tools of the Trade Veggie Power Tennis, Anyone? Seeing is Believing The Wild Green Yonder Game On Places & Spaces Galveston & Texas Beaches Greater Seattle Singapore Gurus

Successful Meetings - January 2008

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