MAKING TEAMS FLY

As one of the Universes leading team building companies we are often asked whether we can motivate, engage, cajole, persuade and inspire teams to help them 'fly'.

So taking this literally we were delighted earlier this year to launch (ha ha) our latest , exciting and innovative team building idea - the AIRLINE CHALLENGE

In the Airline Challenge teams are set the task of coming up with an entirely new concept for an Airline.

Teams must develop the airline’s service offering, create a brand, identify their target market and develop their marketing strategy.

Simultaneously teams are tasked with constructing a 21-piece 1.5 meter model of their flagship plane, out of specially created bolser-wood pieces. The plane must then be painted and branded before the maiden flight.

These planes are seriously highly engineered and if constructed well will fly extraordinary distances in open space.

Finally teams must put together a presentation or film or TV Commercial to promote their Airline.

The activity can last a half or full day and where time and budget permits - teams also have to design the uniforms which must be modelled andalso deliver a full – pre flight safety briefing.

We have a lot of fun constantly coming up with new and exciting ways to build powerful teams. But don't just take our word for it - Recent airline launches include KBR , Disney and BT!

Recession - Arctic snow - BRING IT ON!

Well - Unless you are lucky enough to have been living in Mocronesia for the last 18 months where your biggest decision may have been whether or not to go fishing or have another coconut you will know that 2009 was truly 'anus horribilis'.

Well that was then. But 2010 - whilst still in its first few weeks of life - seems full of promise.

People have returned with a renewed sense of verve, vigour, passion and - well - intent. Intent not to let the misery of last year and even the Arctic conditions of now - get them down!

These early signs have been most manifest in our team building business. Whilst last year we couldn't give team-building away - we have already had record bookings for January and had assigned our full target revenues for January by the end of week 1.

So what is it all about?

Well the answer is simple and one we subscribe to wholeheartedly - and that is - you make your own luck. To use an oft' overused quote -

"You can't wait for your ships to come in - You have to swim out to them!"

If you want to make this year count - if you want to fill in any holes left by last year and if you want to make sure that you are one of the companies that really scores a 'win' in 2010 then you have to develop, motivate, reward, understand and communicate with your teams

It's not rocket science but it's ssoooooo important.

let your teams know how much they mean - what they contribute and why they are valued and whatever you do - don't make the mistake of thinking - we'll times are tough - we cant spend any money on team building - becuase it could be a very , very expensive mistake

Have a great year

WE WILL!

Ever growing interest in HAPq

This was published in M&IT magazine in July 09

Poisson Rouge MD Mark Katz wants to lift the lid on British businesses and find out how happy their employees are. Belinda Cole finds out why

Happiness is the key to a successful workforce – so says Mark Katz, MD of Camden-based teambuilding and motivation company Poisson Rouge. He’s so evangelical about it that he’s spent three years and £100k developing an online tool to measure corporate happiness in partnership with fellow director and behavioural psychologist Raminder Braich.

HAPq (which stands for happiness quotient) is a ten-minute survey which staff can complete anonymously online. "It basically ascertains whether you are happy at work. Do you like your
colleagues? Are you stressed? Are you able to fight back in a recession?

Companies that score highly will have better staff retention, higher profitability and better customer satisfaction.

"Now, more than ever, we need to know how happy our employees are and what we can do
about it if they’re unhappy." HAPq launched in March and has already been completed by 1,000
employees. Katz is aiming to get all the FTSE 500 companies on board in order to measure the average happiness quotient of UK PLC.

"We’ve had some of the largest companies in the world use it," says Katz. "And we’ve had a proactive approach from a high net worth individual who wants to fund it.

HAPq is the biggest thing that has happenend to us and I think we are about to go ballistic with it!

Interest in the tool has not been restricted to Britain, he says. "It’s just gone live in Italy and we hope to have it in the States by the end of the year." Katz hopes it will remind companies
of the importance of motivational and team-building activities, yet another casualty of the recession. "The budget for team-building events has gone down by 70 per cent and the decisionmaking has become a lot more kneejerk. Lots of people are trying to bring
it in-house and we’re begging themnot to. The worst thing is to take your team away and do it badly."

The nature of the motivational activities has changed too, with people afraid of public perception.
"The big danger is that fun is off the agenda and that’s a big mistake," says Katz. "No fun equals no engagement and no results and people will leave.

It's what creates the difference between successful companies and others. Just look at Innocent or Virgin – in these companies you can see it, smell it, taste it... for the record these companies are perceived as among the happiest in the UK in the HAPq survey to date."

He adds: "A financial services company we work with was going to give away a little magic trick on their exhibition stand recently but they pulled it because they were terrified the industry would regard them as frivolous, yet our best give away ever was a chocolate bar which said ‘we
don’t talk bollocks’ on the wrapper. On the underside it said: ‘when you’ve finished binning the brochures you have collected from this trade fair, put your feet up, have a cup of tea and
look at our website’. It cost a fraction of a brochure and it won us some substantial business, including BP."

Prior to the banking crash, 65 percent of Poisson Rouge’s business of Poisson Rouge’s business
came from banks and big city law firms. Now the bulk is public sector, retail and pharmaceutical, and average spend has been halved from £200-250 per head to £100-150.

"To adapt to the current climate we've created a number of activities that can go out for very little money. We can do team-building for 30 for £1,000 - we don’t like to, but we can," reveals Katz. That way the client still gets to motivate their team and it keeps the accounts department
happy.

Visionary at Last

It may seem strange for a blogger to quote another blogger's blog in their own blog yet at last recognition or at least flattery.

Poisson Rouge has always placed great emphasis on being creative and being different. No more so than in our original branding and naming of the actual company itself.

Being Poisson Rouge and not the 'Really Tedious Development Corporation of North London'...Catchy huh?) was always intended as a flag. It was and still is supposed to inform our loyal clients and supporters that whilst we take what we do very seriously - we don't take ourselves too seriously. In everything we do -making people think that what we offer is different, refreshing, innovative and unique whilst at the same time making them challenge their own pre-conceived thoughts and then making them smile is our aim - and one we have achieved consistently for over 18 years.

So recently a reference in a meetings industry blog (http://www.meetpie.com/Modules/EditorsBlog/EditorsBlogView.aspx?id=71) on the subject of agency names and what's behind them...they had the following things to say......

the mould wasbroken, and the new bright young things in the agency world worked out (at last) that a good name should: 

a. Be different from the others (no words like ‘conference’ in it.) 
b. Be memorable 
c. Be short 

What was the result? Well it seems to involve (mostly) an adjective and something edible. A few examples that have crossed my desk include Pickled Egg, Black Tomato and Banana Split. 
I could be wrong but seem to remember this trend was actually started more than a decade ago by an agency called Poisson Rouge – definitely a ‘catchy’ name - but at that time its creator, Mark Katz, seemed to be in a club of one. 

It took a while for his idea to catch on but now it seems he was a visionary in these matters and everyone else is following suit.

THE ART OF TEAM BUILDING

It's a funny thing - over the past 20 years by far and away the most powerful and popular team building event / activity that we offered was our Art Challenge. 

Yet in the past 6 months we have sold significantly fewer.

This is because teambuilding is changing.

Whilst motivating and developing teams is perhaps now - more than ever - a vital element of surviving and succeeding in a recession - people need to feel that they are doing something that is more justifiable - financially and emotionally.

We are seeing many more clients looking for shorter, more strategic interventions that tie into other activities - such as management meetings, off-sites, training days etc.

Clients are nervous that they will be deemed to be 'wasting' money if they fritter it on activities that have no direct action outputs or immediate and identifiable returns.

One continuing trend is a move towards CSR based activities which satisfies the head, the heart and often the budget.

Budget is another big issue - whilst the quantity of enquiries we receive is only slightly down - the budgets are significantly down. For some - this is as a result of mandates that have been handed down from on high effectively telling team leaders to continue doing exactly as they did before but spend no money (the phrase 'champagne taste - lemonade money ' springs to mind.)

In response to all this we have developed a number of team based activities that can last one hour, half day, full day - whatever is required. They are designed specifically to require little or no set up and little or no specialist equipment - thus keeping the charges down to simply our facilitation fees (which in line with the market we have of course reduced.)

To help you get maximum value from your next team development activities here is a checklist:

• Be clear about your objectives before you send out a brief
  
• Have an idea of what budget you can make available and share this information with your suppliers
  
• Try and avoid D.I.Y - recession or not team-building is a specialist area best dealt with by specialists.
• If budgets are tight - it is better to do team-building events less frequently but do them properly than to try and save money. A badly conceived or badly executed team event has exactly the opposite effect to one that is well planned, well conceived and well executed.
• Get competitive quotes from at least three suppliers but remember to give feedback to those you decide not to work with
• See if the costs can be shared with other internal cost centres - ie. marketing, sales, training etc...
• Make sure you get feedback after the activity to guage how it was received and what you can do better next time
• Make sure it is Fun. No matter how serious the message, the rationale or the reason for doing it - there is little enough fun in business now.
• Be bold - Look for things that will inspire, delight, ignite!. 

HAPq™ CORPORATE HAPPINESS QUOTIENT

Further to my recent posting about HAPq here is a more detailed overview about this exciting and unique Corporate Happiness Metric.

ACCORDING TO FEEDBACK WE HAVE RECEIVED FROM A DIVERSE RANGE OF COMPANIES ACROSS THE UK – INNOCENT, GOOGLE AND VIRGIN ARE PERCEIVED AS BEING AMONGST THE HAPPIEST COMPANIES IN THE UK

Recently after many years development and research Poisson Rouge launched the world’s first, and possibly only, on line instrument for measuring true corporate happiness. It is called HAPq™ and it actually measures how contented, engaged, fulfilled, motivated and and optimistic corporate teams and companies are. In other words it assesses and measures a team or company’s Happiness Quotient (hence HAPq™) 

It is actually a scientific fact that happy people are more productive, more creative, more successful, earn more money, have better health, have better relationships, have more friends and are even shown to experience more luck!  

 HAPq™ is based on hard science, research and evidence as established by the Positive Psychology movement pioneered by global thought leaders  such as Seligman, Clifton, Csikszentmihalyi and many others.  It also based on Poisson Rouge's extensive track record of success in motivating and managing change and performance improvement in individuals, teams and organisations.

As mentioned - the HAPq™ survey is an online survey and takes only 10 –15 minutes to complete with reports generated automatically.

The HAPq™ score is measured through four scales:

1.   OPTIMISM
A workforce that accepts responsibility for success, has huge hope for the future, bounces back from adversity and takes control.

2.   PERFORMANCE
A workforce that is engrossed with what it does (flow), applies its strengths and talents and has the confidence and willpower to deliver challenging goals.

3.   ENGAGEMENT
A workforce that experiences positive emotions and positive relationships, is motivated and has fun at work.

4.   MEANING & PURPOSE
A workforce that has a true connection with what it does, understands what is important to it and is enabled by the organisation to deliver to this agenda.

With the recession all around us, with staff motivation at an all time low – if ever there was a time to measure and benchmark corporate happiness – that time is NOW!

5 a Day

At Poisson Rouge we spend our lives telling others how to improve performance - how to help teams develop, bond, grow etc. But it is always harder to practice what you preach.

last week in response to unpredented market conditions we have instigated a new corporate health strategy - 5 A DAY

Everyone at Poisson Rouge is now publishing to everyone else internally - at least 5 things they have done to generate new business that day and/ or further enhance our customer relationships or service offering.

This is proving very effective and I can highly recommend it to all readers of this Blog.

Mark Katz