Team building activities are essential if you want employees who know how to effectively and efficiently work together toward a common goal. At first, these activities may seem silly or you might wonder how they can contribute anything to your company. But the fact is, team building activities are set up to challenge a team and to sharpen communication and group skills.
It is a good practice for companies to come up with regular team building activities to enhance the oneness of the group and to build a feeling of solidarity and pride of work. A company is made up of different departments which sometimes causes conflicts of interests and individual differences. Team building aims to eliminate these issues.
Questions To Consider When Planning Your Team Environment
1. What Factors Caused Poor Team Performance In The Past?
Look into your company’s successes and failures. Determine which area is in need of improvement and look for ways to do so. By looking into the strengths and weaknesses that each member exhibits, you would know which areas to improve on. Also, this would give you an idea of how to optimize the team’s strengths to reach that common goal and contribute to the company’s success.
2. How Can You Improve The Way Team Members Interact?
Even siblings of the same genes make up different personalities. As a team, you are made up of individuals from different cultures, and would have various ideas on how to improve the way your company operates. There is bound to be friction of some kind since your team is made up of different individuals. Team building aims to avoid this and bridge the gap by coming up with activities which bond the group. Thinking of fun activities to break the ice and personalize the interaction between members is a great way to start.
3. How Can You Improve The Team’s Ability To Solve Problems?
Every company is faced with challenges every now and then. One way to forge team solidarity is to look into past problems and see how they were solved. Ask each team member how they would have handled that particular problem. This would let a leader know which team member has good problem solving, analytical and critical thinking skills. The team members may be asked to share ideas and decide together which solution would suit the problem best. This is another way to build team solidarity.
4. How Can You Forge The Support And Trust Level Between Team Members?
A team leader should have people and management skills. However, it is still important for the leader to earn the trust of his team members. Supporting each other is a vital quality that a team should have. Even a simple problem like an employee who disobeys out of sheer contrariness should be looked into. What is causing this team member to contradict his superior? What can be done to improve his attitude? By team building, you can some up with ways to build trust and increase the support level between colleagues.
5. How Can You Apply The Team Building Activities In The Day-To-Day Operation Of The Company?
In the end, after all the activities that the team has performed together, there should be a sharing of experiences and thoughts on what each member has learned about their peers and about the company’s goal. These should make them aware of how they can further contribute to the company’s success in the future. All in all, team building activities enhance team solidarity. It is good to remember that the whole organization is team working towards the company’s main goal. After a set of fun and team building activities which inspire team spirit, each member would have a clear idea of how to improve their attitude towards their peers, their superiors, and especially towards their work.
Team Building Events and Activities
Team building events can be organized to span a few days or can take place on one scheduled date. Team building activities can also be integrated into other corporate events, such as meetings, training sessions and conferences, workshops and seminars, as a way to warm things up and get the ball rolling. Even at serious project meetings certain types of team building activities can be used to help the team begin the problem-solving process and incorporate new thinking styles into the meeting.
Team building activities that make use of games and quizzes will help spark new ideas and jumpstart any decision-making that needs to occur in order to get the job done, and get it done well.
When choosing a team building activity, select a game or event that will be fun for all involved, help your employees learn new skills or sharpen established ones, and most importantly, improve results.
There are other kinds of team building exercises as well, which differ from the usual choices but should be considered as options, especially if your team requires more than just a team building experience, but more of a team healing experience, so to speak. Sometimes a group of employees are just not working well together, and it may be due to other life stresses. In these cases, activities that a person would normally do after work might be appropriate, such as yoga, scheduled lunchtime relaxation classes, or a group bowling session.
In the end, as long as you examine your company’s particular needs and choose a team building activity that will work well with your employees you will achieve the results you desire.
