{"id":177,"date":"2025-02-13T12:52:01","date_gmt":"2025-02-13T12:52:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/tommcallister\/?p=177"},"modified":"2025-02-28T23:31:08","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T23:31:08","slug":"chemical-biology-labs-team-building-away-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/tommcallister\/2025\/02\/13\/chemical-biology-labs-team-building-away-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Chemical Biology Labs Team Building Away Day!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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We held our first Chemical Biology lab away day with the Kawamura group<\/a> in Durham at the beginning of June. Supported by Newcastle University SAgE Faculty\u2019s People Fund, 20 members of the lab comprising students, research associates, technical staff and the PIs spent a morning Dragon-boating on the river Wear, developing our teamwork to drive the boat along. (It was all going well until we got a bit out of sync and nearly capsized; how we didn’t all end up in the river is still a mystery to everyone!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After some lunch on dry land, we then had an afternoon of skills training; a master class in curve fitting from Akane<\/a> and making attractive presentations by Tim<\/a>. Tom also organised some small group acivities around team work and communication; building the tallest spaghetti tower that could support a marshmallow (2 out of 5 were standing at the end!) and reproducing a lego model without being able to see it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Overall it was a great day and made a measurable improvement to promoting the positive research culture we strive for within the group. A survey of team members conducted before and after the day out, revealed a significant increase in the scores reported for collaboration and collegiality, and how well people felt they knew the rest of the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Away days like this one help foster a healthy and positive work environment, and enhance team-based skills, which are essential for achieving collective success. We are very grateful for the financial support from Newcastle University SAgE Faculty\u2019s People Fund for this activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n