Learning Series | Team Building Through Volunteering

Summary: Volunteering is more than just volunteering. Today, we're speaking about how to leverage volunteering to help bring team's together.

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Transcript:

Andy - WeHero: Hey, Ben, thanks again for joining us here. Excited to have you today. We're gonna be talking about team building and maybe, you know, just to kick us off a little bit, do you wanna talk about, you know, how we think of team building, you know, how we build team building into the work that we do and, and why we believe that team building and corporate impact are so important when they're together?

Ben - WeHero: Yeah, I think it's also worth knowing just like how high the demand is for team building experiences right now, or two years almost. It seems like in this virtual world trying to make the attempt to go into a hybrid world and, and, you know, a lot of times they're still struggling. There's a lot of just a lot of things and factors that play right now and, and team build just comes up again and again, as something that employees are really craving. And so in talking about that, we can share a little bit about how we hero things about team building and how companies can think about it as it relates to their volunteering. I always like starting off though that I think a lot of companies are trying to replace their team outings and they almost think about their mountings as team building.

Ben - WeHero: And that that's really tough. You know, where you used to be able to go out and have happy hours together, go to, you know, a baseball game together and that doesn't happen anymore. And those team outings create a lot of, you know, out of work dynamics where you can actually connect as a team build relationships. And so the way that we try to inject it through volunteerism is having a common goal and making impact together. And there's a lot of benefits that come with that, you know, there's a lot of neuro benefits in the sense of the positive feelings you have while volunteering and making an impact. If you combine that with building relationships, with people and having that connectivity, it be can become a really special mix. People ask, how is team building involved with we hero volunteer experiences? And one of the first things I say is that volunteering as a team is a team building experience.

Ben - WeHero: You have a common goal and you're working together to learn about a cost connect over cause and make an impact and see that impact come together at the end of an hour, two hours and with a skills space project it's for, you know, week, two weeks, depending on the time of that project. But team building is already in essence of volunteerism. You don't have to do too much to add to that. There's things we do that I can jump into Andy on how we really enhance that team building aspect of the experience. But I always just like to have people remember that when you're volunteering as a team that is team building, you have that common goal, you're making an impact together. And it's one of the best ways to build a team and build relationships in my opinion. And I dunno if you have anything you wanna add to that, Andy, if that answers your question, but we can get into just how you can enhance that team building component.

Andy - WeHero: Yeah, I think you said it perfectly, I mean, there's so many, you know, pre COVID in the in office world, there are so many organic way to build a stronger team. You know, whether it's just grabbing lunch with someone, the team happy hours, just catching up over the water cooler, as they say, there's so many organic ways. And I think those are really great for building relationships. I don't necessarily view those as strong team building opportunities. Like you said, there's no shared goal. There's no working together to overcome a challenge. And so in a lot of ways you can replace the relationship building in a lot of different ways virtually, but team building is, you know, so important for, you know, companies of all sizes and replacing that is hard and creating really CR you know, creative ways to do that. I think is, is important.

Andy - WeHero: And it's a worthwhile cause for all companies to be thinking about, we believe volunteerism is a great way to do that, as you said for a variety of re, but I also think, you know, the one other point I'd touch on is, you know, we are what, 15 months, 16 months into this pandemic where everyone is working on zoom. And I think there is there's a feeling of zoom fatigue, you know, even for volunteerism. And so I think that's why we've been working with more and more clients to think out of the bot is how can you structure a competition where people aren't in front of their computer yet, there's still a lot of engagement together around volunteerism. That's why we've been doing so many different skills based projects, just because I think like everyone worked tired of sitting in front of a computer and there's a lot of ways to build a team and deliver impact that isn't just in front of a computer. And so I think those are kind of the key trends that we're seeing and why it's becoming so popular right now

Ben - WeHero: To double click on your skills space piece. Like this is one of the many reasons we like skills based, right? Like that zoom fatigue component with skills space, we're able to give teams. Here's a challenge that a nonprofit organization is having take this challenge with you go work on it for a few days, a few weeks. What a, of what the time, a lot one is from your company and then come back. It's so different than having to be on zoom all the time, do an event that way and the impact so much more powerful. And again, just a great way to be on a team and do something that's outside your normal work day. I think it's just a really special way to give back.

Andy - WeHero: Yeah. And you, and you come back to your team, you know, with a stronger set of skills, you're gonna learn something while you do it, and you're gonna have a different experience working with one of your teammates. And I think ultimately that's gonna build a stronger team. You know, you're gonna know Steve from the San Antonio office so much better after working on one of these projects, you know, how they work, you know, how to, you know, a little bit about their life. And I think that's really what makes a stronger team and, and ultimately provides leverage to these companies as they're trying to do more, add more value. And, and I think ultimately having a better team is just fundamental in that.

Ben - WeHero: Yep. Can agree more.

Andy - WeHero: So, Ben challenge question for you. If you were sitting with a company, you have a hundred employees, you don't have the time to do a full skills based project. What would you be trying to do through your volunteerism that can make it more of a team building exercise rather than just a sit alone and deliver impact type volunteer activity?

Ben - WeHero: Yeah, I think you could still do the volunteerism, but I think it's important in your agenda for that volunteer experience that you're making time for the team building relationships to actually happen. You know, a lot of the adjustments we've been making is we try to educate people about the cause and we're actually bringing people into that educational component now and making it competitive. So there's like people have a, an app they can join on their phone, be part of that experience, add their input and their take. And that just gets, 'em very heavily involved as a group in the actual education component. But then for the impact piece, it's actually given them the time to reflect and make an impact together in smaller groups. So if you have a hundred people it's really hard to go in the course of an hour to two, we're gonna unit this entire group of people and then have 'em get together.

Ben - WeHero: It's way easier to go. Like, look, we're gonna give 10 people out of the hundred, the ability to connect and do the impact piece together as a team, breakout rooms have been really great for that. And we give people things to really critically think about, or we give 'em exercises to go through. We have a packs of inspiration event where we have an activity called tonight, you're homeless. And people go through a simulation together as a team. And that's really powerful in a way for people to connect and build a relationship in a zoom meeting like that. And so those are the things I think of right away in regards to how in a very short period of time, we can give people an experience where they're making an impact to as a large group, but they have the ability in smaller groups to connect, build relationships and do something completely outside their normal Workday.

Andy - WeHero: Yeah. I, I couldn't agree more. And I think, you know, part of all of your experiences, as you think about playing them should be impact focused, right? You shouldn't be doing any experience, focus on volunteers if it's not gonna deliver impact, but if you're trying to leverage team building benefits, there's so many different things you can do and build into the, the event. I think the other thing that, you know, if you're a regular listener and regular watcher of these videos, you'll hear us harp on as just extending the experience. And I think of so many examples where if you're trying to fit everything into an hour, finding the time to have breakout rooms and real, really bond with an employee, learn about them and work together. That can be really challenging. And so, you know, I think about some of our, you know, events focus on environmentalism where it's about collecting trash, for example, and then building art and competing with your team, doing that in smaller groups and having a 40 minute art build just on zoom at the same time, you know, before the event, it is just a great way to casually be interacting with your team and then competing with everyone as well.

Andy - WeHero: And so I think, you know, if you can find ways to extend the experience, one other thing we love is just three day check-ins and then 10 day check-ins after the events with the smaller breakout room group, you know, you can check in, understand how you're reflecting on the, and if it changed your life at all, you know, we think about our environmental environmental experiences, part of that is a lifestyle change we want people to make. And so, you know, understanding and working with your team to make those changes more long term is another great way to extend the experience. And so there's a lot of different ways like that. I think that, you know, build deeper connections. If you can only do just your standard volunteer experience. Yeah. Any other thoughts on team building? How do you think team building is going to evolve over the next, you know, 12 months,

Ben - WeHero: The, the big thought and message I have for companies and people trying to implement this into any volunteer experiences, remember to keep impact at the forefront again, like volunteering is already a team building experience, but what's important is that you're expressing the challenge and why this group has been brought together and the impact they're gonna create as the end result. And I think's so often that's dropped and lost and forgotten. And if that's message and communicated to the group, like in they're United a along that common goal you see people really coming together. And so I always tell people as a core message, remember to keep impact forefront. And that's the most important piece. It's the most important piece to your employees? It's the most important piece to building a great team. So just remember that anytime you're building a, a volunteer experience or opportunity how team buildings gonna change.

Ben - WeHero: I think you're gonna see companies get really creative. We're seeing a lot of things come out of the box. We're also seeing team building that's happening, where the team is not together at the same time. We're seeing competitions that extend over a week, two weeks. These are like zero waste competitions, you know, walking or exercise competitions ways for teams to build and feel connected, but not all at the same time. It allows teams to do this off of zoom. It allows them to function and do this on their own time as well. And I think you're gonna see a lot more of that evolve over the next year. Especially as we have more companies going, you're gonna be able to work remote full time. Linkedin made that announcement this week. And so, you know, I think we're gonna start seeing a lot of that as companies start making huge structural organizational shifts and more employees and more teams figuring out how do we keep the team together and United in this way.

Andy - WeHero: Yeah, I could, I couldn't agree with all that. I think the one thing I'm hopeful for you, you know, I agree that we're seeing a structural shift towards work remotely. But I think companies are gonna recognize there is benefit to being in person every so often. And so I think back to pre COVID, you know, really progressive companies, we're sending smaller cohorts to locations for, you know, fixed periods of volunteering. So I mean, a lot of companies in the bay area would send people to do tech training in Africa for two weeks. And those are such strong experiences when you have the right people together, obviously delivering a ton of impact, but also working together, learning, traveling together things like that, obviously that's a, a really big scale, a big program, but at the same time, you can do that locally as well.

Andy - WeHero: And so I really look forward to, you know, companies in the us meeting in a city for a quarterly offsite and focusing a day of that on volunteering. I, I think there's so much potential for those types of things. And, and personally, I'm really excited to get back to helping people deliver that impact. Cause it's, it's so rewarding when you can see everyone together. So I'm hopeful as the pandemic WANs a little bit, we will get back to that. But I think it's gonna be very dependent on the healthcare situation. And so it'll be interesting to follow, and I know everyone's eager to do that as well.

Ben - WeHero: Yeah. But if anybody listening, this needs help on how to enhance team building, let us know. We have a lot of ideas. We've been working with a lot of companies on trying to make this better. And so please let us know we're here to help and we wanna support you and reach those goals.

Andy - WeHero: Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you everybody for listening and look forward to speaking again soon. Ben.

Ben - WeHero: Awesome. Thanks Andy. Appreciate it.