Hiring an expert outside facilitator is key to organizing your next successful team building event. An external facilitator brings a wealth of knowledge and skills that turn team building activities into fun, exciting, and educational events. The event organizer is trained to deliver team building results—ensure that all participants develop transferable skills for a collaborative and engaged workplace. Skills like leadership, communication, problem-solving, delegation, and teamwork.
Unfortunately, many organizations assume an internal facilitator—usually a team leader—is up for the job. But usually, the team building events fail to achieve their goals. Why? Because even the best team leaders often lack the necessary skills and experience to organize effective team building sessions. Unfortunately, the activities become a waste of time and resources.
In this article, you will learn the benefits of hiring an outside facilitator for your team building program. You will also learn how to find experienced facilitators to organize team building games near you.
What is an Outside Facilitator at a Team Building Event?
An outside facilitator is a trained professional who plans, organizes, and hosts a team building event. They have experience in working with large groups of people from different backgrounds. Outside facilitators bring an impartial viewpoint to the event and can help create an environment of openness, trust, and collaboration.
A skilled facilitator also knows how to design bespoke activities to ensure maximum engagement and participation. They help participants get out of their comfort zone without making anyone uncomfortable or awkward. The result is that they teach teams new skills that they can use daily.
An expert facilitator also does the following:
- Meet with team leaders to discuss team goals, objectives, and outcomes
- Brief participants upon arrival
- Lead discussions and encourage full participation
- Debrief after events and provide feedback
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Why an Outside Facilitator is Vital For Effective Team Building
External facilitation is arguably the most important factor in whether or not the corporate team event will succeed. This is because the right facilitator creates an environment of openness, trust, and collaboration for the entire team. However, another factor crucial in external facilitation is impartiality.
An event organizer with excellent facilitation skills can be impartial, unbiased, and treat everyone fairly. For example, a skilled facilitator treats the CEO the same as the secretary. As a result, they do not worry about hierarchy or repercussions. Therefore, they can help break down barriers and develop a team culture of mutual respect.
Seven Reasons Why Your Next Team Building Event Needs an Outside Facilitator
There are several benefits to hiring an outside facilitator. They bring an impartial perspective, have vast experience working with diverse groups of people, and can create activities tailored to each team’s needs. Plus, they focus solely on your team building event success—not other tasks or projects.
Let’s look in more detail at these benefits.
1. Professional Facilitators Organize The Most Effective Events
The best team building companies have professionals with facilitation skills who execute effective team building programs. They have a wealth of knowledge and experience in creating activities tailored to each team’s needs. Additionally, they understand how to create an environment that encourages open dialogue, collaboration, and trust among team members.
One disadvantage of an internal facilitator is that they are not always focused on the event. The team building exercise may be one of the many things they must organize. Therefore, you are not always guaranteed their full attention.
However, outside facilitators are great at coming up with the types of team building events to help meet your team goals. In addition, with their extensive knowledge of group dynamics, outside facilitators can design activities that promote problem-solving skills, communication, conflict resolution, and leadership development.
2. An Outdoor Facilitator Brings a Fresh Perspective
Outdoor facilitators are advantageous because they bring a fresh perspective, making team building events more interesting and effective. In addition, because they’re not part of the team, they can observe from an outsider’s eye and provide unbiased advice. They also know how to ask the right questions, challenge assumptions, and create opportunities for open dialogue among team members.
Unfortunately, what often happens with internal facilitators is that they search the internet for a list of the “top team building games.” This usually results in organizing eye-rolling “cookie-cutter” team events everyone hates. The reason why many team building programs fail is due to poor execution.
Therefore, if you want to get the most out of your next team building event, make sure you hire an experienced external facilitator.
3. External Facilitators Are Unbiased
One of the advantages of bringing in an external facilitator is their objectivity. Maintaining an unbiased approach to off-site team building is difficult for internal facilitators. But because a facilitator is not in-house, they can organize events without suspicion of bias. The result is a cohesive team where everyone collaborates on a “level playing field.”
The problem when using an in-house facilitator is this—employees always suspect some underlying plan. This can impact engagement and cause many to avoid participating. However, the team dynamics change when facilitators treat everyone equally and engage the entire team. This means that all participants can take part as equals.
Related reading: Team building or camp counselor – which?
4. An Outside Facilitator Organizes The Entire Event
At Full Tilt, our facilitators take the lead in organizing fun activities and training exercises for team building events. They consider your event’s goals and objectives and create an agenda to achieve them. They also set up the event location, provide necessary supplies, and give clear instructions on activities to help larger teams work together more effectively.
One of the benefits of external facilitation is that the event host is trained to provide feedback and guidance throughout the event. This proactive approach ensures that everyone remains focused on achieving the desired outcomes.
After all, team building is an investment, and hiring an external facilitator ensures that you invest wisely in your team.
5. Outside Facilitators Encourage Full Participation
Participation is one of the crucial elements of team building events that makes them successful. Outside facilitators have the training to ensure everyone is engaged and that the event is a fun experience. In addition, they create a safe and non-threatening environment where everyone feels comfortable participating without fear of judgment. The result is that everyone learns mutual respect.
Working with a diverse group of people can be challenging—something, not all in-house facilitators can do. Facilitators should know how to encourage shy and timid people to participate fully.
Therefore, hiring a team building company makes sense to ensure that everyone has an equal voice and enjoys participating. In addition, this helps create a sense of unity and camaraderie within the group, allowing them to work together more effectively.
Related reading: Qualities of the best team building facilitators.
6. External Facilitators Are Trained To Be enthusiastic
Enthusiasm is crucial if you want to build stronger teams. And hiring an external facilitator is one of the best ways to ensure this.
For example, our facilitators undergo extensive training at Full Tilt to organize and host team-building training sessions. As a result, they have the ability to create an exciting atmosphere that motivates participants and encourages everyone to get involved. They also provide clear instructions for activities, ensuring that all participants understand what is expected of them.
Additionally, our facilitators are adept at reading the room and adjusting their approach accordingly, depending on the group’s dynamics. And because our facilitators are experienced in organizing a variety of team building exercises, they can tailor activities to fit any group’s needs.
With their enthusiasm and expertise, our external facilitators will ensure your team building events are engaging, successful, and, most importantly, fun.
7. Full Tilt Facilitators Have Lots Of Experience
Full Tilt facilitators are experienced professionals with many years of experience working with various types of teams. They understand what works and what doesn’t and how to create bespoke activities to achieve an event’s goals. This benefits the team by creating an atmosphere where no one feels awkward or self-conscious.
Hiring an experienced facilitator also means you avoid running a team building event that fails. Conversely, hosting successful events means team members bond easily and quickly build mutual trust.
So if you want your team building event to succeed, don’t hesitate to hire an expert outside facilitator with lots of experience.
Call Full Tilt To Organize Team Building Activities Near You
If you are searching for “team building activities near me,” look no further. Full Tilt only employs experienced facilitators to organize and host events. Moreover, we have experience organizing team events anywhere across North America. So, our facilitators can organize outdoor or indoor team building events in your city. Everything from a half-day leadership course to a weekend corporate retreat to reward your employees.
Our facilitators are passionate about creating unique activities to help your team bond and work together more effectively. So whether you want to strengthen communication within the workplace, develop leadership skills, or just have some fun, we have the perfect solution for you.
Contact us today at 301-400-6285 or by using this online form to learn how your next team event can be a resounding success.