Episode 54: Team-Building: How to create appealing (and less eye-rolling) experiences with Andy Balzat
Team building. Love it? Hate it? Don’t really bother? It’s an interesting concept. I actually LOVE teambuilding and taking any opportunity I can, especially during work hours, to have fun with my peers. It seems though, over the years, team-building has got a bit of a bad wrap. The other week, I posted an article in our Facebook group called ‘The Flipchart’. The article was called ‘Stop wasting money on team-building’ and we had some interesting responses from the group. So what do you think about it all?
I love team-building - and I love what our guest today is doing in this space - it’s next level amazing. If you want to be in the team-building business, take a look at his site because you’ll be inspired.
His name is Andy Balzat and he’s the director and senior facilitator at Banana Life. Andy has the ridiculously adventurous background of a movie character. He’s taught snowboarding in California, climbed mountains in Bolivia, DJ’ed and played in bands around the world—and now he brings those unique experiences to Banana Life.
With a Bachelor degree in Business and Psychology, he's a creative thinker who’s happy to get his hands dirty to turn ideas into reality.
In this episode, Andy shares his experience working with organisations on creating effective, fun and appealing team building activities.
In this episode you'll learn:
How Andy started his company, Banana Life, and his comparisons between his original audience and current corporate clients
The craziest team-building activity he's delivered
His discovery process for developing team-building activities
How to quantify the effectiveness of team-building initiatives
Where Andy (and the Banana Life team) get inspiration for their next-level activities
His advice for business owners; and first time facilitators
About our guest: Andy Balzat
Leave your trust falls and group hugs at the door! Andy believes in the power of play. He understands that team building can sometimes feel like a forced activity that makes people roll their eyes and wish they’d taken a sick day. He’s passionate about crafting workshops, games and activities that enable teams to be surprised by the creative potential of their colleagues.
Andy is the owner of Banana Life (bananalife.com.au) a Brisbane based team building company. He has the ridiculously adventurous background of a movie character. He’s taught snowboarding in California, climbed mountains in Bolivia, DJ’ed and played in bands around the world — and now he brings those unique experiences to Banana Life.
With a degree in Business and Behavioural Science, his main interests lie in organisational culture, team development and group facilitation. His unique ability to combine technology, art and adventure into team building events has earned him a reputation as a one of a kind, event manager and facilitator.
Resources mentioned in this episode
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