Are You Doing Your Team Building Right?
If you have been an employee for at least a year in a particular company, chances are you have gone through your typical team-building event. Most people will describe it as that trip out-of-town with colleagues where fun activities are done to supposedly build relationships, and, therefore, improve the way the team works together. There are those who look forward to it and see it as an opportunity to bond with workmates and relax; and there are those who dread it and never see the point of going. If you belong to the latter category, then you’d be happy to know you are not alone.
There are experts and managers who agree that the investment in occasional team-building events does not show enough returns/impact on the business for them to continue doing it. A quick search on the internet regarding this particular viewpoint will lead to reliable articles such as “Stop Wasting Money on Team Building” by Carlos Valdes-Dapena on Harvard Business Review. In the article, Dapena gives great examples of “team building” activities that did not work; And we see a lot of these annual team building events where the employees do activities that do not intentionally impact working relationships, and therefore, have no bearing on company performance.
So, should we stop team building altogether? Not necessarily.
These instances come from a common misconception on what improves team dynamics and performance. Not too long ago, Google published findings of Project Aristotle (A study they did to find what makes teams effective). In it, they described the keys to an effective team. A deeper understanding of what this means is that it takes intentional work to build an effective team.
According to Google’s Project Aristotle, Psychological safety is the top characteristic of teams that make them effective. Credits: Google re:Work
In a similar tone, Dapena continued to share in the article further details of what eventually worked for them. It is worth highlighting in his narrative the fact that achieving better collaboration (their goal) requires teams to work for it (Understanding team and individual priorities, getting people to define their level of collaboration, etc.) This is largely true for any improvement a company wants to make for the way their team works, be it better communication, clearer objectives, and so on.
Team building events don’t have to be a waste of time and money. They can be effective so long as they are part of a larger success and growth plan for your team. Team development is a commitment that an organization takes towards improving the way each and every member works together in order to produce better results. Here are a couple of things you can do outside of the usual team building event:
Encourage regular feedback - One sure way to improve the way a team works together is to gather insights from everyone on what are things that work and what needs to be improved.
Do simple activities that can be part of everyday routine - Improving interpersonal relationships can be as simple as encouraging morning greetings, doing a quick check-in on people before meetings. You can check out our #TJLightningActivities on Facebook, LinkedIn, or our website for your teaming quick fix!
Define your team development goals - It will be a good start to know as a team what it is you wish to develop (Better communication, stronger collaboration, trust, etc). Understand your current situation and set a direction for what it is you wish to improve as a team. One useful guide is Tuckman’s stages of team development. You can take our free assessment to determine which stage your team is in!
Your annual team-building may only be once or twice a year, but you can use every workday you have to improve your team performance!