Team building is more than just a fun day out of the office. There are a number of reasons why employers are prepared to spend a lot of money taking their staff on team building exercises in order to build up trust as well as increase collaboration, communication, patience, focus, self-discipline and problem solving abilities. It also allows you to see what your team members are truly made of outside the office hierarchy: some of them may surprise you with abilities you aren’t yet aware of.
Recently, people have grown tired of the ‘traditional’ team building exercises where they get soaking wet building rafts, or tired and muddy by maneuvering planks of wood from A to B over an SAS assault course or whatever. Whilst it’s nice to have a day out of the office, not everyone is suited to the outdoor environment, and not everyone finds physical challenges easy.
Magic Lessons as Team Building Activity
Magic provides the solution for indoor-based team building, and it has an unlikely champion in the form of neuroscience. Our brains are amazing things and because they predict actions and can even fill in the blanks – such as ‘seeing’ a ball being thrown because that’s what they’re expecting even if the ball isn’t there – they give magicians the upper hand when it comes to performing a trick successfully.
You can feel a certain ‘buzz’ in the air when the friendly competition amongst the team starts to take place. There’s a real bonding experience when everyone is learning a skill that none of them have ever tried before, some more successful than others. It does however create an occasion which will have your team feeling more upbeat and together.
It is a fun and interactive magical team building experience that will incorporate techniques and skills both useful in magic and business
But magic isn’t just about distraction, it’s also about performance. To be able to execute a magic trick successfully, the performer needs to have confidence. So during the magical team building session
1) You will learn the secrets to the tricks with easy step by step instructions
2) How to present the trick using a variety of techniques ( body language, audience management, communication, listening and responding)
3) The reasons behind the mechanics of the presentation (The theatre of the trick, building the levels and creating a dialog with your audience so they engage with you)
Everyone will learn a variety of individual tricks from card tricks to mind reading but for something a little different during the session you will participate in a larger scale group illusion
Unusual Team Building Activities
‘Dear Christopher,
Just a quick note to thank you for bringing such excitement to our team building event. Your session was very successful and the staff have said how incredibly interesting it was.
Roger Mason
PA Consulting Group’
Please contact me if you’d like to know more about how magic techniques can be helpful in the corporate environment. And if you’d like to distract yourself for a few minutes, have a look at my videos and add a bit of magic to your day!