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Corporate Social Responsibility Team Building

Quest Team Building with BCG Again

Quest was delighted to be asked to work with The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) again in November.

Following the great success of the Canapé Creation team building in May, the Executive Assistants (EA) team asked Quest to deliver an autumn team building programme. They wanted to continue the practice at team behaviours by working together on tasks totally separate from normal work roles, and on this occasion to also give something back to London’s community.

Working in London

The Venture Community Centre in Golbourne west London is a thriving hub of the local area, offering an impressive range of opportunities to all age groups. Everything from yoga to parenting skills and IT training to after schools clubs, the Venture Centre is crucial to Golbourne.

However, as with so many registered charity centres of this type all over the country, funding is a huge issue and consequently the management team at the Venture Centre are always pleased to work with corporate organisations that are keen to offer quality assistance.

Quest has been taking teams to the Venture Centre since 2007, combining team building for organisations and tangible help for the Centre.

Quest’s Approach to Corporate Social Responsibility

Quest focuses on the fact that for Corporate Social Responsibility to be beneficial for both the corporate organisation and the (usually) charitable organisation the work delivered must be carefully managed. And once again this was the case with the BCG EA event this month.

Having been given the brief for how BCG wanted this team build to run, Quest contacted The Venture Centre and made an initial suggestion of what the team could deliver. This was followed by an initial meeting with the management team at the centre to carefully spec’ all of the agreed tasks, and to look at other areas which could be included.

A meeting with the BCG sponsoring team at the Centre then followed, at which agreement was reached on a list of six tasks, and following that a final specific proposal for the team building was prepared and delivered.

Quest then embarked on a detailed project plan including the sourcing and purchasing of all equipment and materials all by confirmed dates, and working out exactly how many of the 26 delegates could work on and complete each task.

The final task list was confirmed as:

- Strip back and resurface a 12m by 8.5 m wooden floor in the main hall
- Re-paint a corridor leading to offices that was a very dark and oppressive scarlet
- Rub down wooden door and window frames in the reception area, and repaint
- Prepare some colourful artwork designs to go on the walls in the crèche area
- Paint some large cartoon characters from the film “Cars” in the games room, and
- Clear a weed and bare earth garden area and re-cover with coloured play bark.

Quite a list and certainly one that would only be completed through strong team work.

Quests Charitable Contribution

Excellent preparation beforehand and a fully completed handover are key to all of these team building events. To ensure that happens with all team building of this type Quest makes a contribution in time and manpower to the charity for which we are working. The BCG team build at The Venture Centre was no exception.

In order for the hall floor to receive at least two coats of the new varnish applied by the BCG EA team, the stripping back had to take place the day before. In addition the existing dark scarlet paint in the office corridor had to be thoroughly washed and a white base coat applied the previous afternoon.

Consequently the Quest team arrived at The Venture Centre at midday on the 15th, and worked through the afternoon and into the late evening to ensure both tasks were completed. At the end of the team build the following day, the Quest team then remained for another four hours after the delegates had left, to hang artwork in areas closed to the team in the morning, and to ensure a full clean-up was completed.

BCG Executive Assistant Superstars!

The EA team of 26 arrived in small groups either early or bang on time for the team building event, which was a great start. Time was tight, so the briefing (including full health and safety and first aid cover information) was kept brief, and the delegates were then divided into their six sub-teams and walked around the centre to see all the tasks. Protective clothing was issued and the sets of kit and materials distributed, and work started with huge enthusiasm.

Very soon, the hall floor had been swept and wiped clean with white spirit and working in a line across the hall, six of the team were applying varnish. A pale yellow emulsion was being applied in the office corridor, and the sound of wet and dry sandpaper rubbing down paintwork could be heard from Reception.

In the games room there was a hive of activity as one of the sub-teams worked at painting “Cars” cartoons and the other worked at a large painting of a rainbow on 10 separate artist’s canvasses. And finally out in the adventure playground the sixth team was working hard at removing weeds, earth, leaves and dead grass in preparation for laying a weed resistant membrane.

The whole team were tremendous, working with real care in all areas, plus loads of enthusiasm and quickly too. In fact so efficiently did they work, that all of the originally planned six tasks were completed an hour before schedule, and additional garden and outdoors housekeeping tasks were completed as a bonus too.

A Hum of Expectation and Excitement

Whilst none of the children were in the centre whilst the work was being completed, many of the staff and other people involved with the smooth running of the centre were, and as tasks started to take shape and then approach completion excitement mounted.

The Venture Centre is always grateful for positive assistance and the contribution made by the BCG EA’s on this amazing team building event was hugely positive. The centre Director Chris Peacock was thrilled with all that had been done, especially his wonderfully refurbished hall floor. This was a team build of which all the delegates could be truly proud.