Designing for the Quietest Voice in the Room

Episode 26 of Queensland Business Stories

The class clown will probably enjoy the team event anyway. Andy Balzat is more interested in the person who would normally stand at the edge of the room and say very little.

Andy is the Director of Banana Life, a Brisbane-based team building company. In this conversation with Chris Tipper, he explains the design behind experiences that use play, purpose and laughter to help people connect. The starting point is not a trust fall. It is understanding the people in front of him.

Process before performance

A psychology course in process facilitation showed Andy how careful preparation can help a group move from A to B without telling everyone what to think. Recruitment and other roles came before a job as a team building facilitator, running programs and eventually launching Banana Life.

His life outside the office matters too. Snowboarding instruction in California, DJing in South America and more than a decade in a touring band gave him experiences to draw on. He looks for similarly varied backgrounds when recruiting facilitators: people who can connect with others at different stages of their lives and careers.

Start with the person who is least likely to volunteer

Andy rarely designs an activity around the extrovert who will dive straight in. He wants quieter people to have a meaningful voice and impact. A client noticing that a normally reserved colleague felt comfortable contributing is more useful feedback to him than hearing that the loudest person was loud again.

The discovery questions shape the experience. How long have people worked together? Has there been a merger? Have they moved offices? How well do they know each other? Sometimes the useful result is a simple discovery: two colleagues who barely spoke realise they catch the same train.

That does not mean promising a numerical productivity improvement. Andy is candid that team building outcomes can be difficult to measure. Engagement surveys are one approach when a client already uses them. Often the feedback is qualitative: people are still talking about the experience on Monday morning. The client then has a role in sharing and sustaining what the group learned.

Hybrid teams need a shared experience

Andy works with fully remote companies and teams spread across offices and countries. He describes bringing people in Brisbane and Sydney into activities with remote colleagues in the Philippines, rather than treating the remote group as observers.

During COVID, work with virtual-event partners helped develop experiences where participants could talk within their own team while still seeing other teams. Small design decisions changed what the technology made possible. For Andy, remote work is here to stay; the task is to make connection work within it.

Build rapport before making the joke

Humour on its own is not Andy’s solution. He first looks for common ground and builds rapport with the group. The humour then celebrates people taking part instead of making someone the target.

That distinction matters when an activity asks colleagues to step outside their comfort zones. Laughing with someone can help them feel included. Laughing at them can undo the purpose of the session. Bringing energy to a room after a long morning of presentations is part of facilitation, but it still needs care.

Give the group a purpose beyond the game

In Banana Life’s Give It Back game, teams compete in a scavenger-hunt-style activity. Their points become donation dollars, and participants select where the money goes and see the impact. Andy says that process can open up thoughtful, vulnerable conversations.

Skateworks takes a different approach. A non-competitive activity around creativity and idea generation leads into assembling and decorating skateboards for young people at risk. The shared result benefits someone beyond the room.

Andy describes Pledge 1% as a way to formalise giving already happening in the business. He also acknowledges that measuring those contributions can improve. The point is a practical commitment, not a claim that the work is finished.

An event is a starting point, not a culture repair kit

Andy does not promise that one experience will fix a disconnected workplace. He talks about recognition, one-to-ones, social opportunities and unstructured conversation as other parts of the picture.

Nor does the first step have to be a three-day incentive trip. An hour or a half day can show people that their experience at work matters. Waiting indefinitely for a quiet period leaves the disconnection untouched.

Keep people in the conversation

Andy sees opportunity in technology that helps remote colleagues connect. His concern is what happens when easy systems and AI tools replace everyday conversations with the capable people already on a team.

A quick brainstorm with a tool may be useful. So can turning to a colleague and asking for their opinion. His challenge to leaders is to keep investing in that human connection as the tools change.

Connect With Andy Balzat

Visit Banana Life or find the team on Instagram. Andy also welcomes personal connections on LinkedIn; search Andy Balzat Banana Life.