Untapping the Talent in Your Team
by Emma Quinn - Manager of Marketing and Programming
Building Momentum is a company powered by its people. Being a part of the Build Mo machine means being flexible and open to everything from switching roles, to helping other departments, to dropping everything to build a keg robot or fly to a disaster zone to provide aid. Our team is unified because we all work together.
Our unique approach to team building, which we offer to *literally* everyone (yes, you too!), all stems from the work we do with our own team. Our team is well versed in design thinking and the iteration loop of try, fail, and try again. Meaning, when put to a challenge, we don’t sit around waiting to find the “right” solution instead, we try all possible solutions…and see what sticks. Did you fail? Maybe! Did you have fun with your teammates and grow closer? Yes. Did you get better? Yes. Failure, just like everything else in our workshop, is a necessary tool.
We’ve even put our team-building training and programs through the iterative processes they teach. Each team building challenge our team runs is either brand new or an improved variation of a past challenge. Did all the battery powered boats sink too quickly during the marble challenge? Switch to ping pong balls next time. Not enough of a challenge? Scrap that and create a new one! We try, fail, and try again…again and again. What this has done is create a group of creative thinkers and those talented minds come up with the wild ideas that make our company great.
We didn’t want to keep this process and the potential it creates to ourselves, so we created programs to bring it to the world. We started with Innovation Boot Camp, co-founders Brad Halsey and Albert Vega’s idea to bring innovative thinking to the Department of Defense. Since 2014 they, along with the Build Mo Team, have trained over 4,500 service members spanning across all branches of the armed services. Our team trains participants to develop real-time solutions to problems on base and in the field that they couldn’t have prior to our training.
Following the success of Innovation Boot Camp, we created Innovation Elevated, training, team building and facilitation for corporate groups, teams across all fields, and our community. Basically, any group of adult civilians who would like to break out of their comfort zones and learn something new. Our state-of-the-art workshop and event venue make the perfect combination for meetings and conferences, as well as bespoke, tech-focused team-building activities. Our training sessions aim to elevate your company culture, open honest, positive lines of communication within your team and encourage ideation and creativity.
Finally, Innovation Academy, Building Momentum’s STEAM-based youth programming, bring the same training from our other programs and package them for kids. Innovation Academy runs year-round with a variety of workshops, Summer and Spring break camps, and after school clubs. Kids will be given the same sorts of challenges and projects that we give to our team, Marines, and corporate CEOs. Not surprisingly, the kids usually exceed expectations and find solutions to challenges the adults don’t.
A good part of our training is run out of The Garden, our home base in Alexandria, VA, but the Building Momentum team travels. We’ve been all over the world for Innovation Boot Camp and across the United States for Innovation Elevated. School staff and student groups have traveled to The Garden for field trips and our team has traveled to schools. We. Are. Flexible!
No matter your age, job, or location, there is a training program for you. We know it works because our team, and the countless teams we’ve trained, are proof. We have seen the success in our team with their constant drive to challenge themselves, to improve, and to try new things. We are a fearless bunch, but we love to have fun, and we get great results. Within each employee is a wealth of potential waiting to be untapped or unleashed. Are you ready to find it?
Read more information on Innovation Boot Camp, Innovation Elevated or our facilitated meetings, and Innovation Academy or our STEAM field trips. More can be found on the training page of our website.
