What was needed …
A rapidly-growing credit union had recently made significant staffing and procedural changes and the General Manager wanted to take some time with her entire staff (from two different cities) to pause and reflect, celebrate recent accomplishments, and build a greater sense of team spirit and belonging. She hoped to accomplish this through a fun day of team-building – something that would be both entertaining and enjoyable as well as teach her staff skills they could use in their day-to-day interactions with clients and each other. She called Merge for her advice on how best to meet these objectives.
What Merge did …
Merge met with the General Manager and her supervisory team to learn more about the recent changes in the credit union, and to obtain specifics about what they hoped to accomplish at the team-building event. As a result of this discussion, it was decided to focus the learning component of this day on positive and practical communication tools and tactics – realistic ways to help the staff work effectively with ALL the people they came across in their work environment. In addition, Merge committed to building in specific exercises to give team members the opportunity to learn more about each other in an informal and casual fashion. And of course, fun would be the underlying foundation for the team-building day!
Merge sent out a preliminary e-mail to all staff approximately four weeks before the event to set the stage and establish expectations. She then facilitated a highly-interactive team-building day with her unique blend of realism and humor, with the underlying objective of giving staff the knowledge and the confidence to communicate with clarity and credibility and thus build better working relationships.
What were the results …
The team-building day was a complete and unqualified success! Staff were excited and involved, asking questions and laughing while they learned. Many of the attendees mentioned on several occasions “How much fun we’re having!”, and the General Manager commented on how much useful, relevant and applicable information they all were learning at the same time. Later, one of the Senior Loans officers e-mailed Merge – “Over the past 15 years I’ve been to several professional development seminars and conferences and yours is definitely one of the very best. The presentation was very informative, and the exercises were relevant and quite fun; I know the group had a few laughs.”