Your business is as good as the team behind it. You can’t get any better than the talent managing your company. Team building is one of the most important investments you can make for your employees.
Team building refers to a wide range of activities designed for improving team performance. Team building is pursued through a variety of practices and can range from simple bonding exercises to complex simulations and multi-day team building retreats designed to develop a team.
It builds trust, mitigates conflict, encourages communication, and increases collaboration. Great team building means more engaged employees, which is great for your company culture and boosting productivity and growth.
Team building activities improve team productivity, motivate a team, help participants learn more about themselves and improve communication.
Breaking the monotony of everyday tasks can act as a reset for your team, allowing them to take time to relax and refresh their minds.
Working together on something educative, meaningful, playful or entertaining can give your employees a shared cause, which creates instant common ground and takes away the awkwardness of forced small talk.
Volunteering is a great way to build your team and benefit a worthy organization in your community. Activities like hiking, biking, and canoeing are active and encourage participation without being overly competitive.
You can seek out “field trips” connected to your line of work. Sharing a conversation over a meal is also a time-honored, effective way to form bonds and strengthen relationships.
You can seek out “field trips” connected to your line of work. Sharing a conversation over a meal is also a time-honored, effective way to form bonds and strengthen relationships.
Think about how you could bring employees together in a relaxed environment and how they could use their strengths to work together.
How to build an insanely great team
To put together the best team possible, you have to know your business goals, what attributes are important to attain those goals and what kinds of people can make your team even better.
Clearly communicate your expectations for the team’s performance and expected outcomes. Involve team members in the decision-making process.
Team interaction involves “soft” interpersonal skills including communication, negotiation, leadership, and motivation. Organize activities to help develop these skills in your team members.
Set the culture where no new idea is de-valued so the new goal can be achieved.
Understand what team members think about their own skills and what’s their feelings about others’ skills.
Give your team a problem in which the solution is not easily apparent or requires the team to come up with a creative solution.
Organize simple social activities – to encourage team members to spend time together.
People will start to move and work together when they are focused on their purpose and can see where they fit in with the purpose of the bigger picture.
Always ask people “what do you think about it?” “how do you feel about it?”. Make them feel a part of the decision process.
Reduce everyday distractions by holding team building sessions outside of the office.
Find out exactly what team members are looking for to enhance their work and efforts before conducting team building exercises.
Identify and work with online team building tools and resources you are all comfortable with. Online team building activities should not be substituted for offline exercises.
Investing in more interactive and ‘fun’ team building activities can dramatically help to improve the communication among your staff and between employees and management.
