Hello Social Building! (Bye Team Building)

When a new prospect reaches out to us 95% say the exact same thing: "We want to bring our people together."

It sounds like a simple request. But the way we see it, is for the modern CEO, it is actually a high-stakes business issue. We have all kinds of clients from gaming companies, savvy accounting firms to global B-Corps and getting people to connect is an art.

Back in the day (this is a human called Pete, I’m founder of The Soul Camp writing this, not AI!) I was MD of a dotcom in London.

I learned some stuff, like the "Invisible Tax" that currently costs UK businesses £2.5 billion each year due to workplace disconnection.

Back then it was called ‘team building’, mostly at boring grey hotel conference rooms, or at a bar where you had to scream “yeah i work in IT mate” over the music, and TBH, i hated them. They don't work.

That Old Teambuilding is dead. It’s time for Social Building.

I’m writing this but I have used our SoulBot (AI) as I call her, to dig around for stats - but the results startled me, even though I've been doing this for over 20 years and I’ve seen it with my own eyes.  

I've worked in ethical and non-profit social business for decade's, and The Soul Camp is a social business, and always has been.  We build Social Capital for our clients, it's that simple. 

We just choose to produce super fun and exciting company festivals for social building.  But full disclosure...  it's not just altruistic, they are sooo much fun to produce and we absolutely love doing it!

An Investment, Not An Expense

One of the stats that really got me was that the average cost to replace a mid-level employee in the UK is between £30,000 and £50,000. 

If one of our productions makes just a few key people feel they truly belong, the festival can already pay for itself. We know conferences are tax deductable, but that stat was a surprise.

Then SoulBot tells me that companies with high engagement see 21% higher profitability. 

Engagement is what we do, we get people connecting on a human level. A lot of our clients use exciting ‘wow’ factor videos of our productions to show their company culture and attract new skilled people because they are so engaging.

The Profit Of Connection

Another gem from SoulBot bless her, was that research shows that 86% of employees blame workplace failures on a lack of collaboration.  I remember that thing of having to ‘navigate around personalities and hierarchy’ in the office when I worked in London.

In a field, all that is... well, just not there!  Staying in ‘work mode’ won't help genuine human connection.  I’m ADHD and Dyslexic and my wife is Autistic so we’re well aware of the neurodivergence of people - and often those ‘quiet people’ have amazing ideas. 

Our festivals are truly inclusive and really connect your people.  We work with our clients to tweak every element to meet their Required Outcomes.

“The feedback has been exceptional, the [Chill Bar] became such a talking point, a true hub for people to re-connect and chill – which is exactly how you positioned it.”  Red Bull

My favourite example of true connection is when a new recruit at the barbecue asked the CEO of a multinational to pass the salt, and then said “thanks mate, so what do you do?”.  It's a priceless connection, and a fantastic fun story to share back in the office! Being Outside Rocks!

SoulBot also shared that Nature provides "Soft Fascination," a literal cognitive reboot. Research shows that just one hour in our natural settings can drop cortisol levels by 21% and boost creative problem-solving by 50%.

I know I feel loads better after a walk in the woods, so I guess it's not rocket science to think that your teams will also benefit from being in Nature for your next conference, product launch, networking event or whatever.

Anyhoo, that's what we do: ‘Extraordinary Corporate Festivals’.  If you're interested drop us a line here.

BiG LOve, Pete, Donna, and The Soul Camp Team