Hugging trees can lead to splinters

We had a day out of the office today, doing a bit of teambuilding.

The organisation I work for is going through quite a broad array of change at the moment, as we try and improve the way we do things. (Translation - doing more with less) For my area of interest, that means our team is both growing and shrinking. Slightly less people but more things to look after. Which, when you get past the "less people" thing, is kinda interesting because there are new toys in the sandpit. And I have a connecting interest in some of those toys.

I'm deliberately being vague there in saying exactly who I work for, as I have a few blogfriends who also work on the same site who don't want to make an issue of who they work for. So I just treat them here as Just Another Employer. Which is what they are :-) Even if the rules are a little different. But then - what company, department, partnership, army, surgery, trust, charity has the same rules as another.

Bah - digressing ...

Team building is one of those exercises where everyone disappears off to a meeting place, usually a hotel, for some serious brianstorming. (Yep - we have a couple of Brians and they do come up with good ideas). It's a good opportunity to get away from the phone and email distractions and see if we can figure out better ways of working. Most of the time that means poking at people outside the team but the best time is spent in figuring out what you could do better.

A key lesson in life is : "You are not perfect. You can always improve." I could probably Google that and attribute the quote to someone but it's so generic that if it is attributed to someone, then the person was probably trying to pass themself off as a Deep Thinker Guru ...

For the sportsperson, they can improve their skill.
The public speaker can understand their audience better.
The engineer can figure out ways to pass on their ideas more clearly.
The station announcer can speak more clearly.
The repairman can turn up on time.
Drivers can learn a little consideration for their fellow road users.
And someone upstairs can make the sun shine on Day 1 of the First Test.

(ok - maybe we're pushing it on that last one!)

I've rambled up top without really saying anything - Teambuilding is often greeted with "Groan - gonna be really boring." Which really translates to "Oo eck - I may have to think outside my comfort zone." Interesting day out of the office, although it distracts away from a highly essential piece of work we're having to do in an insanely short time scale.