In order to achieve a successful team building activity, you will need a facilitator to be the leader. Through facilitation, one can improve their business by allowing co-workers to work together as a team and be able to solve problems as one. But how can you ensure that you choose the best facilitator? Here are top tips to help you in doing that and avoid making wrong choices.
Write down the goals that need to be achieved at the end of the activity. Even though you may think that you have a perfect team and you do not require any boost, know that there is always one or two things that can be improved. No matter your reasons for wanting to do this activity whether you are looking for fun or you want to improve your team’s spirit, you always expect to see concrete outcomes. Therefore ensure that you write down what you want to achieve before investing thousands of pounds on this activity.
Shop for the best facilitator around. With many facilitators around ensure that you find one who will improve the activity instead of dooming it. If you have no idea of where to look at, you can ask the company that is booking you for the team building activity since they know a wide range of facilitators that they use on regular basis. You can also find out from other departments since it is more likely that it is not the first time your company is involved in such an activity. Ask them whom they have used before and were contented with the results then get a recommendation.
Choose a facilitator who is assertive and calm. The facilitator’s attitude is important since it determines if this person will make or break your team’s spirit at the end of the day. A facilitator who has been doing this kind of work for quite some time is well aware that he or she needs to bring a lot of energy in the task as well as analyse the employees’ behavior at the same time. Avoid those facilitators who give in to the negativity of the team as it would be difficult to achieve an effective outcome.
Make sure that you fully understand what activities your team will be involved in. Meet first with the facilitator before the event so as to explain your goals and the current situation and how personally you think it can be achieved. Get to listen as well to his or her own plans of achieving and tackling the situation so that you two can come up with a common solution.
Inquire about the charges of the activity. Find out if they charge by the day or by event, if there are travelling charges, if they charge for extra expenses or the feel is inclusive of everything, how they require the pay if it is a deposit or pre-payment among other questions. As much as the cost is important to you, it should not be the deciding factor since the main aim here is the outcome. Take not that the facilitator’s fee is only a part of the total cost.