When team building activities are suggested it can lead to rolled eyes and excuses about not being able to leave the office. The image of a team of awkward accountants playing paintball in a muddy field has given team building a well-known wince in the workplace when it's mentioned.
Corporate events involving problem solving and outdoor pursuits are not an unusual concept to most large businesses. When managed properly, team building works and helps your workforce function better (once the mud washes off!).
An effective team should contain the following:
- A good mix of skills
- Strong core values
- Creativity
- Coordination
- Good communication
- Defined roles
- Value
- Motivation
Team building exercises use these skills to achieve the goal of the tasks. By bringing them all together in a practical or physical exercise the team works together in a different environment and often finds new and valuable skills in the process.
Why does team building work?
Eight reasons why team building works:
1. A connected team is a happy team
If your business has a large workforce then it effectively has a large group of smaller teams all working towards their own goals to achieve a unified goal. Making sure your teams are well connected is essential to a happy, productive workforce.
Team building activities will unearth new skills in organisation, motivation and problem solving - which employees then use in the work place. Connecting people in a different way ignites skills they didn't know they had and often finds hidden stars that were shrinking violets.
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2. Team building can help people feel valued
In a large organisation it can be easy for employees to feel undervalued. This can have a detrimental effect on your productivity as a company. By solving problems in a different environment everyone is on a new and level playing field. When this happens you often find that people will find they have an important role to play in an activity and gain respect and value for it.
By gaining value with other team members the individual will gather more motivation and be more productive as a result. This benefits the task, and ultimately everyone in it, resulting in a common goal being achieved. So it's a win for the task and then a win for the team back in the office too.
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3. Team building activities give your workforce new and exciting challenges
Your employees will have specific duties and responsibilities in your company. It's easy to overlook the hidden qualities of people when we always give them the same tasks to do. Team building breaks up the routine and will often throw up some interesting results.
So often we see confident (or so they think) team leaders fail to bring the group together while a usually quiet or non team leader will get more information for a company. Could Susan from accounts really be a better leader than anyone knew?
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4. Team building gives you employee data
Team building exercises allow analysis to find key characteristics and skills and also weaknesses in a team. It may all sound a bit 'lab rat', but by putting your workforce through their paces outside and with unusual activities you can test them to find problems, hidden talents or new possibilities.
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5. Team building makes people work together
Clearly team building exercises are best attacked together. By using all the skills and ideas in your team you complete the task quicker and better than the opposing team. This is no place for mavericks!
A unified team with clear goals and communication that use the core skills of the group well will succeed. Most group exercises force communication with people who don't usually mix, forging new bonds and relationships. Bring this back to the office on a Monday morning and you have a winning company too.
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6. Team building defines new roles
Roles are important in any company as every member has different duties and targets. Problems occur when roles are not defined. Just think how poor it would be if everyone did the same role, leaving other roles unfilled and tasks incomplete.
When you're given a task during team building, defining roles is paramount to its success. Natural leaders will often rise to the top where thinkers and analytical individuals will find their own limelight. This is very important for the task and invaluable for a company to know about.
Using different members in the team to their strengths to benefit the team is key. Often introverts have skills that the extroverts don't. This all works beautifully together.
"If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it'll spend its whole life believing that it is stupid."
- Albert Einstein.
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7. Classroom exercises help assess the problems
Good team building sessions will include an element of classroom assessment. By looking at the success of a team guided by an expert, employees will learn the error of their ways, or realise that they have valuable skills to bring to the team back at the office.
Bringing it all together is important to the success of team building. Running around with Bob from the post room alongside your MD may be a lot of fun, but making it work for your company is the goal here.
A classroom environment brings it all home, allows learning and improvement for the next sessions, and helps define roles within the team. Constant improvement is key to any team's success and the data gained from this is essential to a company too.
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Team building is a powerful tool for your company
Team building will:
- Improve the fundamentals of effective team working
- Help you deal with stress, conflict and problems within a team
- Provide problems, and force delegation and communication
- Work on negative or positive emotions in the workplace
- Make your workforce give feedback and instruction to other team members
- Find new and exciting skills in your workforce
- Help people feel valued and motivated
- Be fun!
The people in your business are your most valuable asset. A disjointed, unhappy, or poorly functioning workforce is a serious problem. Motivating them is key to any company's success. Team building will bring together all the qualities and skills needed to work well together and also add an element of fun and healthy competition too.
Remember…
"The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don't play together, the club won't be worth a dime."
– Babe Ruth.
