an over-the-shoulder view of the arms and hands of 7 workshop participants holding a variety of tools over a wooden workbench

Hands-On Team Building Workshops

WHY TEAM BUILDING

Managers and executives want to know how they can help their team feel more connected and collaborate more effectively (especially while everyone’s working from home during a pandemic). Ultimately, they want to create a workplace where all their team members are productive and feel valued.

Team building tends to have a bad reputation. However, when done right, it’s been proven time and time again to increase employee engagement, decrease turnover, and improve company performance.

WHAT YOU EXPERIENCE

Celebration of Global Creativity

Grow and Learn In a Neutral Setting

We create a safe space, then lead your team through a fun immersive experience where they see the value of diverse viewpoints, learn new skills, and discover common ground.

Find Inspiration From Global Innovators

During our workshop, you virtually meet an innovator from a different country. Your team members learn about that person’s life and culture, and work together to build an object the innovator designed for them (like a fishing kite or a rechargeable bamboo speaker).

Connect With Your Colleagues

As your team builds together, they not only learn that creativity comes in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, but also how to more fully embrace each other’s perspectives.

VIEW OUR ONLINE WORKSHOPS

two pairs of colleagues talk and work together while building rechargeable flashlights during a Smith Assembly workshop

WHAT WE DO

Inclusion drives individual and team performance.

Smith Assembly creates hands-on team building and professional development workshops. Our workshops strengthen your team’s emotional intelligence, communication, collaboration, and performance by showcasing a cross-cultural and inclusive approach to problem-solving and product design.

an older man and a younger woman share a moment of connection and pride after soldering a connection in one of their objects

HOW WE DO IT

Hands-on activities open minds and hearts.

Our workshops show your team the value of applying global perspectives in their design thinking, and create an environment that empowers all your team members to engage, open up, and create. Your team leaves our workshop with an object they built, fun and useful maker skills like woodworking, and stories about how innovation and sustainable development are helping to alleviate problems around the world.

two women play a kinesthetic icebreaker with their team at the beginning of a smith assembly onsite workshop

WHY WE’RE DIFFERENT

Shared experiences deepen relationships.

Having fun together in an immersive environment boosts your team’s camaraderie and forges connections across gender, race, ethnicity, age, and org chart. Your team members will feel inspired to apply what they learned about inclusive design in your workplace culture as well as your company’s products and services.

WHO WE WORK WITH

Our clients manage teams of all sizes and types, are members of executive teams, and serve on boards.

Our team building workshops are a fun way for your team to nurture relationships, celebrate milestones, and onboard new team members. They can also augment your training and development programs related to inclusion, problem-solving, and product design.

2 women smile and laugh while sawing a piece of wood during a team building activity as colleagues admire their handiwork

OUR BELIEFS

We believe that embracing and empowering a breadth of perspectives results in better culture and better business.

Let’s Build Together

ASK US ABOUT OUR WORKSHOPS

Unlock the Power of Human Connection Through Building

Learn how our workshops strengthen your team’s 21st century skills.

NOTE ABOUT COVID-19

To support the home-based, remote, and/or distributed ways you and your teams are now working, we’re creating a series of online workshops so you can emcee your own cross-cultural experience. We’ll resume hosting onsite workshops once pandemic-related safety protocols and restrictions on gatherings are no longer necessary.

a fist bump between a man and a woman wearing safety goggles and smiling at each other during a smith assembly workshop

two oaxacan women collaborate to build something (one is marking a measurement on a piece of wood) while a third woman watches

In Q4 2020, that nonprofit is OAXIN — an organization driving social and economic justice in the Mexican state of Oaxaca through a community maker space and participatory programs teaching inclusive and collaborative innovation practices.

OUR SOCIAL & ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

We Love Global Innovation

Smith Assembly participates in 1% for the Planet and donates an additional 5% of our revenue to nonprofits selected by our global innovators in order to amplify the positive impact they have in their communities.

We’re also committed to supporting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals with a focus on: GOAL 5: Gender Equality, GOAL 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, and GOAL 10: Reduced Inequalities. The policies we enact and the metrics we measure ourselves against are aligned with B Lab’s SDG Action Manager.