DISRUPTING TEAM BUILDING: A DINOSAUR IN THE AGE OF THE SHARED EXPERIENCE

You have all (I hope) read my revolutionary stance on ROI, ROE, etc. So I now invite you to join me in throwing team building into the junk pile of antiquated events and embrace, instead, the world of "shared experiences." Why? Of course you are asking that. Isn't team building vital to the corporate culture?

In a world where virtual reality, augmented reality, devices of various kinds (toddlers learn to live in a solitary world, tablets in hand so they can play games that have no human interaction), how can we inflict a team culture on people who hardly know how to communicate without typing (or is that a word that is antiquated too)? I like virtual reality, and I've even recently experienced new augmented reality. They are fun and amazingly inventive technologies. Though you experience new worlds of imaginative possibilities, you do so alone. They are isolated and solitary. What, may I ask, is wrong with "real" reality? Where you are in the present, and even in the company of others?

I am not sure that a scavenger hunt or building a cardboard boat on a beach or even a trust fall truly creates a team concept. I do think that the sharing of your story, inviting people to get to know you, and you wanting to get to know them is a unifying force. It can be done in a group. It can be done one-on-one. It is called bonding.

Participating in a project for a greater good, being charitable, and doing it together may not create a "team"... but it will create a spirit of shared experience that will live on long after climbing a telephone pole, being cheered on by people you may or may not know or even see again.

Sharing is a potent experience. And though we can do some form of sharing on tablets, the face-to-face experience cannot be replicated on a computer screen. Virtual hugs, approving smiles, gentle handshakes or handclasps, nods of understanding... all lead to a better place. It's called friendship. It's called relationships. It's called human to human communication.

Being part of a team somehow sounds competitive to me. Sharing an experience does not. What do you think?

Andrea Michaels is the founder and president of Extraordinary Events, a Los Angeles based, international event agency, and the author of Reflections of a Successful Wallflower: Lessons in Business: Lessons in Life. Andrea may be contacted via amichaels@extraordinaryevents.com.