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Team Building Events and Exercises
Author : Robin Chandler
This document is all about understanding teams and team building
training; the purpose of team building activities; why corporate
team building events can be effective; planning a team building
strategy; building creative teams.
Why have a team building activity or event?
This is a phrase we hear a lot these days: 'we need some kind of
teambuilding activity'. Corporate team building events are on
the increase: everyone seems to be having them these days. But
are they living up to expectations?
See, from our point of view, often the people talking about team
building don't really know what they mean.
The reality is, that many, if not most, team building activities
don't work. They should. All that thought, effort, money,
planning should make your team building event exciting,
worthwhile and productive.
It's as if we all know that teams are good. We understand the
sum of the parts thing, but we don't quite know how to make a
team work in the way we'd like it to, so we think, 'My team
isn't working as well as it could; a team building will sort it
all out.'
Why a team building event?
When people say they want a team building event their picture is
of this perfectly working group of people. But they don't take
the time to pin that picture down and really get clear what the
issues are. If they did that then their team building activity
would certainly help them get their team working more
effectively.
So, before you can even tackle the 'how' you need to tackle the
'why'.
Here are some questions that will help you clarify 'why a team
building event'.
Do you want people working better together? Do you want to set
new team goals and agreements? Do you need to iron out
communication difficulties that have crept in? Do you want a
jolly - to reward the team for being terrific? Do you simply
want to get everyone's creative juices going and brainstorm new
ideas? Do you need to set clear parameters and boundaries so
everyone knows what's expected of them? Do you want to inject
some fresh enthusiasm and energy into a group that's been
working too hard and may have lost sight of the goal posts? Have
the goals posts moved and you need to let everyone know that?
Benefits of team building activity
A good corporate team building event can tackle many of the
challenges facing your team. There are real payoffs and
advantages to being part of a well-functioning team. To begin
with, it's just pleasanter being around people who get on.
More importantly, real benefits include:
A feeling of identity On-going support Creative pooling of ideas
Increased confidence Things tend to work better as a result of
team effort You aren't alone Goals that make sense You don't
have to keep reinventing the wheel If you do have to reinvent
the wheel for some reason, so is everyone else in the team
A team building training can address a huge range of issues you
may be facing and certainly make work a better place to be.
How teams work
What is a team?
It may help you decide what your team building activity is going
to look like if you understand a bit more about how teams work.
And, get this - no matter what the books say (and there are
plenty of them) - every single team is different: there is no
model you can follow that will create the perfect team.
You'll read that you need ideas people, drivers,
completer-finishers, etc., etc., etc. And yes, possibly you do
need a variety of 'types'. But for our money, the 'types' are
far less important than ensuring that your team knows why it
exists and what its aims are.
So let's look first at just exactly what being a team means. You
might think that the very word 'team' is clear in and of itself:
a group of people working towards shared goals. We wish it were
that straightforward. As it isn't, we thought we would unpick it
a bit.
Sports teams
The most obvious kind of team that everyone knows about is a
sports team. Every team member is on the same side trying to
beat the opposition. They train together, get to understand how
to make the most of each other's skills, and when working well,
they are able to fulfil the manager or coach's strategy.
They know who their opposition is and they have very clear
goals. Yes, there may be personality quirks and differences, but
the whole truly is greater than the sum of its parts.
Work teams
However, it's not quite so straightforward when it comes to work
teams, though, is it? Personalities, which in a sporting context
might get absorbed by the team for the good of the game, often
take centre stage in the workplace.
The oddest thing of all, of course, is that it's not always
clear who the 'opposition' is. You'd think it would be the
competition - whoever your closest corporate rival is.
Unfortunately, far too often, the opposition turns out to be
right at home base: another team or department, the 'management'
or someone sitting right beside you.
The common enemy
Now the thing about 'opposition' is that it gives a common
focus, a common 'enemy' if you will. Now that's great if it's
productive. Creative ideas can pour out of a group when they
have to figure out how to handle the competition.
However, when the common enemy is someone or some group or some
department, or the 'them' and 'they' are within the same
company, the results are divisiveness, gossip, complaining. The
end result of this is, of course, a loss of productivity and
people working against, not for each other.
Then it's all about 'them' and 'us', with people running around
using their energies to get more of 'us' to agree just what's
wrong with 'them'. We see this in company after company after
company - people are spending vast amounts of time and energy
having a 'go' at each other rather than using that same amount
of time and energy to make things work better.
This is one of the key reasons why team building is such a hot
topic. People can easily recognise that something needs to be
done, but they aren't quite sure what.
Defining your team
Kinds of teams
These days we see a lot of 'virtual' teams - people who hardly
ever see each other, or even work in the same office or even the
same country.
Then there are teams that all sit in an open plan space and chat
with each other all day as things arise.
There are teams where people sit in separate spaces and get
together once a day/week/fortnight.
There are teams that seem to do all their communicating via
e-mail or conference calls.
There are teams that work on projects together and others where
people go off and do their own thing and come together every
once in a while to report and bring everyone else up to date.
Whatever your team looks like, however, it still has to be able
to function well and achieve its goals.
What teams aren't
They don't have to be a family People don't have to be bosom
buddies People don't even have to like each enough to want to
have dinner together Teams aren't group therapy
Teams can, however, on occasion, be any or all of those things.
Team building training
Effective team building
Teams are complex machines and it's not surprising that they
malfunction occasionally or need re-alignment. Every once in a
while all teams need an MOT, so of course, you want to ensure
that your team building event is as effective as it can be.
The one thing that everyone recognises is that your team
building activity needs to be done away from the office
environment. The idea is to slow things right down; to get away
from e-mails, phone calls, questions and demands, being asked to
pop into unscheduled meetings, people dropping by.
It means getting away from all the day-to-day stuff that
sometimes makes it hard to see what's going on and what's needed.
Here are a few hints and tips to make planning your team
building event more effective:
Everyone needs to have some input into what the team building
event should accomplish Listen carefully to people's concerns
and incorporate them in the team building training No one should
ever be put on the spot or humiliated People shouldn't be forced
to do things they don't want to People learn better when they're
having fun Focus on the positives of the team rather than just
what isn't working
Team building activities
Once you know what you want your event to achieve, then you can
decide what it's going to look like. You can do the go-carting
thing, the throwing people off Welsh mountains thing. You can
have the cosy get-away in a country hotel thing. You can have it
non-stop fun, be business focused or have a bit of both.
There are hundreds of different team building exercises, games,
workshops, courses, all designed to get your team working better
and handling the day-to-day challenges in the workplace.
There is no 'right' kind of team building activity, only the one
that's right for you.
The key always is to ensure that your event has a positive
effect on the morale, motivation, confidence and effectiveness
of the team and its individual members.
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*Powerful Communication Skills—Acute ability to inspire actions through skilled persuasive communications. Work Experience:HAMPTON DISTRIBUTION COMPANIES (HDC)—Sacramento, CA HDC is a wholesale distributor of Andersen Windows and other ... |
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