A picture is worth more than 1,000 words
Over the past forty years, I have participated in, conducted, or sponsored hundreds of team-building exercises. Most were successful and accomplished their purpose. Some were flops. But one has been requested over and over again. It consistently boosted morale and productivity. The activity? Group painting lessons.
As the Administrative Services Manager for a large department in local government, I regularly held a day-long retreat on Administrative Services Day. This would be an off-site event for administrative staff, from receptionists to highly skilled professionals intended to 1) show appreciation for all they have done throughout the year, 2) give them an opportunity to bond as a team, and 3) a little education is thrown in. We had guest lecturers, did tours of other public service facilities (emergency response center, traffic control center, etc.), had a fashion show, and did other team-building activities.
One year a suggested activity was painting lessons. We arranged for Molly Burger, an art student at the local university to lead a lesson and purchased paints, brushes, and canvases from places like Dollar Tree, Michaels, and Amazon. Whichever of these had the best sale. We used paper plates for the palettes.
This two-hour exercise had my staff both 1) the quietest I have ever seen them and 2) the loudest. Molly started by showing a painting that she had done – which we were recreating. Then walked us through, step by step, how to paint it. The instructions were unambiguous, very detailed, and accompanied by demonstration, constantly encouraging, and feedback. What color to put on the palette, which brush to use, which part of the canvas to cover, and in what manner. The room was dead quiet as people followed her instructions except for Molly’s gentle encouragement as she visited each student – punctured by excited outbursts as the picture came together. The students shared their success with each other. To a person, the attendees ended the session with a picture much better than they thought they could produce at the start of the class. All of the pictures were of the same scene and, although not identical, all identifiable as a copy of the original.
What did the students get out of it? Fun, fellowship, and a demonstration of the value of receiving good instructions. Supervisors and Managers got Fun, fellowship, and a demonstration of the value of giving good instructions. The instructions were a series of detailed steps, given in the context of the final picture. Feedback, both praise, and guidance, was given at each step of the way. And in the end, everyone had an object to remind them of the fellowship and the lessons in instruction. Most people hung them on their office wall.
It’s sometimes hard to measure the “fun and fellowship” value of this session, although it can be done. Measuring the value of a “standard process” is much easier. My friend Bob Seemer of Electronic Training Solutions will gladly lecture you on the value of using a standard process and show you how to measure the value in one of his Six Sigma classes (which I highly recommend). So before you consider a “Painting with Molly” team-building session, it’s up to you to determine how you will measure the benefit of the exercise. I can, however, help you estimate the cost; as I write this, we are finalizing this year’s “Paint with Molly” exercise and will be providing these paints, brushes, and palettes at $13 plus tax, we are getting the canvases from Dollar Tree (you can guess the price), and I would average Molly’s time at $15 per student. So I would round that to approximately $30 per student plus two hours of their salary. For my staff that came out to less than $100 per person, once a year. Did the benefits I reaped exceed that? My a very, very large margin. Not to mention I thoroughly enjoyed myself and got to know my team even better.
If you want your team to embrace the value of well-delivered and well-followed instructions, I can’t think of a better exercise. Go ahead and define what you want to get out of this exercise, define how you will measure it, email Molly and set up a “Paint with Molly” session for your team. You won’t regret it.
