Teambuilding Trends

Both phrases are tossed around the market like a grenade with a pin missing. As an organisation that does both, I thought it helpful if I pass on my limited words of wisdom to help others who may not be able to distinguish between the two.

Think of Teambuilding as an activity or exercise that allows the delegates to engage with each other, have a few laughs (usually at the expense of others), and walk away with a feel-good and relaxed demeanor.  Such terms as Survivor, Challenge, Competition, and “the winner is” are often used during such events. On the positive side, these activities allow the team to see another side to their delegates, see how people behave in non-threatening non-hierarchical and non-KPI driven environments. You will often see creativity from admin people, leadership from quite people, problem-solving from those least expected, and decision making from the underbelly of the team.  All good as long as someone takes notice and uses the behavioural upliftment to enhance the team’s ethic. On the negative side, you may often see excesses of everything, including shouting, blaming, confrontation, career “hari-kari” actions and statements, demoralising, blaming, and showmanship of the highest order.  This is usually due to the fact that the behavioural aspects of the event are not being facilitated nor managed.

Hence, Team Development or Teambuilding with a catch. That “catch” involves using the activity to create an outcome that the delegates can learn from. For example, Our Ball Game, a simple event to get the team to pass a ball through the group, progressing from slow to being able to do it faster than the speed of lightning. It starts off slow and ends with a total transformation of energy and input from the team members. It basically follows the Tuckman model, and after the activity, when everyone has finished patting each other on the back and throwing wild “high fives”, the facilitator steps in and says the magic word “WHY?”.

This debrief or review allows the team to reflect on what they were doing and, more importantly, WHY they were doing what they did and WHY they made critical changes in their behaviour. This is the key to team Development and the journey to becoming better at what we do, as everyone gets a chance to reflect and can relate to how they felt along the way.

While I agree, it’s not rocket science, if done well, the benefits of both team building and its upmarket cousin, team development, can make significant changes in the internal development of your team and the individuals within. It’s the journey to becoming a high performance-focused team, moving from average to a world where customers start to brag about their relationship with you.

John Ingram

Director of HISIDE Training

When we think of embarking on teambuilding exercises in the workplace, it’s usually not the management teams or executives that come to mind. Or rather, they are bundled up into the exercise with their subordinates.

While that is also an essential part of teambuilding and building good working relationships with their co-workers or those that they are in charge of, managers and executives are also part of other teams which are supposed to steer the company to success.

Here are a few ideas for teambuilding exercises for those at management or executive level to foster leadership skills and share new ideas.

Share the financials

It is something that many people think must be kept hush-hush or that the company’s financials are only for those few employees that are “in the know”.

However, being open about the numbers and sharing these vital statistics across the whole company can build trust among your staff. Communicate these numbers in a way that everyone can understand it.

Everyone should be aware of the company’s deadlines, goals, responsibilities, and progress. It will also help each employee to be aware of each group’s objectives.

Encourage creativity and sharing of ideas

Very often, people are unsure of speaking up and sharing their ideas. In Jake Mohan’s “When Groups Don’t Think,” he discussed three valuable methods of encouraging people to be more confident when presenting a new idea.

1. Model constructive dissent.Play devil’s advocate and disagree with a unanimous decision. You’ll encourage a reluctant but wise person to speak up.
2. Have a brainstorming group write ideas on unattributed Post-it notes.Why? No one knows whether an idea came from top brass or a low-level player, so people back ideas with merit regardless of source.
3. Encourage team members to do self-affirmations.Listing one’s skills and accomplishments before meeting with a group enhances one’s ability to let colleagues shine.

Successful teams do what other teams are not prepared to do! Are you ready?

Take your team beyond with Beyond Teambuilding’s exciting events, activities and challenges that push boundaries and guarantee loads of fun.

Most organisations choose team building to encourage collaboration and teamwork through engaging, fun and motivational activities. Teams build vital skills like communication, planning, problem-solving, and conflict resolution through a series of planned events that drive results.

However, in this post, we look at the unsung heroes of the team building benefits, which have a positive impact on your team development. Can you guess some of these?

Networking

Socialisations and networking skills in the workplace are important. Internal working relationships are as important as the external connections the team develops with its clients, partners, and customers.

Not only does networking increase morale in the office, but it also allows for the office to work better and become more productive in solving everyday workplace issues. Put simply, it is a vital skill to have among employees.

Celebration

Sometimes teams overlook the importance of celebrating successes – and even those failures that lead to better things. When sports teams win major championships, celebration is part of the deal. Why wouldn’t team building offer this prospect?

Encourage celebration, fun and cheering attitudes through team building. Celebration brings positivity and motivation for employees to up their game both in a personal and business context.

Competition

Aside from cooperation and teamwork, team building activities can enhance competition through developing competitive behaviours that stand well in the place of business and have been shown to increase production.

Channel the competitive spirit of your team with engaging and inclusive team building activities where individual employees or teams are free to compete against each other and derive benefits from doing so in a structured manner.

A well-facilitated and engaging team building event will add great value and return on investment (ROI).

The team building experience, formal or informal, is not recreational and includes process facilitation, debriefing, and reflective questioning.

Successful teams do what other teams are not prepared to do! Are you ready?

Take your team beyond with Beyond Teambuilding’s exciting events, activities and challenges that push boundaries and guarantee loads of fun.