The exhibition which targets learning and development professionals across all business sectors, provides a unique one-stop shop for those looking to source training and coaching suppliers, whilst keeping them up to date on the latest developments within the training industry.

In the company of over 100 training and coaching specialists, Teamscapes will be showcasing their unique experiential learning offering, and explaining how it delivers measurable results, providing a return on training investment.

This free exhibition starts on Wednesday 24th April and ends on Thursday 25th April.

Teamscapes can be found on stand 873, located near the delegate coffee and catering area.

We look forward to seeing you there!

To find out more about Teamscapes and experiential learning, please call 01604 731 790 or visit www.sundialteamscapes.com

Teamscapes is a national team building company that has been helping hundreds of businesses do just that. We specialise in experiential learning (learning by doing) to inspire self-discovery and help individuals learn how they can become fully effective members of their team.

This month, we’re running a free prize draw giving you the chance to win a fully-facilitated half-day Teamscapes event for up to 12 people (minimum 5 people) at Highgate House, Northamptonshire, as well as use of a fully functional meeting room and complimentary lunch in our restaurant.

Part of the Sundial Group, we’ve been creating bespoke programmes for our Clients with great success for many years and we’re one of the few team building companies that can prove to deliver a return on your training investment.

Here are just a few things some of our Clients say about us:

“The best team building activities I’ve come across”

“Very professionally run and hugely beneficial”

“Tremendous fun and deliver robust learning outcomes that translate back into the workplace”

“The effectiveness and simplicity of Teamscapes never ceases to amaze me”

If you’d like to hear about how Teamscapes can impact both your team and business, just call us on 01604 731 790.

To enter our free prize draw to win a free Teamscapes team building event and meeting package, just register your details on our website at www.sundialteamscapes.com/draw before 30 April 2013.

Teamscapes. Team building with results.

However, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has found that despite the current climate, organisations are increasingly investing in coaching and training, with growth recorded over the last three years from 49% in 2009 to 52% in 2012. The research also finds that around 16% of organisations are using external companies to help them achieve this task.

Sundial Teamscapes is one such organisation. Lucy McGibbon, Learning & Development Director says:

“More than ever, team building needs to offer more than just a fun day out of office. The majority of our Clients demand payback for their training investment and in order to do that it’s crucial that we understand their business objectives so we can work closely with them to create a bespoke programme, identifying key learning outcomes that can be measured over time to give them ROI”.

John McGurk, adviser in learning and talent development at the CIPD notes that there is a shift change in which employees are being invested in for training. He says that in the past, much of the focus around coaching has been around senior executives, but now more organisations are investing across multiple levels of seniority. The advantages of this are that it helps to build resilience across the business as a whole, enabling teams to perform more effectively together.

Teamscapes offers team building solutions which are bespoke to each Client and activity programmes that are uniquely designed around their business strategy.

Following the experiential learning model which is, essentially, learning through doing, Teamscapes facilitators guide a team through a review process, encouraging and enabling reflection in order for individuals and the team to identify areas for improvement, in a continuous upward spiral of learning.

To find out more about Teamscapes and ROI team building, please call 01604 731 790 or visit sundialteamscapes.com

However, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has found that despite the current economic climate, organisations are increasingly investing in coaching and training, with growth recorded over the last three years from 49% in 2009 to 52% 2012. The research also finds that around 16% of organisations are using external companies to help them achieve this task.

John McGurk, adviser in learning and talent development at the CIPD observes that in the past, much of the focus around coaching has been around senior executives, but now more organisations are investing across multiple levels of seniority. The advantages of this are that it helps to build resilience across the business as a whole, enabling teams to perform more effectively together. He goes on to add, “Companies that are embarking on internal coaching programmes are aligning it with the business. When it’s just a cosy conversation, it’s divorced from other issues, so it won’t be as effective.”

Lucy McGibbon, Director of Teamscapes team building, has seen uplift in companies investing in training and says; “More than ever, team building need to offer more than just a fun day out of office. It’s crucial to understand the Client’s business objectives, and work closely with them to understand and agree key measurable learning outcomes which can be measured over time to provide long-term payback for their team building investment”.

Teamscapes

Teamscapes offers team building solutions which are bespoke to each Client and activity programmes that are uniquely designed around their business strategy.

• Following the experiential learning model which is, essentially, learning through doing, Teamscapes facilitators guide a team through a review process, encouraging and enabling reflection in order for individuals and the team to identify areas for improvement, in a continuous upward spiral of learning.

To find out more about Teamscapes and ROI team building, please call 01604 731 790 or visit sundialteamscapes.com

Combining both indoor and outdoor activities, Teamscapes is helping to improve team work, creativity, leadership, problem-solving and communication for many businesses via its experiential learning approach to team building.  

To some, team building might seem like a luxury, especially in today’s challenging economic climate, especially if doesn’t contribute to the bottom line.  In order it to be truly effective, and have a long-lasting impact, it needs to be planned and designed in accordance with key business objectives to achieve key learning outcomes.

Lucy McGibbon, Director of Teamscapes at Sundial, explained:

“Taking employees out of the office helps groups break down political and personal barriers, eliminates distractions, and let’s them fun together whilst working to achieve key business objectives. Team building is never more relevant than at the beginning of the year, after the post-Christmas slump and with businesses looking to implement new strategies and direction.  It helps to improve morale, enhance leadership skills and enable a team to identify its strengths and weaknesses, creating a strong bond to help tackle the year ahead effectively.”

To find out more about Sundial Teamscapes, please call 01604 731 790 or visit www.sundialteamscapes.com

The team building event booked for a large financial Client, involved both indoor and outdoor team building activities.  Rather than cancel the outdoor ones, the show went on, as Teamscapes worked to ensure the outdoor activity called ‘Crossover’ could still take place despite the snowy conditions.

In accordance to their heath and safety responsibilities, the Teamscapes team carried a full risk assessment, ensuring the ice and snow was cleared around the activity itself as well as creating a clear pathway to prevent any possible slips and trips.

Dan Porter, Teamscapes Co-ordinator, said ‘There’s snow stopping Teamscapes!  We managed to set up the task, so the team building day could run as planned.  The cold, challenging temperatures only proved an additional motivating (and invigorating) factor for the team to complete the task more quickly.’

The Crossover activity involves a team undertaking an activity outside, with the group divided into two, separated by two wide areas. The objective being for the group to swap places, passing through a suspended, elastic rectangle as they do so.

To find out more about Sundial Teamscapes, please call 01604 731 790 or visit www.sundialteamscapes.com

The indoor team building events that Sundial Teamscapes offers use experiential learning to develop the team. Each business will have different obstacles to overcome; some will need to hone their staff’s ability to think under pressure or manage resources, while some might require a focus on time management or leadership skills. Teamscapes can help to design bespoke events to suit the needs of each company and improve everything from communication levels to the efficiency of a team as a unit.

The three country house conference venues that Sundial operates provide a base for these indoor events, with purpose-built facilities for team building and a tranquil and focused environment. However, the mobile team building activity unit also means that any business in any location can enjoy the indoor team building activities for themselves. The activities offered revolve around 36 hand-carved wooden blocks which are used for different purposes; they can be symbolic of resources or traded as currency.

There are also culinary team building activities available, which help to enhance the ability of colleagues to trust one another, work cohesively in a group, manage resources, time, delegate tasks and use their imagination. The cocktail challenge requires a group to devise their own four-course menu before crafting a cocktail befitting of the meal, while ‘Teamcakes’ revolves around pairs of employees decorating a cake with one of them blindfolded.

Employees are encouraged to put the team’s needs ahead of their own, honing their ability to compromise and listen to the needs of a group. Managing potentially conflicting interests is an issue which often occurs in workplaces across the country, and learning how to deal with these struggles in a hypothetical situation can help individuals to translate their reaction to the real world. This preparation for future events can help secure and steady a company and give them a solid foundation on which to facilitate expansion and progress.

To find out more about Sundial Teamscapes’ range of teambuilding exercises and to design a bespoke programme, visit www.sundialteamscapes.com

The indoor team building exercises offered by Sundial Teamscapes take place at one of their three country house venues; Barnett Hill in Surrey and Midlands meeting venues Woodside and Highgate House. All venues offer the same selection of tasks, which are specifically designed to hone important workplace skills such as creativity, resource management, personal compromise and team communication. The tasks revolve around a set of specially crafted wooden blocks which double up as items of currency or trading resources within the activity. Team members will be required to flex their mental muscles in order to complete the tasks, helping to hone specific skills which can then be transferred back to the workplace. This experiential learning has proved incredibly successful for all those who have participated in Sundial Teamscapes’ courses, and they don’t need to endure hours of gruelling outdoor activity to benefit from it.

There is also a great selection of culinary team building activities that can be undertaken at the three Sundial venues. Challenges are based around everything from cocktails to canapés, and they work mainly on skills like time management, effective collaboration, forward planning and trust in colleagues. These activities take place in the warmth of a kitchen at either of the three Sundial venues, with delegates sufficiently protected from the elements to work on their skills as a team member without having to worry about numb fingers or wet feet.

All three of the country house venues operated by Sundial are easily accessible by a variety of transport links, with main motorways and major train stations situated close by. Food options are available for all teams taking part, with the results of culinary activities sampled as part of the exercise, and accommodation is available all sites for those travelling some distance to take part in these team building events.

To find out more about Sundial Teamscapes’ range of teambuilding exercises and to design a bespoke programme, visit www.sundialteamscapes.com

The flexible approach of the mobile team building unit means that they can come to any workplace in the country. Whether planning a festive finish to the year for employees to bond and hone their skills, or a New Year morale booster to encourage development and detoxify the team after a long Christmas, the unit can be arranged to visit any venue and create a bespoke session for any team. There are a selection of icebreakers which can kick-start the event and allow delegates to become comfortable with the surroundings, before the real tasks begin. All of the indoor team-building events which are usually available at the three Sundial venues are also available within their mobile unit; there are over twenty in total, and all of them focus on improving or honing two or three specific skills that are necessary for workplace success.

The logistics involved in transporting an entire team to a second location whilst arranging cover for workloads and meetings can often be the sticking point where team building events are considered, but the accommodating nature of Sundial’s mobile unit can ensure that these issues are irrelevant. Even if the workplace isn’t entirely suitable to host a team building exercise, they can be held in local school or church halls, in community centres or even a local sports field. The activities last for just one hour each, so there can be minimum disruption to the workplace; teams could rotate in small groups so that there are never a large chunk of employees away from the workplace, or activities could be carried out during a lunch break or in the hour immediately after working hours are over.

To find out more about Sundial Teamscapes’ range of teambuilding exercises and to design a bespoke programme, visit www.sundialteamscapes.com

Teambuilding exercises allow people to perform tasks which bring out the skills and abilities that will be best utilised within the workplace. In these situations, certain candidates have the opportunity to stand out and impress in a way they might not be able to in their place of work, or at a job interview. For example, an outdoor team building exercise where all members of a certain team have to negotiate their way across an electric fence using only the tools provided might invoke certain traits within a candidate to come to the fore. In these situations, a leader will often emerge; someone who will listen to all plans of action before impartially deciding which is the best course to take. Those with a creative streak and an aptitude for thinking outside the box might come up with an intuitive use for some of their resources that the other members of the team hadn’t thought of. If resources are limited, there may be a member of the team who effectively sees how they are best distributing them. Perhaps time is of the essence, and there is someone constantly coming up with ways in which they can shorten a lengthy process or carry out the same task in half the time.

These types of traits and skills are vital in an employee and when businesses are looking to recruit, they are often given great consideration by the employer. Team building exercises help to bring out the best in people, and they give job candidates a better chance to show what they are capable of outside of the confines of their CV. The exercises can be carried out in a whole range of ways, with indoor, outdoor and even culinary team building activities all available, each designed with the specific intention of improving skills, as well as allowing a persons’ unique skillset to shine through.

To find out more about Sundial Teamscapes’ range of teambuilding exercises and to devise a recruitment package, visit www.sundialteamscapes.com