Team building with games: My experience with Ama agency
I had already talked here about my experience in managing online groups, and in particular about team building with games. Today I want to share with you how I structured a cycle of three meetings with the team of AMA Agency.
I practice Linguistic Empathy and I expect you to do the same. Please bear with me if my English is not perfect. Read the original version here.
When Alessandra Ferrario, the founder of AMA Agency, asked me to create a programme that would help her team members to get to know each other, create bonds and build a group identity, I told her that I would definitely use team building with games.
Throughout my life I have had countless opportunities to experience the power of playing: as a child, as a girl, as a mother, but also in a professional capacity.
The intercultural communication training courses that I attended to become a trainer used theory and practice in more or less equal parts. The practice meant interactive exercises and playful activities. All that I still remember years later is related to the games we played all together in the various courses.
When I started giving intercultural training myself, I immediately understood that playing was a very powerful tool on many levels. And I’ve never stopped using it.
With the COVID emergency, I realized how being able to play could be of great comfort to more than one person. Needing to deal with new and beautiful things myself, I created a series of webinars to share all the games and activities I have learned, created and adapted over the years. One of these webinars was to learn how to do team building with games.
Alessandra’s proposal was a great challenge. It was about guiding a group of women in reaching, through a screen, a harmony that would make them end the experience feeling linked to each other by a shared identity.
I created three specific moments. During the first meeting I focused on the definition of the group as a cultural entity. And what do we talk about when addressing the theme of culture, if not values?
My Coaching by Values certification was fundamental in developing the approach and exercises I used. After introducing the concept of cultural group, we talked about how to classify values, and we then saw them in action through an exercise of interpretation.
After this, it was quite easy to use some of the Coaching by Values exercises to determine if there was a correspondence between the values of each individual member of the group and the group as an entity united by a common goal.
Having found the common values, I decided to reserve the next meeting for pure playing. My aim was to create a relaxed atmosphere and bring them to connect among them in a light way, and above all by distracting them from the “task” of having to create bonds.
There are plenty of group games that can be played online. My portfolio consists of games I learned in person and then adapted to the virtual context, games I learned from various sources (readings, meetings …) and others that I invented from scratch and experimented with my beloved Expatclic community before launching them.
The third meeting had to build on what emerged during the first two, to prepare the ground for the actual functioning of the group in relation to its objective. With an exercise that I had prepared by asking the individual participants a few things before the meeting, I led the group to move between the skills and values of each member and those that make up the backbone of the team. I then created opportunities for discussion around ideas that I stimulated among the participants, dividing them into sub-groups whose task was the analysis of a concrete work proposal.
From my point of view as an external observer it was not difficult to ascertain the potential of this group, linked by a vast amount of things in common, and, thanks in part to the games and activities done together, now also close-knit and ready for constructive discussion.
The feedback I received confirmed that team building with games is a guarantee. And that I know how to do it well and I always enjoy it like crazy!
In March, AMA was a project made by individuals who collaborated with me and discussed with me on issues related to their specific city. After the team building with Claudia AMA has completely changed its skin, becoming a team of professionals who work closely together as well as a beautiful group of friends. Thanks Claudia!
Alessandra Ferrario, founder of AMA Agency
And some of the participants:
… Very useful and constructive, some interesting dynamics and points to focus on came out.
… I think it gave us a good boost and it was very nice and stimulating to know us all even if only virtually.
… I found Claudia’s guidance useful both from a personal and a team point of view. I find discussing a topic in small groups perfect for summarizing ideas.
… I think Claudia’s approach worked well, in the space of 3 meetings we went from not knowing each other to being in tune as a group. She was very good, she was on the sidelines but intervened at the right time giving us all the tools to grow.