We’ve moved to a new site!

Everything is building up now for the 2010 Kielder Challenge which takes place over the weekend of 25th/26th September. We’ve also set up a new web site devoted to the challenge and you can visit it here: www.thekielderchallenge.com

If you’re on Facebook, please come and join the Kielder Challenge fan page by clicking the button below!

Join us on the Road!

You don't want to miss this!

Preserve our Planet – Plant a tree in your company name and offset your carbon footprint!

With everyone talking about Global Warming, do you know what your company’s monthly carbon emissions are and what you need to do to offset these?

Put in the most simplistic way, the average person drives 1,000 miles per month, which equates to 0.295 tonnes of carbon emissions, when driving a small car averaging 40 mpg. When you compare this to how many of your employees drive to work, the maths becomes quite scary.

By planting a tree you can begin to offset your carbon footprint – Just 1.4 new trees planted will negate these carbon emissions.

With this in mind, this year we have decided to help you offset your carbon footprint by planting one tree for every team entered into the Inter Company Kielder Challenge. If you would like to have more trees planted and use this as part of your environmental policy then we will be more than happy to help. However, one tree is a start to helping you preserve the environment and do your bit to preserve our precious planet.

Sustainable Teams for 2010

The term “team building” has become a buzzword in recent years, and has many connotations. In terms of corporate development, team-building exercises are important not for the immediate experience of the activities performed by the team, but also for the group skills, communication and bonding that result.

The activity itself is not so important, it is the outcome and the experience that is taken back to the workplace that is the crucial factor.  But how can this be achieved and how do you choose what is the best team event for your staff?

Organisations find it difficult to decide which type of team build training is best because there is a diverse range of personalities involved.  So how do you choose?

It has to be something that will bring people together, whilst enabling them to grow in themselves, in their own way.  The experience needs to be one that stretches, yet enhances confidence and brings personal qualities to the forefront.

Leaders need to be able to lead, whereas others need to feel included and encouraged to take part, whilst being motivated to stretch their personal boundaries and grow for themselves.

This is a difficult task and requires a range of experiences that will embrace each personality type and develop a true understanding of how each person is motivated to succeed.

Individuals have a unique way of seeing the world which can be confusing for colleagues  For example I have heard of people describing a colleague as being “like a computer, they take in the information then take a day to download and process the information in order to give a result”. This can be both frustrating and infruating for some as they expect an immediate answer, but when they understand the process and personality they become tolerant and are able to work more effectively with that individual.

Team building needs to build on this and enable each individual to begin to understand each other’s personalities.  When this takes place, true team work can begin and conflict leaves by the back door.  People and teams start to respect each other and work together.

A good example of this, is a famous software company, I believe it was Apple, which was started by a group of technical guys who loved technology, being creative and were all a bit off the wall.  A new management team came in who all wore suits and talked nothing but business language, which was of no interest to the original creators – they wanted to carry on experimenting, being innovative and be given the space to create “New Stuff”.

Very soon the “suits” understood this and moved the “techies”, as they become known, into their own space outside of the main business centre.  They were allowed free rein to be creative and came up some amazing new software and systems, whilst the business minds made the business profitable and a house-hold brand name.   Although they did not work in the same office, they had respect for each other and became a team because they recognised the different personalities and allowed these to grow in environments that worked for them.

So how do you build this through team building exercises? It has to be about learning about each other, pushing the personal boundaries and respecting each other’s views, abilities and limits.

In Neoliguistic language it is to do with our mental maps.  They are formed as a product of the way we filter and perceive information absorbed through our five senses from the world around us.  Your map is your internal representation of external events. Your map of the world is formed by interpreting information absorbed through your five senses, and then ‘coding’ your sensory experience with language. These maps are just interpretations of the outside world, not real or accurate. It’s the filtering process that establishes the degree of choice you have in your map of the world.  It is quite simply how we recognise and begin to understand how our colleagues think and react to external influences.

An excellent Team-building programme will bring all of this together, it will enable individuals to recognise what makes their colleagues “tick” whilst allowing them the freedom and confidence to express themselves in a way that they may be prohibited to do in the work-force.

Most importantly, an exceptional team-building experience will enable individuals to learn from each other, build respect, and take this back to the work-place, not just for the here and now, but for future months and in-deed years.

The organisations that have recognised how important it is for individuals to understand the differences between their personalities embrace a variety of team building activities.  They understand the importance of breaking down political and personal barriers, eliminate distractions, whilst providing a fun and safe environment for it to happen.

Reivers Development are specialists in developing and building teams, through people, motivation and understanding.  Our flag ship event, the Inter Company Kielder Challenge, has for years been recognised as one of the best team building events throughout the UK.  It provides an organisation with the platform to launch their team building programme, whilst building true personal and team understanding that lasts for years.

What others have said.

“We have used Reivers as our development partners for business leaders from all over Europe. Together we create powerful and challenging learning environments that have hugely beneficial effects on our business.” Dave Redpath – HR Dir Domnick Hunter Plc.

For more information about how we can help you develop not just effective teams, but teams that enjoy working together and have a true understanding each other’s personal qualities, contact us.

February’s Competition

Can you tell us what the next letter is in this sequence?

OTTFFSS

The lucky winner will receive a prize if they attend the next Inter Company Kielder Challenge on 25th September.

Post answers HERE via email – we will announce the winner early March

Case Study – Energy Service Provision

Background & Aims

Our client is a social enterprise who manage programmes on behalf of central Government; utilities and social housing providers to deliver energy efficiency and security measures to low-income households. Based in the North East of England the organisation has regional offices throughout the UK. With over 500 personnel the organisation also works with some 300 plus sub-contractors and over 4000 community advisers to deliver Government funded programmes.

When we began, turnover was ca. £200 million and the Board of Directors set the challenge to reach £500 million. Our client required the structure to develop its long-term goals and objectives in order to achieve this target and create a business plan that could be delivered across regions, countries as well as by hundreds of sub-contractors.

Solution

Reivers Development was asked to work with the Board of Directors to develop the company’s mission statement. During this process Reivers were also approached to take up a position with the Board of Directors to manage Human Resources and drive achievement of the company’s mission.

Reivers designed a bespoke programme with the Senior Management Team to develop a strategic framework which would deliver the company’s mission, improve working practices and agree common values and behaviours. In Quarter-4 of the first year Reivers facilitated workshops which identified the company’s key goals, long-tem strategies and objectives necessary to achieve the anticipated growth.

From this framework, individual objectives can be developed in-line with the strategic business plan. This framework is now being rolled out across departments and regional offices with Reivers assisting in driving this process.

As well as participating at Boardroom level, Reivers works with the Human Resources department to identify training needs within the organisation, recommend required training and delivering programmes where appropriate. Alongside this leadership training, Reivers’ range of skills is being utilised to manage profit improvement plans, strategic business reviews, system and procedures reviews and helping to roll out major communications.

If you’ve got a problem talk to us about how we can help you solve it.