Teambuild 2004

Nine teams of young professionals took part in Teambuild 2004 at the end of November. Over 48 hours they worked on a complex city regeneration project in a simulation of the design and construction process for the development of a real site.

The weekend started with a master plan proposal and finished with the construction stage of a development, solving a number of ‘real life’ problems along the way.

The winning teams were

Overall winner: ThinQ:Tank. ( Julia Thomas, James Watts, Simon Jesson, Michael Stone and Tariq Pando)

Prize awarded by Peter Knight, Master of the Worshipful Company of Constructors.

Contract Strategy Stage winner: ThinQ:tank.

Prize awarded by Nigel Thomson, Master of the Worshipful Company of Chartered Architects.

Detailed Design Stage winner: AA Team (James Berlumi, Alistair Law, James Ward, Michael Dodds and David Wilson)

Prize awarded by Gary Mees, past Vice President of the British Institute of Architectural Technologists .

The team of judges agreed that Teambuild is an enriching experience for all involved and offers a wonderful opportunity to young professionals to learn and understand the key elements of successful project delivery.

Find out more about Teambuild at http://www.teambuilduk.com

Feedback and comments from the Judges:

Peter Knight, Master of the Worshipful Company of Constructors:

“Thank you very much for the warmth and hospitality shown to the Company of Constructors at the Competition at Loughborough. I very much enjoyed participating and I have passed my recommendation to our Company with a view to continuing support next year. Thanks to Bisi for her help and guidance, it was much appreciated.”

Nigel Thomson, Master of the Worshipful Company of Chartered Architects:

“This is a competition where there are no losers; contestants and judges come away much enriched by the experience.”

Norman Train (IStructE):

“Teambuild is a 48 hour Part 3 examination! It is intense as teams of young construction professionals battle the challenges of a real life, complex brownfield project from initial concept to construction problems. The teams need to be multi-disciplinary because they have to fuse the skills and knowledge of the different disciplines in a collaborative solution to the various stages of the competition. The teams learned, the judges learned, the weekend was awesome.”

Richard Schofield (RICS):

“The Teambuild weekend is a wonderful opportunity for young professionals to experience a high pressure working environment and understand the importance of teamwork, communication, collaboration and decision making, all key elements of successful project delivery”

Nick Thompson (RIBA):

“Teambuild 2004 was the most creative, stimulating and enjoyable professional event I have ever taken part in. Nine young professional teams, 48 hours of high intensity competition, a complex city regeneration project. If you believe, as I do, that inter-disciplinary collaboration is fundamental to the success of the industry, then it seems that our future is in good hands.”

Mike Murray (CIBSE):

“The Teambuild 2004 event demonstrated integrated thinking from both the supporting institutions and the nine teams who took part. The design challenge which the teams addressed over the weekend included masterplanning services infrastructure and consideration of the business and economic drivers for CHP solutions. Young building services engineers made an important contribution to the teamwork in a range of challenging exercises as part of multidisciplinary teams. Dr Mike Murray, CIBSE’s Regions and Groups Champion, said “ More Building services engineers should take part in future events. It is a fantastic opportunity to experience working in highly integrated teams”

Rob Greenwood (ICE):

"When welded together in true team work the abilities of young professionals multiplies and rises to levels that are truly astounding.

We have to celebrate the abilities of all the teams that took part in Teambuild 2004 - sponsors must now push ahead to expand the competition so more young professionals will experience the power created by team working.

Success in Teambuild is built on respect and collaboration of the young professionals - their ability to identify and influence stakeholders whilst building and extending the team demonstrated how real value can to added for all."

Notes from the presentations at the end of the competition

Alan Crane (Chairman of judges):

“The productivity of the teams in the timescales was amazing; it could never be perfect of course in the short time for each stage, but the main objective was as a learning exercise and to gain experience but this will only be of value if some of the lessons are applied in future work.

The results today show that the teams which were consistent were those with a full range of disciplines. However, one significant discipline missing across nearly all the teams was that of the constructor; the contractor input is vital to project delivery and needs to be reflected in the makeup of the teams. We can be the best designers but we must get the contractor involved to get the best result; it really does pay dividends.

The other key message is get the brief right! Do not be afraid to ask questions as 99% of clients are not part of our industry and so you have to probe to get the real needs of the clients set down. It is our responsibility to get the information we need to get the brief right. Those teams that asked us questions and worked in an integrated way produced the best results, using delegation and encouragement and sense of achieving a collective effort.

It is also vital to read the question but equally, do not read into questions things that are not there and do not overcomplicate the questions!

Those comments aside it was a great weekend with some fantastic designs – although it has to be said that some were unaffordable some were undeliverable - a great deal of fun and a lot of experience gained. Please will all of you, teams and judges, share your delight in the experience and spread the message of how valuable the competition is and also how much fun can be had!”

Keith Redshaw (Stratford City, a client’s perspective):

“I have been very impressed with what you have produced. The future of commercial property is in large scale, mixed use schemes with many of the complications that Stratford has, so it was good to see that there is a dedicated group of professionals with passion. Consequently I take great confidence from the work of the teams in the future of the industry.”

Peter Knight (Master, Worshipful Company of Constructors):

“The judges reflected real life clients so it was a realistic environment. The Companies are all involved in education and the constructors recognise all professions as part of the construction process and very supportive of teamwork. There are in fact 3 liverymen judging today and Iook forward to welcoming some of you into the Company in future.”