Team Building FAQ’s

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When we invented the Build-A-Bike (R) program over a decade ago, we were pleasantly surprised at how corporate America embraced charity team building. Realize, though, that when you add charity donations to a team building event, it will likely increase the expense of the event somewhat. So if you are on a budget, sometimes it's a better idea to conduct a quality event without a charity donation versus cutting corners on the quality of the event itself. However, our company has special arrangements with quality companies like Huffy and The Bear Mill where we are able to obtain materials for our events at extreme discounts because of the amount of the items that we purchase each year and because we are donating them to charity. So, call our event specialists at 800-872-7830 if you are on a budget, and we can usually give you a good alternative that won't blow your budget.

As a rule of thumb, the larger the group, the more magical the effect is of a charity team building event (http://www.leadersinstituteteambuilding.com/team-building-events/charity-team-building). The smaller the group, the more magical the effect of a "training type" team building event (http://www.leadersinstituteteambuilding.com/team-building-events/indoor-team-events/creating-a-team-culture).

For instance, if you give away two bikes in a Build-A-Bike event, it's not nearly as exciting as giving away 100, 200, or 1000 bikes. Alternatively, if you have a small group in your team, you can get real powerful behavior change if you do more of a training or teaching style of team building and get a better "bang for your buck."

Sure, we can customize a program any way. However, before you plan an event that is JUST building bikes, think about the last time you were sitting up on Christmas Eve looking at a box of parts. Chances are, you weren't thinking, "Wow! That looks like a lot of fun!" Building bikes (or any manual labor for that matter) by itself is not a fun or camaraderie building event. It's the activities that we include in the Build-A-Bike (R) Team Building program that make it fun and exciting.

One more thing to consider... The bikes that Huffy sends on palettes or in boxes are already partially assembled, so it would take a single person with little mechanical experience about 15 to 20 minutes to assemble the bike. Once the person completes the first bike and figures out what he/she is doing, it might take the person five to 10 minute to complete a second bike. So without other activities involved, the bike building itself would be fairly simple and uneventful and would take very little time to complete.

So, the answer to your question is, "Yes, you can do that," but I certainly wouldn't do it myself for my own team.

For charity team building events like Build-A-Bike (R), Rescue Bear (R), and Structures, the larger the group, the more magical the effect. We've conducted programs like these for 1000 people, 2000 people, and even 10,000 person size groups.

Some things to consider when organizing a big team building event, though are the following:

* Charity -- The larger the event, the more selective the charity choices become. For instance, once the group size gets larger than 800 people or so, the charity choices drop to just big organizations like The United Way.
* Transportation Issues -- Chances are that at the end of the event, the charity is going to need logistical help transporting the donated items.
* Customizable -- The bigger the event, the more that you'll want to stick to a tried-and-true type of program versus experimenting with alterations or customization of an event. Remember, that anything that is done for the first time is an experiment.

Big events are fun and magical for the participants, but you do need an experienced team to help you deliver powerful results.

If you are looking for a fun, shared-experience type of team event for a small group, then you can save money by just going out and doing something fun together. You can go to a comedy improv event in your area, go bowling, play miniature golf with the team's families, or have a picnic. Any of these types of events for a small group can be fun and easily delivered without the help of a team building company or a professional instructor. However, once your group size increases to more than, say 15 or 20 people, you might want to start looking at hiring a professional.

For instance, if you have 12 people, you could go bowling and have two teams of six playing against each other, and everyone will be involved and having fun. Once you get over 12 people, though, there is a good chance that some time during the outing that part of your team will be uninvolved and bored.

If you have a smaller group, and you want to create real team building behavior change, however, then a program like our Creating a Team Culture (http://www.leadersinstituteteambuilding.com/team-building-events/indoor-team-events/creating-a-team-culture) or a shared-experience event designed for a small group like our Structures program can be a great alternative (http://www.leadersinstituteteambuilding.com/team-building-events/indoor-team-events/structures-building-the-team-of-the-future).

We also have train-the-trainer programs for small groups. We call them Team Building in a Box (http://www.leadersinstituteteambuilding.com/team-building-events/small-group-team-activities).