A Simple Guide to Implement Team Building Into Your Business
Would you believe that a team that works together is much more capable of bringing company success as opposed to a divided team?
It’s no secret that companies with high workforce engagement tend to gain better profits. To create a more solid staff, team building is needed. Team building activities at work that involve fun, creativity, and cooperation can invigorate members. However, team building can somehow be tricky especially if some participants are more resistant. For that reason, you should educate your staff on the benefits of this activity and follow the best practices to make the most out of every team building experience.
When it comes to maintaining a work-conducive and positive environment, consider these simple team building guidelines.
Why Does Your Company Need Team Building?
1. Team building creates and strengthens mutual trust.
In an article on Entrepreneur, it was mentioned that trust among employees is the top 2 contributing factor to job satisfaction. Having a company culture that incorporates team building allows people to develop mutual trust. Trust means believing in one another’s strengths and abilities and the willingness you put yourself at risk by also exposing your vulnerability. Moreover, the presence of trust impacts the rest of the goals you want to meet in your business such as motivation, productivity, and growth.
As a manager, your responsibility is to take the initial step of creating trust in your team. A simple team building activity that involves developing trust is sharing each other’s interests – getting to know one another the second time around (because typical interactions at the workplace are usually superficial). The areas that team members can talk about are personal values, family backgrounds, and even hobbies!
2. Team building improves collaboration.
When your team members’ goals are compatible, the likelihood of achieving success in any project is great – regardless of the difficulty of the task at hand. According to Gratton and Erickson of Harvard Business Review, the bigger the size of a team, the lower the tendency for collaboration to occur.
If you run a huge team of more than 20 members, there is still hope of attaining collaboration by creating the right conditions. One of the ways to do so is through organizing meaningful team building activities like charity work or sports games.
3. Team building helps improve interpersonal relationships.
The secret to working better as a team is improving interpersonal relationships. No matter the personality of your staff member, what he or she mostly desires would be a friendlier work environment. A positive workplace is a place where each person is listened to, feels valued and highly respected by his or her co-workers and manager.
4. Team building allows employees to recognize their individual strengths.
When a team activity entails organized planning and creative thinking, members can shine since they will be making use of their individual strengths combined with those of their teammates.
This realization of talents and capabilities sparks appreciation. Most of the time, workers have the tendency to make judgments on others based on what they are not so capable of doing. Everybody is truly unique and team building allows that uniqueness to show.
5. Team building brings fun into the workplace.
Fun at work is rarely considered since most businesses believe that seriousness is a must to get things done. However, that is rarely the case. When stress levels rise, the best way to loosen up is to have fun. Engaging in a physical activity where everyone gets to laugh and play facilitates better learning.
To maintain the fun in a team building activity, never miss the opportunity of celebrating your team’s success for a day well spent. Thank everyone for his or her contribution to make the activity worthwhile. Acknowledge those whose talents have shone and keep motivating them to do better! Positive reinforcements are better than hurtful criticisms.
How Do You Maximize Every Team Building Experience?
1. Encourage your team members to brainstorm and share information.
When team members brainstorm, they can exercise critical thinking to come up with a great solution. The benefit of sharing ideas is that there are no criteria that tell which suggestions are the best. People are free to express themselves. Information that is gathered can be improved later.
2. Make sure that a team building game allows members to use their talents.
Encourage your team members to show their talents without having to use their capabilities as a means of competing with one another. Realize that people who look unengaged or timid on the outside may have hidden talents that are waiting to expressed at the right time and place.
3. Remember that someone must take on the role of a leader.
Leaders have an integral role to play and that is maintaining harmony among team members and making their effort work together for the best. While leading an entire group is not for everyone, individual members can exercise the responsibility of leading themselves. People are much capable of doing more than what they believe.
Conclusion
Though some consider team building as a superficial activity that forces employees to engage in a new setting, the results of team building are immense. To leverage on your team members’ strengths, encourage them to offer suggestions on the team activities they like and set realistic goals.
