Caricatures for team building, humour as a generator of productivity
Interpersonal relationships, teamwork, good communication and effective problem solving are among the biggest concerns of a lot of businesses today. The thing is that strengthen workgroups implies not only means that the goals are going to be achieved much faster, but also that creativity, innovation and the resolution of complex issues in less time are going to be incentivized.
With the clear goal of making those ideals true and not only reside in the human mind, various organizations have opted to carry out team building events comprising humour charged activities such as the creation of fast drawn caricature to bring out the inner child that we all have inside.
How to carry out team building activities.
As we said before, team building aims to generate cohesion among members of a group, bringing out the abilities that each member possesses, thus allowing o discover positive leaders and encouraging them to think out of the box.
The main advantage of this kind of event is to break out of the work routine and to test employees in areas that at first glance appear to be unrelated to his daily duties inside the office. Nevertheless, each one of the pending shores helps them develop qualities like:
- Enhanced leadership.
- Teamwork.
- Problem-solving.
- Time management.
- Communication skills.
- Sense of belonging.
- Emotional stability.
- Personal development and enhancement of individual skills.
- Goal-oriented focus.
So as you can see, this kind of events seeks to strengthen the ties between the organization and its workers as much as among themselves, because when it comes to something different from writing an email, filling up a report, or studying data, that turns out to be a playful activity like a scavenger hunt, charades or Pictionary, the person lets flow all the potential flow barely noticing it.
But, what has laughter to do with all this team-building stuff?
It has long been known that people learn much more when they don´t realize they are learning. How so? you might ask, but the answer is obvious, we just have to see how little kids learn to identify animals thanks to memory cards and sound. For instance, the dog goes woof, the cow goes moo, the cat goes meow, etc. In reality, this element of putting ideas together when it seems we are idle is with us our whole life and one of the best triggers of that level of creativity is laughter.
According to a college dissertation presented by Alice M. Isen to Maryland University, laughter or comedy has great effects in regards to our creative potential, people that receive good news have a positive attitude and are filled with hope, are much more productive and exhibit less resistance to change than those that have let themselves be consumed by routine and stress. This is the main reason why in Google there´s slides, football courts, bikes and free meals for employees because those moments of fun allow them to step back from problems and have a broader and more relaxed view of it, which is the definitive recipe for the big Eurekas of the humanity.
Where do caricatures fit into team building event?
We already have established that the best activity that can be done to pull your employees out of their routine is the one that brings out their inner child and allows them to express themselves with the less possible amount of taboo. Our team at Caricatura Show has discovered that fast drawn caricatures of participants, renders that much-needed click because you will not only laugh at your colleagues and friends, but you will laugh about yourself too.
A caricature is a much more positive view of who you are but also helps you to mingle and blend into the group, passing from a simple name in the company´s payroll to a recognizable face in that company just by having a place in the wall of caricatures and discover your importance in the brick wall of the organization, which serves as a foundation for another group of bricks. In conclusion, we are all important.
This vision of the caricature as the central axis for any type of corporative event has proven to have enormous potential for success. We as professional caricaturists have been present in team building activities for companies like Johnson & Johnson in Madrid and Unilever in Barcelona. In both cases we made cohesion among attendees soar to peak levels and in the event of Johnson & Johnson, we led each attendee to draw another team member without any bogging or criticism because the important thing was how funny it was going to end up.
Whereas for Unilever we helped to create the right environment for a Family Day, kids as much as adults could take home some nice memory, make new friends and consolidate much deeper and rewarding relationships beyond the usual morning greeting or any request of information needed in any given moment in regards to work.
If you really want your business to make a difference, be a pioneer in innovation and achieve its goals, then don´t forget the most important resource that you have: the people, so above all provide them with a pleasant moment that remains in their memory forever or at least makes them smile every time they see their own caricature at the office table.
Contact us now and discover the other face of your employees, we assure you that you´ll be surprised.