Impact through Team Building
A reflection
The practice of mindfulness, as Jon Kabat-Zinn has said, “wakes you up to the fact that our lives unfold only in moments. If we are not fully present for many of those moments, we may not only miss what is most valuable in our lives but also fail to realise the richness and the depth of our possibilities for growth and transformation.”
Mindfulness is about paying attention, and there is no better way to pay attention than to connect the internal world, with the external, or, in simpler terms, to be here, now.
Without presence, we cannot engage with each other in meaningful ways. We cannot grow businesses or have open, positive conversations when we are stuck in our minds, guarded in our hearts and absorbed in ourselves. It is only with a mindful approach to team building that true impact can be made.
The following are reflections from SPEC NSW INC. team members about team building activities to date and their efforts to create a social enterprise built on foundations of compassion and selflessness.
SPEC NSW INC.s first volunteer team building session at Younga Yoga Studio, Wollongong
Olivia, Crowdfunding Campaign Coordinator SPEC NSW INC.
Before joining SPEC NSW INC., my distance from Yoga had stemmed from my belief that because I would never be a professional yogi (trust me, this is coming from a woman who can’t touch her toes!) Practicing yoga casually was not for me. However, it has been our President’s enthusiasm to include Yoga as a fundamental part of our team-building sessions that has started to change this mindset.
At my first team-building day in September, I was reintroduced to the practice of Yoga at Younga Yoga studio in Wollongong. After our icebreaker activity, our instructor Sofia Pila guided us through a calm Yoga flow followed by an empowering liberal movement session. The studio offered the idyllic space in which to begin to get to know my new team in.
A few weeks later, our second-team building session in Stanwell Park also started with Yoga, by Yoga with Renata. Renata was an excellent teacher who gave us the freedom and reassurance to challenge ourselves in our Yoga practice. Our morning Yoga class once again had established the perfect atmosphere in which to meet new SPEC NSW INC. volunteers and reconnect with old.
Creating a Positive, Mindful, Safe Space
Starting SPEC NSW INC. team-building days with Yoga has provided a unique means of connecting with my peers. These relaxing starts to team sessions set a positive tone for the remainder of both days, supporting effective collaboration, patience, and productivity. Since its inception, the SPEC NSW INC. team has organically become a supportive, friendly environment, with chemistry that you would not believe started over Zoom. This positive team culture that has accompanied SPEC NSW INC. Yoga sessions has been a huge part of my new appreciation for Yoga as a practice.
Renata Shanahan from Yoga with Renata
Tiffiny, Marketing Coordinator SPEC NSW INC.
SPEC NSW INC. has introduced me to a completely new perspective on team building. The only team building exercises I had experienced in the past are your generic icebreakers; introduce yourself, what are you studying, what are your hobbies, where are you from? They become so repetitive.
Alli’s genius idea to incorporate team building and yoga allowed us to make genuine connections as a team. Yoga created a space that encourages us to take care of our mind, body and soul and to get creative and most importantly, always have fun.
Making Genuine Connections
Walking into our first yoga team building session at the Younga Yoga studio in Wollongong, I was feeling quite reserved and a bit nervous to be around so many new people. Being a textbook introvert, meeting people is something that’s way out of my comfort zone.
However, I was immediately greeted with a sense of relief and before I knew it, I was feeling right at home. I love yoga but I must admit I am definitely no expert.
Our instructor Sofia Pila, introduced us to both a challenging and relaxing session. After this, we did something a bit unconventional. We danced. Moving our bodies to different tempos, with no rules or restrictions.
With our eyes closed we moved around the room, laughing with each other, our arms and legs flowing with the music. Everyone in the room was enjoying themselves and connecting in a safe space.
At our second team-building day in Stanwell Park, we began the day with another challenging yoga session with our instructor Renata. Starting the day with yoga gave us time to clear our minds and reset before heading into a productive day.
“At both yoga sessions, we were reminded that our contributions to SPEC NSW INC., big and small, are important and valued, and that we are all here for the same reason, to make a meaningful impact.”
SPEC NSW INC. team building session 1
Younga Yoga Wollongong NSW
SPEC NSW INC. team building session 2
Stanwell Park NSW
Alli, Founder of SPEC NSW INC.
Over the years, I feel like I have worked with so many unique organisations, from small to medium enterprises, from not for profits to major national retail corporations, from global tech start-ups to small volunteer-run garden groups.
Across all of these organisations there is one simple thing they have in common: humans working with humans to make things happen.
We can write all day about strategy and implementation, performance indicators and emotional intelligence but really, and something COVID-19 has made so blatantly obvious to us all, is we are all just humans on a journey, walking alongside each other at certain points in time.
Sometimes we’re in positions of ‘power’ with the opportunity to give and teach, and others in positions of learning and openness.
I have spent quite a bit of time on my new venture, SPEC NSW INC., working with young volunteers throughout this crisis. When I started the enterprise back in July just over 3 months ago, I had no idea how many incredibly talented people would become part of our team.
An MVP of sorts, our first garden project meant that we needed as many hands on deck as possible, and I chose to invest our time in building these human foundations mindfully, consciously and with the genuine intention to help others live their best lives.
Setting the pace
of the day
One moment
One breathe
One conversation
at a time
When we turned up at the studio for our first team building session, I felt an enormous weight lift off my shoulders, literally. There is something unique about a yoga space- a space you know where the outer “you” no longer needs to be a certain someone. Founder, Staff Member, Investor, Volunteer, Student, Step Mother, Wife… none of that matters.... at all.
Who you are and what you do, what you look like, what gender you identify with, what clothes you are wearing- are all completely irrelevant. It’s like for a moment you are born again, fully present this time and with the capacity for choice and agency.
“What matters in the studio is who you are beyond all of that. Beyond your LinkedIn Profile, beyond where you went to university, who you’ve worked for, what your assets total. All the usual success measures fly out the door and the only thing that matters is your presence, the uniqueness that is you, beyond your form.”
We spent the morning creating various shapes with our bodies which we called Yoga. Then we expressed a range of movements with coaching from our teacher, who talked about us becoming who we really are and taking hold of the present moment.
Essentially we were dancing, feeling completely like idiots but not caring who was watching or what anyone else was doing.
It was liberating, like the burden of the pandemic and our permanent state of fight or flight had been switched off and our nervous systems could for a moment allow ourselves to just be. Be a group of people. Making things happen. Allowing the river to flow, as it sees fit.
Sometimes you never realise the change you might be creating. Perhaps it’s subtle. Perhaps there are no great obvious changes occurring. But then ever so slightly things start to shift around you. Like the evolution of a species, growing legs or arms, or changing colours to adapt to their surroundings.
Slowly, and subtly, you create a world where mindful actions are possible.
A world where ceasing the moment, in an unconventional way, might be just what we need in our teams, workplaces, homes and communities. One movement, one conversation and one moment at a time.
