Have you ever considered how many people it takes to prepare a gourmet, 5-course meal?

The best meals are a perfect balance of fresh ingredients, mixed together with care and attention. A single chef can strategically plan a delicious menu, but to prepare, cook, and exquisitely present the meal, it’s often a team of chefs that work together to create the flavorful masterpiece.

When it comes to innovation and leadership development, many “chefs” are better than one. Establishing lasting and impactful innovation mindsets in the workplace is impossible if we don’t do it together.

When you work with InkDot, you can expect for us to roll up our sleeves, get in the metaphorical kitchen with you, and cook up robust solutions side-by-side. InkDot isn’t for organisations who are looking for team building events where marshmallow towers and trust falls drive the point home. Instead, we work with teams to improve their cohesion and strengthen their team dynamics through a customised approach to gathering and facilitation, resulting in clear action plans and commitments for teams to direct their efforts towards. Our clients never face their challenges alone.

What are some team building ideas in the workplace?

As we’ve mentioned, there is much more to team building than marshmallow towers and karaoke night.

For us, meaningful team building activities to fall into one of two categories:

A commitment to a longer-term process. A team and its leader must have a willingness to engage in a team building journey with openness to work on the fundamentals that make team health and effectiveness possible. Team health and effectiveness requires building safety and trust, which is only obtained through sustained effort, not a one-off event.
Or, a focused working session with a clear objective. This type of session could focus on a specific work-related objective like the team goals, priorities, work plans or strategy, the teams’ unique ways of working. By being in a co-creative space together, focused on the real work (not an abstract activity that is disconnected from the actual work of the team) more cohesion, alignment and commitment is generated, even in a one-off event.

Effective team building activities include every member of the team and focus on the actual work that they do – not inventing activities or games that are unrelated to their reality (we see you, blindfolded string maze).

As an innovation consultancy, we center innovation methodologies that:

equip teams to activate their innovation mindsets.
stress-test plans and strategies to ensure they are future proof.
bring in tools from the worlds of foresight, design thinking and human-centered design to help ideate, prototype, and test ideas with the most promise.
emphasise participation and co-creation to focus, strategise and collaborate around real organisational objectives, ensuring real ownership.

Schedule a discovery consultation with our team to learn how a partnership with us can help you, your team or your organisation meet – and navigate – the moment, boldly.

What is an example of team building at work?

The Mozilla Foundation’s Africa, Mradi team partnered with InkDot to support them in developing the Foundation’s strategy for thoughtfully entering the African trustworthy AI ecosystem. We facilitated a 3-day strategy and planning retreat in Nairobi, Kenya – the first time the newly established team came together in-person.

Together, we dug deep into the details of how to make their aspirations a reality. The work resulted in a more cohesive team, with deeper clarity on their roles, stronger connections between team members and agreements around ways of working. They also walked out with a clarified theory of change and workplan for the year ahead. It was both a fun and meaningful way to move the team and its work forward.

What are the 5 C’s of team building?

InkDot doesn’t believe in a “secret” ingredient for building teams, that are healthy, effective and innovative, but there is a set of beautiful words beginning with C that indicate a purposeful and cohesive team.

These 5 Cs are commitment, care, courage, creativity, collaboration.

We borrow them from one of our favourite pioneering organisations, Ideialab* as they are at the heart of their ways of working. These Cs are not the theme of cheesy teamwork activities for employees, but instead form part of the company’s compass: the principles and values that guide the organisation and shape their internal culture. Ideialab uses these 5 Cs to leverage its culture to stay relevant in a challenging market, to reinvent and pivot on a regular basis, to continuously improve their offering by putting their target audience (young, Mozambican entrepreneurs) at the centre of all that they do. This company is certainly a role model when it comes to building a strong, dynamic, and impactful team.

*We may be biased towards our “sister company,” but we’re sure you’ll enjoy learning about the amazing work they do as an enterprise support organisation in Mozambique.

What are the fun activities for team building?

It’s not the best use of time to search for teamwork games when really the best team building activities are those that are deeply connected with the purpose and priorities of the organisation and the actual work that teams are doing.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that bringing teams together around serious and meaningful work can’t be fun! We like to think of ourselves as a quirky breath of fresh air amidst your problem pollution. Yes, the problem you face is weighty and serious; we handle it with the care and respect it deserves. But we also know when to lighten the mood, crack a joke, and help our clients relax into or play with the challenges, as indeed that may be the only way through them. We are human before any of our expert labels and job titles, and we fully embrace a philosophy that allows this to shine through.

With this breathable environment prepared for effective team building, we custom design a workshop that is unique to your team, specific to your context, and faces your current challenges and opportunities head-on; one-size does not fit all. We also draw inspiration from innovation and co-creation methodologies which align with our principles of participation as a critical success factor for sparking innovation.

“What is standard in most organizations is importing best practices or imposing practices from above. The assumption that a best practice will work everywhere is just too convenient to resist. So is the assumption that local context and people, though important, will not matter enough to make the difference. Plus, best practices fit nicely with the deep-seated notion that reinventing the wheel is a waste of time and money. Unfortunately, importing or imposing best practices usually involves trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Context, culture, and people do matter more than we like to admit, and resistance inevitably emerges when we discount them.”

― Henri Lipmanowicz; The Surprising Power of Liberating Structures: Simple Rules to Unleash A Culture of Innovation

Is your organisation searching for a way to bring innovation to life? Shedule a discovery consultation with our team to learn how we can help you build an innovation mindset across your teams.

Let’s Face Your Complex Problem Together

At InkDot, we believe innovation is for everyone. Too often, solutions fail because we haven’t reached a contextual and empathy-driven understanding of the problems we are trying to address or because we don’t involve the people that will be most impacted by the innovations. At InkDot, we practice anti-business-as-usual, and we aren’t afraid to swim into the minnow trap or fishman’s net alongside you. We ground ourselves in your current reality, while being guided by the highest possibilities for your future.

Schedule a discovery consultation with us to uncover the possibilities!

Get in touch.

Tired of seeing or using old methods that only seem to add to current challenges, instead of helping you to adapt to and shape the world around you? Looking for a strategic innovation partner who can help you break out of business as usual?

Get in touch to book a discovery call with one of our innovation specialists.

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