2016 A&Z Team Building Trip
2016. 10. 17
2016 A&Z Team Building Trip
“We learned more about other colleagues, considered how to work together to achieve our team goals and, above all, had a lot of fun”
In October, 2016, A&Z employees embarked on a team building trip. The trip comprised a two-day program of group activities that challenged our determined and hard-working professionals and encouraged everyone to think about their individual, as well as joint contributions to the team. Above all, this trip developed our firm’s team spirit, passion, professionalism and reciprocal reliance.
Law firms are characterized by long working hours; where the less active individuals recluse, where superiority hierarchies thrive and where wide age gaps dictating seniority of the employees are evident. The legal industry is a high-stress environment built on the foundation of delivering desired results to clients. The trip was therefore designed to enable A&Z’s team to work hard as well as play hard through facilitating individuals to interact with colleagues outside their area of expertise and hierarchical level.
When visualising law-firm team building trips; reams of papers, regulations, business development plans and tough speeches most likely come to mind. However, A&Z bore whiteness to a completely different experience; bonding, re-energizing and collaboration-encouraging. Over the course of two days, numerous games were engaged-in requiring the use of physical, intellectual, and motor-control skills. Our core work was turned into play, which facilitated the cognitive, affective, and motivational processes that breads creativity. Play as a diversion then fosters creativity in a peripheral where, for example; it can calibrate an organization’s ability to flexibly respond to future challenges; fundamental for legal professionals.
Engaging in company retreats away from the office brings colleagues much closer together, allowing for the development of a ‘family’-like atmosphere. At A&Z, we believe that when a team that acts and functions like a family, incorporating better communication, and enhancing trust; productivity in-turn is also elevated. The team building trip provided the opportunity to discover nuances about our colleagues which before were not evident. For instance; discovering individuals to be incredible athletes, or talented singers. We all, at some point, realised common interests and fortified relations within the group. An example was evident where the group was divided into teams and had to undergo several tests requiring various skills. We then assigned specific responsibilities to each individual and attempted to support everyone in the team in order to pass all the tests. As H.E. Luccock said: “No one can whistle a symphony. It takes an orchestra to play it”. No matter how talented or hardworking we are as individuals, it is impossible for individuals to accomplish some tasks alone.
‘Motivation’. We hear the term often, even though few of us have really experienced its essence. As law firms trend in long working hours, high pressure, constant challenges, and innumerable other daily matters; how to keep the team motivated in the long-term is a key ingredient to professional success. Through the team building exercises, we learnt that a team must concerns members who are aligned with a purpose, who have a strong sense of fellowship, who feel a challenge in their tasks, feel responsibility for their actions/results, and experience growth as a team when these challenges are overcome. This is motivation. This is A&Z passion.
By the end of the second day, the group had relaxed, had fun and was apparent that relationships had positively evolved. While the games energized A&Z team, fluid and close communication also increased.
In October, 2016, A&Z employees embarked on a team building trip. The trip comprised a two-day program of group activities that challenged our determined and hard-working professionals and encouraged everyone to think about their individual, as well as joint contributions to the team. Above all, this trip developed our firm’s team spirit, passion, professionalism and reciprocal reliance.
Law firms are characterized by long working hours; where the less active individuals recluse, where superiority hierarchies thrive and where wide age gaps dictating seniority of the employees are evident. The legal industry is a high-stress environment built on the foundation of delivering desired results to clients. The trip was therefore designed to enable A&Z’s team to work hard as well as play hard through facilitating individuals to interact with colleagues outside their area of expertise and hierarchical level.
When visualising law-firm team building trips; reams of papers, regulations, business development plans and tough speeches most likely come to mind. However, A&Z bore whiteness to a completely different experience; bonding, re-energizing and collaboration-encouraging. Over the course of two days, numerous games were engaged-in requiring the use of physical, intellectual, and motor-control skills. Our core work was turned into play, which facilitated the cognitive, affective, and motivational processes that breads creativity. Play as a diversion then fosters creativity in a peripheral where, for example; it can calibrate an organization’s ability to flexibly respond to future challenges; fundamental for legal professionals.
Engaging in company retreats away from the office brings colleagues much closer together, allowing for the development of a ‘family’-like atmosphere. At A&Z, we believe that when a team that acts and functions like a family, incorporating better communication, and enhancing trust; productivity in-turn is also elevated. The team building trip provided the opportunity to discover nuances about our colleagues which before were not evident. For instance; discovering individuals to be incredible athletes, or talented singers. We all, at some point, realised common interests and fortified relations within the group. An example was evident where the group was divided into teams and had to undergo several tests requiring various skills. We then assigned specific responsibilities to each individual and attempted to support everyone in the team in order to pass all the tests. As H.E. Luccock said: “No one can whistle a symphony. It takes an orchestra to play it”. No matter how talented or hardworking we are as individuals, it is impossible for individuals to accomplish some tasks alone.
‘Motivation’. We hear the term often, even though few of us have really experienced its essence. As law firms trend in long working hours, high pressure, constant challenges, and innumerable other daily matters; how to keep the team motivated in the long-term is a key ingredient to professional success. Through the team building exercises, we learnt that a team must concerns members who are aligned with a purpose, who have a strong sense of fellowship, who feel a challenge in their tasks, feel responsibility for their actions/results, and experience growth as a team when these challenges are overcome. This is motivation. This is A&Z passion.
By the end of the second day, the group had relaxed, had fun and was apparent that relationships had positively evolved. While the games energized A&Z team, fluid and close communication also increased.
