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Can you pick a good bottle of wine from a rubbish bottle? Shoud you sniff the cork to impress your date?

Fear not…Lincoln Riley, head sommelier at Federation Square’s Taxi Dining Room lists the top 5 wine do’s and dont’s.

Top 5 Wine Do’s and Dont’s

Sydney Morning Herald

Tessie Vanderwert, 14 Feb 2009

Here’s a short video that features Hidden Door’s world record holder, Sensei Glenn, going through a Karate Board Breaking session with 150 guests. Enjoy!

VIDEO: Karate Board Breaking - Team Building

In the latter part of the 20th century, “Team Building” became recognised by many companies as an important factor in providing a quality service and remaining competitive. Yet as we stride into the 21st century, the term “team building” can still sometimes seem rather nebulous - people often know that they need it, but aren’t quite sure what it is.

As a result, team building is used in all sorts of contexts, even when it is not appropriate.

A Basic Definition

To examine this in more depth, we need to start with a basic definition.

Some people define a team as being “the whole is greater than the sum of its’ parts”. But this isn’t the right definition; it is a feature of good teams. ‘Whole > sum’ shows that they are working well together - but there are some teams whose collective performance falls short of what you might expect given the quality of individuals. The Apollo Syndrome is a good example of this - where highly intelligent people often performs worse than teams made of up ‘less-able’ members.

Some people define a team as being the people who report to the same boss. This can be misleading. In a well-designed organisational structure, people reporting to one boss do often form ‘teams’. But when designing organisational hierarchies there are often compromises made because of pay structures or the need to have traditional reporting lines.

Whislt a team is a group of people, a group is not necessarily a team. Rather, a team is a group of people working together towards a common goal. .

Groups

If a team is a group of people working towards a common goal, ‘team building’ is the process of enabling that group of people to reach their goal. It is therefore a management issue, and the most effective form of team building is that undertaken as a form of management consultancy, rather than as pure training (though there is a role for training within an overall programme).

In its simplest terms, the stages involved in team building are:

• To clarify the collective goals
• To identify those inhibitors that prevent them from reaching their goals and remove them
• To put in place enablers that assist them
• To measure and monitor progress, to ensure the goals are achieved

Traditional techniques often address the inhibitors to collective performance: relationships, communication, etc.. However, if a group is only a group, then the benefits of such techniques may be limited. At best, there may be no need to resolve relationship problems; at worst it can be a waste of time and detract the people involved from achieving their individual goals.

Relationship problems

If there are problems between people working in a group, then this can have a negative impact on their individual performance. However, traditional techniques are not the solution.

The stress in a relationship between two people is governed by the formula:

(proximity of the two people) x (importance they succeed together)
————————————————————-
(compatibility of their personalities) In a group, the ‘importance’ is low. However, traditional techniques implicitly try make the importance score higher than it need be. This makes the stress score worse, because you are forcing people to work well together when they don’t need to.Also, traditional techniques sometimes tries to address the incompatibilities of the personalities involved, eg: on a personality workshop. Whilst this can be done, it is hard work and needs both parties to be committed to it. In a working group, the motivation for such difficult work is unlikely to be there - though, if they are willing to do it for personal reasons, then a personality workshop can have some effect.

However, to reduce relationship stress in a group, it is better to focus on the factor that is easiest to change: proximity. If they are only a group, then putting some distance between them (physically or by managing the boundaries between their work) will achieve a satisfactory result, without having to invest a lot of time.

Summary

• A team is a group of people working towards a common goal
• Team building is a process of enabling them to achieve that goal
• If they are only a group, then traditional techniques can be a waste of time/money or even counter-productive
• There may be better ways to resolve problems in groups: eg: putting distance between people who don’t get on or, if they are both willing, building some understanding of personality differences.

Article by Team Technology

In reaction to the horrific bushfires in Victoria, Pink has sent this message of support:

“I’ve been really affected by the media images of the tragic bush-fires in Victoria.  My heart goes out to all those who have suffered so much in these circumstances.  There is little anyone can do at such a long distance away but I wanted to make a tangible expression of support.

I will be donating $250,000 to the Red Cross Bushfire Appeal, and hope that this, amongst all the other outpouring of charitable support, will help the rebuilding of lives and communities in the areas affected.

I’m looking forward to returning to a country I love so much.”

Pink

Hidden Door is currently featured in the A List for 2009.

Open the door to a world of unique corporate experiences. Hidden Door holds the key to exclusive opportunities that help businesses engage their most valued assets; their staff and clients.

Choose from our range of amazing experiences or let Hidden Door create something to fit your brief.

Unique to Hidden Door are Express Team-Bbuilding Kits. Delivered to your door in a stylish wooden box, you’ll receive all the information, equipment and instructions you need to run your own flexible, cost-effective team activity.

With over 10 years in corporate team building, Hidden Door will work with you to deliver an experience that is guaranteed to bring an exciting edge to your next event.

Would love to hear from visitors of our website. Comments, feedback and a chat is always welcome.

Hidden Door quoted in Australian Anthill Magazine.

“Stand Out. Make sure you stand out from the competition. Identify and promote your unique selling points. If you are entering an established market and have something new to offer, ensure you promote it. You can have the best products or processes but unless you tell people what they are, they will never know.”

What to know more, visit www.anthillonline.com

Hidden Door delivers ‘inaccessible’ amazing experiences, predominantly to the corporate market, for use as client entertainment and team-building. Ultimately aiding in retaining their two most valuable assets—their clients and their staff.

Will Gray started the business a year ago with experiences on offer like firefighting with the NSW Fire Brigade and learning to graffiti with Australian artists. Their biggest achievement so far has been launching sub-brand Hidden Door Express, which includes a number of team-building options that are delivered to your door with, including all equipment and instructions, but without the expense of a company hosting it for you.

They have taken a passion for making amazing “imagine if…” moments a reality and turned it into a business that connects companies with their people. As a result, they are determined to continue to innovators of corporate experiences and to be at the forefront of the industry.

Visit dynamicbusiness.com to see more.

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