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Icebreakers 9

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ChemFemme

ChemFemme

Chemical
Jul 15, 2005
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All,

Our human resources manager, in his infinate wisdom, has decided that there is a lack of synergy in our technical group and is planning a team building day. He has asked for suggestions for games or icebreakers to focus on listening, team work, and "getting to know each other outside of work". Have any of you been to these type of outings? What is your opinion on this, and/or have you participated in any helpful or, dare I say, entertaining icebreakers???
 
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I'm just trying to figured out what imagined team-building purpose singling one person out for humiliation could serve.

Hg

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Where I work, the HR department consists of the best morons out there; none of whom are able to give a lucid, intelligent response to any question you may ask them about your health insurance, 401k program, salary, or other.
It's no surprise to me that any HR department would try to pull some retarded "group bonding" activity.
Maybe HR departments are run by architects....
 
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Thanks for all the feedback. The event day is currently scheduled for September 15th, and we're having a planning meeting sometime next week (yes, more valuable working time being wasted on this wonderful event with no deadline extensions to compensate). I think you've all made valid points and have provided some good suggestions. I'll let you know how it goes!!

Thanks again,
CF
 
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I'll be able to sit for the SE exam in about a year to 18 months. I will then have a dual license, architect and structural engineer. Comes in handy for court testimony.

Currently I can only testify in CA about 'non-structural' issues like paint, waterproofing, sealants and special coatings. Apparently the fact that I'm not, and never will be, a chemical engineer is no problem!

It's OK to slam architects. No need to apologize. So many deserve it. I've spent a career fixing many of the problems created by architects. Haven't seen that many by engineers. Professionally, I've always been in an engineering role, even when I was designing hospitals, prisons and hangers for the DMA. There is more engineering than archtecture for those types of structures.

Socially I'd rather hang out with engineers, too!

Gotta run, or I'd be one-handed typing here all day. Might have gotten my pinkie broken by the opposing attorney on site today. I must find myself a bucket of ice and a strong drink.

"If you are going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance!"
 
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My company is headquartered in Florida, so our "team building" excercises have all been fishing trips. We are a small company so we can't all go at once. The groups have been cross-disciplinary; engineering, management, production, accounting etc. in each group, with informal "bragging rights" contests on fish quantity, size, species etc. It has been fun, but has it fostered synergy? IMHO, not really.

The communications and expectation problems continue on. The root causes are not a lack of team effort, but a lack of management being willing to accept the underlying problems; you can't have team effort with sacred cow employees and a reward (pay) structure that indirectly pits one group against the other. Fishing trips, stretching excecises or blindfolded aminal mating rituals can't fix underlying structural defects. It's like assuming that the problem with your building is the paint job, when in fact the paint is bad because the walls are disolving underneath.

"Our virtues and our failings are inseparable, like force and matter. When they separate, man is no more."
Nikola Tesla

 
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It's got to be difficult to socialize with people after work when they act like butt holes all day. Also, the people I would like to hang out with don't use silly words like synergy and paradigm.
 
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Fishing trips? Man! I'd like to work for a company that takes fishing trips! Now THAT is a great team-builder. Nude fishing trips might be an option, too!

EngJW: "It's got to be difficult to socialize with people after work when they act like butt holes all day"

That's one of the reasons I don't even like the company X-mas, er "holiday" party or summer picnic - except for the alcohol. Wait, that makes it worse, or at least more dangerous for me since strong drink is a mocker... Seriously, I have people I would call "friends" at work, but my real friends aren't at work, that's why it's work. Frankly, if everyone left me alone to crank out designs (and surf Eng-Tips) I'd be happy...

Again, on a serious note, when the people you work for and with have power-dynamics issues, why even bother with 'em?
 
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I choose whether to attend company fuctions based upon the particular company work culture. My current employer has weekend training seminars a couple of times a year. While they are useful, its the "after hours" evening behavior that offends me. I don't get any particular joy from seeing grown men get wildly drunk and attempt to cheat on their spouses, just because they are away from home. This behavior is even engaged in by the company owner.
 
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Although I enjoy drinking, it is definitely not a team sport, especially if not everyone at the company does it, and there is little chance that they do.

Seriously though, I heard about a TBE where everybody gets a nerf blaster, they go into a room, and shoot each other with gund that fire nerf arrows and balls. People get to shoot at the assholes that piss them off, everyone regresses to their childhood days, and fun begins. I've only read about it, so it don't know if it works from experience. I believe the icebreaker depends on generating laughter. Laughter is the best medicine. If one person is not having a good time, they can spoil the team.
 
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I just read one that gave me an idea - get everyone together for some calesthenics, only hire some actor guy to come in like Richard Simmons and be a total clown. Some people may go along for a while, but eventually, it would have to be funny. It is funny to me as I think about it - like Will Farrell farting while doing situps.

Its a bad idea probably, but it is outrageous, and so use it only if you wish to mock the system, which is itself outrageous at times.

One that I did one time was everyone has to make a motion and a sound like a machine. Everyone becomes part of the machine. They let people join in as they were willing and nobody can stop until everyone becomes part of the machine. I thought it was OK and I understood the psychology, but most thought it was stupid, and the committee I was on voted to not have team building events anymore.
 
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I started to read some of this and found myself laughing - then I got scared - and I mean really scared.....

Are there companies out there that can really see the benefits of carrying out tasks like these ? do the benefits outweigh the negative effects of giving up a day to undertake these events ?

Im sorry but I have a problem with HR, who do I go to speak about that someone in HR? are you kidding ?

We had an incident a few months back something went pear shaped, BIG TIME, you know people start to come out of the woodwork people Ive read about in company literature, and they were sweating, we were working and I mean working like crazy to try and prevent the site rolling over. We all did it we all worked as a team and we found the way to make it work, when you are that close you do what is required and you do work in a team - it cant be avoided, So going back to this standing around in a huge circle trying to untangle arms, who thought this up who thought about it properly ? Some bozo in HR that has read a book about how to team build written buy some cretin that has realised that he can make money by writing this sort of stuff ?

Sorry but Im paid to do a job and I do that job, I dont like this bonding thing one bit, the only bonding I do is running a 6mm down and bolting it to a frame to ground it properly, Hey maybe we could start by grounding those arty farty HR peeps in the real world - get them down at ground level when the smelly stuff starts to fly around or would that be too real and stressfull for 'em?

Rugged
 
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I'm thinking something like this:

Well, well, well. Now, as your management told you, my name is Matt Foley, and I am a motivational speaker! (adjust belt) Before I begin, I want to tell you a little about myself, so you'll know where I'm coming from. First off, I am 35 years old.. I am thrice divorced.. and I live in a van down by the river!
 
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In an early era, when people worked cradle to grave for the same company, this sort of thing would never have been thought of and would have been unnecessary.
That isn't to say that people enjoyed work or were not exploited, just that today people are more mobile and disatisfaction means people will simply move on.

The issue isn't with the workers, they don't need team building or any of that stuff, they need an incentive to stay.

The sollution isn't with the workers, it is, as usual, with the managers and they have yet to accept that they are the source of the problem. It is why they so quickly abandon programs (largely adopted for PR reasons) like "Investors in People" once they se the "truth" emerging.

Today there is even less to like about management than ever before because management can today cloak itself in its "responsibility to the shareholders", the "just following orders" excuse (fewer privately owned companies).

The flaw in all these exercises is exposed when you ask why you are doing it? For your benefit or the companies?

I need say no more.

JMW
 
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jmw yep you have a grasp of it - investors in people ? Nope what matters is profit and that is where they pour the effort - that aint a bad thing as long as it is carried out ethically, When they start running all this psycobabble it is genuinely scary - how many people have went on these things and then discussed thier problems and then found that nothing happened about it ? Why ? Because we really really dont matter, I try to get all my satisfaction out there with my family and personal life and work well work is that thing we have to do to pay the bills and live.
If the lottery came up would I give up work ? Hell yes with not even a thought about it, after all if I had enought to live on without having to work why would there be any reason to work ? Do I really enjoy spending time away from my family and stuck in traffic and listening bull that much that i would have to ponder on the decision ?

Hmmmm Im going off on one - time for a coffee break and get some work done.

rugged
 
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Mon Cher ChemFemme,
The fact that HR is involved in this looks like a staff evaluation effort to find a basis for weeding out. They may be looking for out-of-the-ordinary behavior. Proceed with caution.

The best outing we had as a management staff was a week long outing to the Queen Mary, Long Beach, some years ago. Key individuals gave talks in the AM, and we did the recreation locations in the PM and evening. Q&A sessions served to remove the fog about our sister operations.
 
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