1st Edition

Legendary Away Days The Complete Guide to Running Successful Team Events

By Karen Cooley, Kirsty McEwan Copyright 2004

    Building strong, responsive, teams is one of the key factors in putting your organisation ahead of its competitors. So why do many teams fail to deliver to their true potential? The answer is that even when the commitment and the will to succeed exist, hidden pitfalls lay in wait to foil the best intentions of managers and team leaders. This book will enable you to avoid tripping up and so produce teams able to take effective action before problems arise. Legendary Away Days is a complete and invaluable guide to planning and delivering team events suited to a wide range of circumstances including problem-solving, teambuilding, boosting morale and making decisions. Concise and practical, it covers choosing an appropriate event, organising and running the day, keeping control, using external experts and evaluating your event afterwards. Focused on best practice throughout, the book also provides help on ensuring your event is legally protected. If you want your teams to look back on their Away Days as legendary then this is the book you need.

    Introduction. Part One Getting Started: Organising your thoughts. Part Two Essential Information: Cultural diversity and inclusion; Health and safety at away days; Setting, agreeing and using ground rules; Communicating your away day; Using facilitators and specialists; Handling different event roles: pilots, shepherds, playground managers and nannies; Troubleshooting: the best laid plans; Icebreakers, energisers and team exercises. Part Three: The Legendary Away Days: The celebration day; The challenge of change day; The conference day; The consolidation day; The consultation day; The creativity day; The decision making day; The morale boosting day; The planning day; The problem solving day; The teambuilding day. Part Four After the Event: Evaluating your away day. Appendices; Index.

    Biography

    Karen Cooley is an HR and Training Consultant based in south east England. She is a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Westminster and a director of her own Kent-based business, Christopher Glen Consulting Limited. Kirsty McEwan is a Learning Consultant and international Facilitator. She travels widely from her base in north east England whilst also supporting a number of one-to-one coaching relationships at any one time. Kirsty owns and runs her business, McEwan Associates.

    'It is, in my view, extremely comprehensive and offers countless nuggets of advice for anyone interested - employed or freelance.' Training Journal, August 2004 '...a practical and comprehensive guide to running away days particularly useful for those with little experience of running such events.' Industrial and Commercial Training, 2005