Bears that Care: Charity Challenge Christmas in July

Last week TeamBuilding Unlimited/Murder on the Menu showcased our holiday events at a Christmas in July trade show at the lovely Oceano Hotel in Half Moon Bay (CA). What a great location!

Now's the time to start planning your holiday party. Whether you're looking for entertainment or some great philanthropic team building, contact us for creative customized ideas.

Bears that Care is one of our favorite events. After playing a series of children's team games, participants work together to stuff animals/bears. Each participant also decorates a t-shirt for both the bear and the child who would receive the animal. We provide red gift boxes and paper and markers for giftcards. What a great event for your holiday party.

Giving back to the community is welcome any time. The bears/animals are donated to a variety of charities including The Family Giving Tree, the Ronald McDonald House, oncology units, fire and police stations.

For other Charity Challenges, perfect for your holiday party (or any time), go HERE.

Contact us now, so we can provide you with the very best Charity Challenge for the Holidays

TeamBuilding Cupcake Challenge

TeamBuilding Unlimited announces the addition of a new fun interactive and delicious activity that capitalizes on your team's creativity and sweet tooth. This is a great event to do before or after a meal and can be incorporated into your lunch, dinner or afternoon teambuilding treat. THE CUPCAKE CHALLENGE!

Each team will be given paper to start, so they can create a Team Chef’s Hat! Individuals decorate their chef's hat with their team name and anything else they feel is appropriate..or not.

Then the real fun begins. Teams are challenged to Decorate their Cupcakes so that they symbolize the team itself, the company, the theme of the meeting, their positions at the company, or another theme. 

In addition each team will be given materials to create a ‘DISPLAY’ in which they’ll be able to stack their treats into showpieces. Prizes will be given to best overall display!

Each team will be given Cupcakes that can be decorated or left as is. With a variety of cupcake design supplies, tools and assorted decorating materials, the group will turn their concept into reality.
After the cupcakes are designed, decorated and displayed, each team will create a ‘commercial’ to present their cupcakes to the entire group.

And last but not least, participants will enjoy their creations.

You can have your Cupcake and Eat it, too!

Contact TeamBuilding Unlimited for more information

Zoo Scavenger Hunt: It's all happening at the Zoo!

Someone told me
It's all happening at the zoo.    

I do believe it,
I do believe it's true.

The monkeys stand for honesty,
Giraffes are insincere,
And the elephants are kindly but
They're dumb.
Orangutans are skeptical

Is your workplace a zoo?

TeamBuilding Unlimited will custom design a ZooQuest to navigate your team through the animal kingdom at your local Zoo.  TeamBuilding Unlimited will use creative anthropomorphism in our  ZooQuest to allow your people to see each other through animal eyes.

Creativity, efficient resource allocation, intensive problem-solving and effective time management will propel teams into the wild as they learn the secrets of the Animal Kingdom and their peers.

Any Legal Eagles out there? Perfect for your team. Contact us for more information. Groups of 5 to 300. Any Zoo in the U.S.

Bridging the Resources: HR Team Builds Bridges

The HR department of a Silicon Valley company approached TeamBuilding Unlimited to create a team building event that would reinforce their values and mission while having fun. Previously this department had worked with Murder on the Menu, the entertainment department of our company, on an interactive customized mystery event. Rovi Corp wanted to engage their HR team through some real teambuilding/teambonding. Bridging the Resources, a customized interactive event that relied on our Dynamic Construction Project format met their goals and objectives.

40 HR specialists gathered together at the Fairmont Hotel San Jose where they were given materials to build a new "Bay Bridge" that would also bridge their team with the employees at their company. Besides specific building restraints and instructions, this bridge had to exemplify and improve the future, benefits, and lives of their employees. Balsa wood, glue guns, balloons, plastic people and animals and a lot of other special materials were available.

Rovi Corporation is focused on revolutionizing the digital entertainment landscape. Just as their technology solutions enable consumers to intuitively connect to new entertainment - from many sources and locations, the team bridges had to revolutionize their company and the Bay Area.

This team of HR professionals threw themselves into the challenge. The final test was the remote control car that had to cross over the spans in this creative, competitive and challenging activity. Even with specifications, some of the teams built too tight a causeway. And, isn't that just like the real world?

At the end of the event, the business model was debriefed, but the bottom line was that this group was challenged, had fun, and learned a lot about themselves and their co-workers. The Dynamic Construction Project, be it a bridge, a castle, a recreation center, is the perfect activity to reinforce a company's values and mission.

Change Management in Team Building Events

Over the years different corporate groups have asked TeamBuilding Unlimited to incorporate Change Management into our Team Building activities. We've actually always included change as an important component in our events; however, we can stress this in the debriefing or in the selection of the type of event. Team Building Unlimited always consults with our clients, so we can address and meet client needs, goals and objectives.

TeamBuilding Unlimited handles the idea of change in our activities in various ways. One way is to divide groups into teams and give them an assignment or task, maybe building a bridge out of balsa wood, creating a unique 'new green' product or building a sandcastle. Half-way through the activity, the facilitator might change various portions of the deliverables to cause this activity to have a totally different outcome. How individuals, teams and groups handle this change is observed and commented on by the facilitator, as well as by the teams, themselves.

Many people are task-oriented. When a team makes a plan to complete an activity it consciously or unconsciously decides on a plan of action to reach the final destination or goal. If each team is given enough time to complete the activity and then the facilitator changes the course of the activity, the team has a new challenge in order to meet the new goal in a race against the clock.

Building Bridges: A concrete example would be any type of team building activity that involves “construction” which is the contract. A team, call it the building team, gets some input as to the overall structure from a competing team, call it the boss team, and agrees to build and include specific things in the final project. More than half way through the construction, each team is surprised when the boss team asks the first team to make at least one change, either a deletion or addition to the original plans that the building team must fulfill.

Another form of Change is to exchange players half-way through the event. Each team would send one player to one team and another to a different team. For example Team B sends one player to Team A and One to Team C. Who gets sent is part of the change. Who stays? How is this dealt with by the new teams.

A top down form of change can be added to a construction event when the TeamBuilding Unlimited facilitator announces a major change in the rules or the goal or removes certain materials. Example: Prior to completing the construction participants are not given the how and the who that will determine the best construction. Another form of change is that after the competition is complete, each participant is give a specially marked ballot and told to vote for the best team’s construction other than his/her own team. The ballot has his/her team’s number on it.

In some of the TeamBuilding Unlimited Wacky Games, a handicap can be added to the leading team on a random basis, such as time for the next activity or “immunity” from participating in the next activity so that the team automatically gets certain points without playing. The order of participation in an activity can be adjusted to favor the last place team so they have an advantage in the next event.

TeamBuilding Unlimited has included change management as an important aspect of many of our team building activities. Ask us about other activities.