Kudos to our own Jo Fjellman from Combined Insurance on a great Team Building event

October 9, 2006

Jo Fjellman
P.O. Box 25022
Seattle, WA 98165

Dear Jo,
I want to thank you and Playtime Inc. for the amazing Geo-teaming experience you provided for our A-Team at the Garrett Creek Ranch in lovely Paradise, Texas, September 19, 2006.  As a member of the Combined Insurance Company training staff and a member of the A-Team, I have participated in many “team-building” events.  Your program was extremely unique and value-added.  Not only did I have fun working with my team, but I also learned a lot about my peers and myself.  It was refreshing to be out of the classroom, not just talking about teamwork, but actually engaging in teamwork!  Each person on the team took on a role, whether it be leader, thinker, doer, or even whiner!

Your staff was well organized and took a lot of time to set up the event and get our participants in the right frame of mind.  I was pleased that there were two goals for each teams to work towards; first, being the winning team and second, having the entire group retrieving all the caches.  This parallels true winning in the business world also.  Our Regional Managers need to achieve the goals they set for their Region, but true leaders will also support the goals of the entire organization. 

You also kept control of the event by having a facilitator accompany each team and conducting a half-way checkpoint.  It was so interesting at “half-time” that all three teams had primarily focused on their own win, but not the collaborative win.  The goals of each team changed at this juncture. 

What stood out the most for me was the session we held after the event.  The questions you asked and the observations you made were right on.  On the final day of our program, we asked the participants to share three key ideas that they would take home and implement.  Many of the team members shared principles they learned from our Geo-teaming experience.  We heard things like, communication, planning, assigning the right task to the right person, and many more!

Jo, just as the A-Team is “a cut above the rest” your Geo-teaming event is “a cut above the rest!”  Thank you for giving us you’re very best!

Sincerely,

Kari Wendorf
Assistant to the N.A. Director of Training and Executive Development

Comments

[Fred Hutchinson]

If you like what these guys do, check out the Go Game, that is a cool high tech hunt using cell phone technology