There it is on the agenda…yet again. That tired old team building activity that never goes away, never receives a reboot, and is never, ever replaced. Maybe you have even been the one to share the old standby, because there just wasn’t time to find something new (I know I have been that person).

In comes (insert super hero theme music) Teampedia!

Teampedia is the wikipedia of team building activities. This searchable directory is divided into more than sixty categories for your viewing pleasure.

Here’s the catch– we all know that team building activities without appropriate debriefing and reflection are really just fun games.  While I like fun games as much as the next person, if I’m trying to build certain skills and advance specific behaviors among an audience, I’d like my activity to carry a bit more weight.  Thus, the necessity to debrief to connect the experience to the reality of the participants’ everyday world.

For easy debriefing I like to use the “What?” approach:

•  What happened?  (What did we just do?  What do you think happened?)
• So what?  (What did we learn?  Why do you think I had you complete this activity?)
• Now what?  (How can what you learned here help you in other parts of your life?)