Team Builders Empowering Dogs with Wheelchairs

The Power of Kindness and Team Building

This December, the focus is on kindness in all its forms through HuffPost UK’s Kindness Advent Calendar. Each day until 24 December, new stories will be shared highlighting how individuals and communities are going above and beyond to help others during their times of need.

According to research by Team Tactics, more than a quarter (27%) of Gen Z workers say their relationships with colleagues aren’t great. Since 1995, this company has been helping groups build better connections. However, during the pandemic, Charles Bird, director of sales and operations, noticed a shift in how teams wanted to bond.

“In 2020, 2021... we saw a real shift in the appetite, if that’s the right word, for corporates to look at giving back,” he told HuffPost UK.

Charity-focused teambuilding, which used to make up just 5% of the business, has now grown to over 30%. One of their projects, Wheels For Walkies, allows groups of 12-75 people to build a wheelchair for a dog in need, working in teams of four to five.

This initiative has helped dogs like Obie, who was diagnosed with paralysing stage five intervertebral disc disease. Though he regularly undergoes hydro and laser treatments, his new wheelchair has allowed him to walk and play fetch again.

Passion is Key to Better Charitable Teambuilding

Millie Masterson, Digital Marketing Manager for Team Tactics, said, “We just want to try and make teams happy. And we have all the research that backs the importance of team building... and that is our purpose.”

Bird emphasized that for Team Tactics, passion for their charities must match their drive to improve teams. They’ve also worked with Give A Helping Hand, which provides prosthetic hands for children in need.

“We won’t do a charity event unless it’s something we believe in... We do the due diligence. So, for instance, I’ve been out to Tanzania. I’m going to India, so I’ll go and see where the hands have been delivered on the ground,” Bird explained.

He added that passion is crucial to ensure these activities aren’t just a box-ticking exercise.

“With the dogs on the Wheels for Walkies, we don’t just build them, put them in a warehouse, and if somebody wants them, we send them out.”

He continued, “Those wheelchairs will either go to a dog where they’re needed permanently, or it could be a case where a dog needs them just for a short time of getting over an operation, whatever it might be.”

And yes, the dogs do make a special appearance at Team Tactics’ events.

“We know that there’s a constant demand for these wheelchairs, and so as fast as we can get them made and out there, we’ll supply them,” Bird stated.

“So it’s [got] an element of charity, fun team building, but then a good cause, because they get to meet the dogs, what they’re up to, etc.”

Team Tactics Hopes to Keep Giving Back

Team Tactics has worked with many other charities, including organizing a Feed The 500 event, which helped distribute food to London’s homeless community.

Bird said that events like this and Wheels For Walkies have added benefits for teams: “The great thing about the event is that it’s not just a here’s a wheelchair. Build it off you go.”

“There’s a strong element of team building in it, so that the teams have to take part in some fun and games to win points, to get the various bags of dog wheelchair parts... if that makes sense, to run the game.”

Still, he noted that interest in charity-based events has slightly decreased in recent months.

“Since the economy has been tightened, the demand has definitely dropped back,” he shared.

Despite this, Team Tactics continues to look forward to creating events that give back.

After all, he concluded, it’s “great for us, great for them, and... great for the charities.”

Got a kindness story to share? Please email uklife@huffpost.com with more information.

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