Team Bondings

 Facilitated team experiences that build connection, meaning and belonging 

Strong team bonds are fundamental for team members to grow their capacity for critical thinking, healthy conflict and disruptive ideas.  

We created Team Bondings as a safe space for team members to explore the way they relate to each other. 

Participants learn more about their values, motivations and personality types and how to use them within the context of the collective work and relationships.  

Ultimately, team bonding experiences result in boosted team creativity, engagement, and productivity. 

If you are looking for a meaningful alternative to the conventional teambuilding, especially if your team is remote, you might find these bonding experiences a great way to approach team dynamics in a mindful way.

Team Bondings Topics

 Team bonding experiences explore topics related to the wellbeing of a team, so members feel alive, full of energy and zest.

Team identity: Purpose

Knowing one's purpose gives meaning to all efforts and time spent at work!

Team members explore, discuss and articulate why the team exists, what the team’s purpose is within the bigger picture of the organization and the relationships with internal and external stakeholders. Participants relate their personal purpose to the team's purpose to find meaning, motivation and energy.

Team identity: Values

Personal and group values are what drives us in creating strong cultures that last generations.

In this session team members explore, discuss and articulate the team’s shared values. They also look at the motivators and the driving energy behind their behaviors, decisions and ways of interacting with each other. 

Few people dive into the topic of how their personal values relate to the team values. This activity can generate lots of epiphany moments. It helps team members decide on key development areas so that collectively they reach the desired way of  working together. 

Team superpowers and idiosyncrasies

This session creates a safe space where team members explore their personality styles, based on a DISC assessment or other assessment tools. 

The team acknowledges and defines its superpowers and idiosyncrasies and how they support or prevent them from moving forward. Participants explore potential new informal roles that might arise from the discussion and can guide them towards the desired transformation. This is a great chance for self exploration and sharing one's true colors with the team. Plus, it builds trust and understanding about the role of the individual as part of the whole. 

Around the campfire

Stories make the world go round. This team experience is designed on the principles of storytelling and provokes participants to create and share their most impactful team stories. 

Stories are a powerful tool for connection. Stories can transform abstract ideas, data, and complex information into easy to associate with emotional experiences. During this session the team outlines some of the most impactful stories to be used in times of hardship and uncertainty, for onboarding new members, and connecting on an emotional level with clients and partners. 

Know thyself and share your magic

One of the avenues towards creating trust and strong bonds is understanding yourself and others better. This session could turn out to be an eye-opening opportunity for participants. 

Through giving and asking for feedback from team mates, people gain knowledge about their own behaviors, attitudes and flaws and how they influence the rest of the team. These are honest (facilitated) conversations where participants bring things not explored before to the surface. Such honest and deep interactions are of great value for the teams' health and longevity. 

Hacking the conflicts

During this experience team members explore their most common conflicts through different lenses. They are offered an opportunity to look at conflicts through the perspective of a creative force that can help the team move forward, innovate, create better solutions. 

Participants explore the different phases and  dynamics of a conflict, test drive new strategies for handling conflicts in a healthy and productive manner, while taking into consideration the opposite viewpoints. 

The power of group decisions

Decisions are hard to make, even harder when a group decision must be made.  

We look at decisions as strong and weak ones, and in this session the team explores different aspects of a working, strong group decision. Participants practice developing arguments for a decision and attempting to take a strong group decision. They explore the healthy boundaries between an authoritarian decision, and one reached with a consensus and how this influences  the team's overall dynamics and ability to move forward effectively. 

Giraffe or a jackal: the choices we have to harness the power of our emotions

Team success, or any relationship success, depends on how well and clearly, we communicate with each other, how we react in specific situations, specifically when we are triggered and emotionally engaged. 

Using the language of non-violent communication and exploring the different places/levels from where we can react and communicate, gives participants choice and understanding about the influence their choices have on others and the work environment.

Improv for fostering team creativity and communication

Improv theater is based on key powerful principles and applied to a work context can create an environment fueled by collaboration, creative thinking, and effective communication. 

Thoughtful facilitation and debriefing directly relate the improv experience to the teams’ work environment and daily challenges, participants gain a new perspective on old and repetitive topics that possibly block the team’s dynamic and success. 

Not your typical team building

This is the most relaxed, exciting, and funny of all sessions. With thoughtfully designed interactions we provoke people to play and enjoy the time with their teammates. Being playful is a critical skill for us humans to feel alive. 

This experience brings back the energy, the zest, and the team spirit and creates a ripple effect within the whole organization. 

Technical and organizational details:

  • Groups should be 12 persons or less. For bigger teams, contact us to explore options and create a plan.
  • Team experiences come in both online and offline format. Online sessions are possible through Zoom or any other platform the team uses internally. Slight adjustments to the program may apply, based on the platform’s functionality. 
  • Some of the team bonding experiences require using the following tools: Miro, Miral, Google docs, external assessment forms

What to expect from your team members after a set of Team Bonding experiences

We have designed team bondings as 2.5-hour long online/offline experiences that support teams in building stronger connections, nurturing trust and open, constructive communication. 

What to expect from your team members after a set of Team Bonding experiences:

  • Take personal accountability for the team’s wellbeing and success
  • Align team’s purpose and values so the team moves forward in a greater synch and speed
  • Eliminate drama and unhealthy behaviours
  • Establish tolerance towards the differences and find productive ways to work with the opposites
  • Create an environment where mistakes are explored as a potential for personal and team growth 
  • Communicate more openly and address issues that were hard to face before
  • Work consistently towards the desired team identity, promote team's strengths and overcome deficiencies

How it works

Team Bondings are 2.5-hour team experiences designed within the same simple framework to bring the most value to your team. 

Every team experience covers a specific topic, but follows the same way of  interaction with your team:

  1. Communication with all participants before the experience
  2. Individual work (outside of the team experience)
  3. Brief theoretical introduction to the topic
  4. Work  in pairs (during the team experience)
  5. Work in small groups (depending on the team size)
  6. Whole team interaction
  7. Follow up communication with suggestions for additional team activities to be performed by the team independently

Ready to bond?

Team Bondings are a set of ten 2.5-hour experiences that come in a set of 3, 5 or 10 depending on the immediate needs and focus of the team. 

Starter pack: 3 bonding experiences 

Team alignment pack: 5 bonding experiences 

Team excellence pacк: 10 bonding experiences 

Contact us at enter@peopleportal.eu to request pricing. 


Meet your facilitators

Maria Padalski

Maria created People Portal following 15 years of professional experience in various leadership positions, ranging from Marketing and Business Development to People Management. 

Her multifaceted perspective on the working of an organization has shaped her understanding that each successful company has a solid foundation where a healthy culture and shared values are inextricably woven together. And that people belong and thrive at companies where culture and values are strong.

Angelina Penkova

Over the past 15 years Angelina has worked in different areas of Marketing and Communications. One of her latest projects is her adventure at People Portal where she specializes in creating and delivering training workshops on Storytelling.

Both her personal and professional experience have led to the understanding that the skill to tell powerful and immersive stories can lead to improving Culture and the overall organizational environment, sharing a common vision and efficient collaboration between people and teams.

Dobrin Padalski

Dobrin has 20+ years of experience in training and facilitation with 800+ completed trainings and 10,000+ participants. An entrepreneur and a mentor, he helps people bring the best of themselves for the collective purpose in several business and non profit organizations.

He designs leadership training programs and workshops that foster team work, shared vision and goals, productivity and connection.