Best Team Building Activity? A Philanthropic Event!

Many hands and one prosthetic hand up in the air — Image courtesy of Chris Gulley from Helping Hands

Working together as a team is not just about tasks and deadlines. It's also about the heart. That's why I’m presenting a special kind of team building activity today - one that encourages a team to join hands for a purpose beyond work. One that brings joy and meaning to everyone involved and connects the team on a deeper level with each other - and with the bigger world.

Read on and find out how an otherwise routine team workshop can turn into something truly magical.

Content:

I Used to Hate Team Workshops Until ...
How the Team Building Activity is Run
Benefits of Participating in a Philanthropic Event
Summary: A Huge Success!
Grab the Details

I Used to Hate Team Workshops Until ...

... I had this one team-building activity serving a higher purpose. And everything changed!

Let me explain.

Today, I went to work knowing that it was going to be a long, and most probably tiresome, day: A team workshop, including a 3-hour team building activity! Our manager made a big mystery concerning the latter, and my colleagues and I had mixed feelings about the event. I had my share of team-building activities during my professional career, and I found most boring, uninspired, and tiring.

But then Chris Gulley — a good-humored guy from New Zealand — happened to us. He broke the news quickly:

Our activity for the next 2-3 hours involves assembling artificial hands!

Wait, what did he say?

Hands?

Assembling?

My colleagues shot puzzled looks at each other, muttering and mumbling.

When Chris started to tell personal stories about amputees in India and Africa, showing pictures of children lacking one or both hands…

... the room fell silent.

A young boy with a prosthetic hand drinking from a cup — Image courtesy of Chris Gulley from Helping Hands

Chris is an inspiring and dedicated facilitator working for The Hand Project, an organization that donates prosthetic hands to amputees in developing countries.

These people have lost their hands due to land mines or electrical shocks, domestic violence, or they were just born without one or both hands.

They are desperately in need of their hands to make a living, but they can never afford a prosthetic hand.

This is where the philanthropic nature of the team-building event comes into play: Companies sponsor these activities for their employees so that those in need can get prosthetic hands free of charge.

A young boy with a prosthetic hand — Image courtesy of Chris Gulley from Helping Hands

How the Team Building Activity is Run

The team activity takes about 2.5 hours.

Participants are split into teams of 4-5 people.
The facilitator introduces the activity.
Each team gets a case with the parts they need to assemble (along with instructions).
The team members are asked to assemble one prosthetic hand, decorate the case, and write a personal note to the hand recipient.

A smiling girl with her prosthetic hand presenting the picture of the team who assembled her prosthetic hand in a team-building activity — Image courtesy of Chris Gulley from Helping Hands

As an added challenge, team members are asked to wear a glove on their „good“ hand (the right hand if you're right-handed, and vice versa) during assembly.

This not only calls for real teamwork, but it also raises awareness for what it means to be able to use only one hand. Everyone in my team struggled when it came to assembling the product, and we felt totally lost and handicapped. This measure indeed increased the empathy with the ones who need to manage their lives without one or both hands.

Hands of a woman and a man working together to solve a problem in a team-building activity serving a higher purpose — Image courtesy of Gaby Wenneker

Benefits of Participating in a Philanthropic Event

Knowing that the outcome of your team's work will improve someone's life tremendously makes a huge difference - both in the team's dedication and focus. People are more motivated when they fulfill a task serving a higher purpose.

A prosthetic hand: The result of a team-building activity of a philanthropic nature — Image courtesy of Gaby Wenneker

Here are some more benefits of a team event serving a higher cause:

It is highly touching and emotional and will not only increase team spirit but will also bring the team members together on a human level. It is not rare that even tough guys will get all teary.
Participants will feel proud of the company they work for because it supports and sponsors such a noble cause.

And as a bonus, it is a feel-good activity for every person involved. By the end of the workshop, every single colleague of mine was cheerful, inspired, and full of ideas and good intentions.

Summary: A Huge Success!

This team-building activity was a big surprise. And a big success! An uplifting experience to the core.

To sum it up, I’m grateful from the bottom of my heart to have had the chance to take part in such an inspiring team-building activity.

It was touching on so many levels.

It helped raise not only teamwork but also awareness for life in developing countries and empathy with handicapped people. And it made us all feel good because we made a difference.

Chris told us that in New Zealand, the trend for team-building activities goes away from the classic outdoor events of a competitive nature and more towards working together with your colleagues to create something that others can benefit from. I can see why this trend has emerged and hope it will gain momentum. From what I heard, the trend hasn't reached Germany yet, but I hope it's just a matter of time.