Trocáire Case Study

Listening, thinking and communicating.

teambuilding.ie was commissioned to deliver a half day team development intervention for Trócaire Ireland, as an important component in building a more cohesive team.

Trócaire is the official overseas development agency of the Catholic Church in Ireland. It was set up by the Irish Catholic Bishops in 1973 to express the concern of the Irish Church for the suffering of the world's poorest and most oppressed people. Trócaire’s partnership approach makes it different. It works through global Catholic networks and with local partners on the ground. This approach helps people and works with them, so that they drive the entire process themselves. Solutions are not imposed on the people Trócaire help. Instead, they become the authors of their own destiny.

The Need:
The teambuilding.ie response was designed to meet the following requirement, as outlined by the senior team:
"As Trócaire was going through significant change, the main aim of working with teambuilding.ie was to improve communication across the different departments within the organisation, to improve the team environment and help forge better cross departmental linkages. In response to teambuilding.ie suggestions, an active workshop based activity on communication was organised.”

Before, during and after the activities participants were encouraged to reflect on a number of important questions:
How can active listening and communication help us to interact effectively with our colleagues and management in our own departments and across the different departments in Trócaire? How can active listening and communication help us to be better at what we do and to deliver on our organisational objectives more successfully?"

The Outcome:
The day was designed as the Trócaire World Challenge, with the 6 different activities linked to the 6 different regions where Trócaire works. Teams comprised of staff members from different departments who would not usually work closely together. The organised activities highlighted the importance of good communication, delegation, listening and active participation in achieving the team goals.

Feedback:
The teambuilding.ie event was extremely successful and all staff really enjoyed it. The staff evaluation conducted after the event showed that 100% of the staff who completed the evaluation felt that they had improved relationships with colleagues that they didn’t know so well beforehand. What staff enjoyed the most was:

• “getting to know other staff members better”
• “working with people I usually don’t work with” 
• “operating as a team”

Staff also found the ‘hands on’ and ‘activity based’ approach of teambuilding.ie very enjoyable and a great way to get to know other staff in a fun environment. One comment made was: “It reinforced the importance of positive relationships in working effectively.”

All of the activities designed by teambuilding.ie were well organised and very successful. Teams had to work together to accomplish the activities and win points for their team. The favourite activities mentioned were the bridge building and archery.

All teams came together at the end for the grand finale – the Leap of Faith. Most staff felt that their team performed well together and everyone had the opportunity to participate.

96% of staff felt that there was an improved atmosphere in the office following the event and most staff felt that they could incorporate what they had learnt about working in a team in their every day work in Trócaire. Other responses in the evaluation indicated that:

• new staff feel more comfortable talking to different departments and being able to ask for help
• a feeling that previously unknown staff are more approachable 
• an acceptance that good communication is vital
• people need to listen to each other more
• working together can achieve better results
• it is good to know and use peoples different strengths.  

The programme with teambuilding.ie was a very positive experience for Trócaire.