Mandatory team building gets an eye roll from most employees. And for good reason. Too many companies shove their employees into icebreaker sessions and trust falls that seem forced, at best, and accomplish nothing more than wasting a few hours. It’s unfortunate that the phrase “team building” has become a joke at so many companies because of the lack of connection between what is expected and what truly transpires.
So when team building occurs the right way and employees come together outside of their usual work roles, it can significantly enhance how people work together. The difference comes down to a few key factors, all of which too many companies overlook.
Why Team Building Events Don’t Work
Walk into any conference room where people are required to attend a team building session and you’ll see the same predictable agenda unfold. Someone from HR stands at the front of the room, talking about games nobody wants to play. Ice breakers prompt people to stand in the same room they’ve been working together in to make small talk they’ve been having at their desk. An hour later, everyone returns to their work, no closer than before to knowing how to work better together.
They don’t work because they’re backward in their design. The problem isn’t with the team building itself, necessarily. It’s with how companies select team building activities and how they integrate them into the work day. Rather than basing a team building event on what a team specifically needs, they base it on ease and budget.
A PowerPoint presentation about communication styles isn’t going to alleviate communication concerns; sitting in a conference room talking about trust isn’t going to build it, no matter how many posters of inspirational quotes are hanging on the walls.
The things that create value in team building share three remarkable traits. They demonstrate how people have to rely on each other, not just talk abstractly about teamwork. They create moments of experience that people remember later on and reference down the line. They assess how team members think when pressure is applied and it’s not merely a hypothetical circumstance.
What Changes How People Work Together
People transform once they see different sides of their colleagues. The intern who sits quiet in every meeting might become the strategic minds who is consulted when there’s a challenge on hand. The hard-nosed manager who rarely smiles might lighten up, come clean about his weaknesses, or share a joke on a group outing. These pivotal moments mean far more than most people acknowledge.
Here’s why, these are the moments that break down walls. Too often, people compartmentalize their lives and see coworkers as mere work role representations. Their boss is their boss; their clients are their clients; their employees are their employees. But when they see these individuals emerge as full people, it becomes easier to collaborate. Research backs this up; teams with greater interpersonal relationships manage conflict, communication and final outputs better.
But these moments don’t happen overnight, they require the right settings to materialize. If businesses want to sink their time and money into worthwhile connections, explore niche team building activities in Sydney that force groups into goal-oriented endeavors instead of passive or lecture formats.
More importantly, experiences should foster outcomes out of pure collaboration rather than individual efforts. If one person can monopolize the project or people can sit back and do nothing without penalty, nothing will change. The whole point is to create engagement out of people who would otherwise avoid connecting.
The Economics of Team Building
Here’s what companies fail to calculate properly, the true costs of broken teams. When teams don’t communicate better, engagement takes longer; when trust isn’t present, people justify doing everything themselves so nobody else knows what’s going on; when collaboration is weak, ideas die because no one speaks up.
Team development for a half a day costs companies thousands in wages from employees who could be doing more valuable work if they came together for a check-in; chronic communication issues end up costing companies even more in unachievable deadlines, delayed projects and talented left for greener pastures with better culture ownership. The financial implication isn’t team building costs money, the financial implication is it charges companies even more when they don’t do team building.
Just because a team building opportunity costs a lot of money does not mean it’s successful. Some of the most pricey corporate getaways fail to accomplish more than simple endeavors done at lower costs with intention. Simply put: Are people really working together here or going through the motions so they can get back to the cubicles even faster?
What Team Building Should Include
Team building has certain qualities that make it worthwhile; as soon as they’re compromised, other issues ensue. First, it needs a problem-solving aspect rather than solely socializing opportunity. People need to be compelled to interact with one another aside from forced conversation, whether that’s creating an obstacle together or getting from point A to point B without involving too much chatter.
Second, it has to be egalitarian in nature. Company hierarchy should be irrelevant while tackling challenges during these experiences; when the intern can’t master one puzzle just like the director can’t master it, that’s different than looking at behavior through the lens of an office setting, this is where people learn that ideas are more important than titles.
Third, there must be an element of debriefing afterward for it all to mean something; taking time to process what transpired enhances the experience beyond the immediate task, it incorporates regular functioning together afterward. What worked? Where did you struggle? How does this relate to our work? Without this process, it’s just another long ride home.
Those who offer ineffective team building activities avoid one or all three of these characteristics while engaging seriously where it matters most makes sense. Purely social connections (happy hours, dinners) have value but don’t bring collaboration to the forefront; competitive endeavors where teams work against each other can increase division, and anything that lifts hierarchical power structures merely reinforces frustrations that already exist anyway.
Not Every Team Needs the Same Activity
This concept should be obvious but often goes wrong; not every team needs the same thing. A new team that’s getting to know each other needs different team building sessions than an established one that has conflict running through it like a nest of vipers. A remote team that struggles with communication needs different activities than an in-office group that’s getting too comfortable and avoiding growth.
For new teams, helpful activities focus on basic information sharing about each other, where they’re from, what motivates them, strengths and weaknesses, building psychological safety so no one feels discouraged from chiming in without being judged.
For teams struggling, it’s important to take care implementing team building activities to rebuild trust or improve communication but there’s no need plowing full steam ahead forcing collaboration if relationships have already strained themselves; sometimes teams need outside facilitation before anything team building activity makes sense.
For teams looking to stay high-performing and high-functioning, however, a more ambitious activity will push their collaboration up a notch; these teams don’t need icebreakers, they need advanced problem solving that forces them out of their patterns of comfort as much as anyone else.
The Follow Up Nobody Does
This is where everything falls apart, and it’s honestly the biggest shame. Companies pay for an event, everyone enjoys themselves (somewhat), Monday comes around and nothing changes; it’s as if the event was singular in nature and all participants can do is maybe chuckle about it once or twice down the line but it will have no bearing on how they work together going forward.
Organizations that truly get value out of team building endeavors treat it as something carved out for ongoing development, not a once-in-a-lifetime-for-this-quartal endeavor. They reference lessons learned during regular work; they acknowledge when coworkers apply collaboration skills learned for future reference; they give time for connections made during these efforts to grow, without any follow-up whatsoever, even the best-designed efforts become entertainment value only for which no one wants to admit.
Which is fine if entertainment purposes were part of the goal sometimes all teams need is a break from everything else for some fun together, but if the point was to enhance how people worked better moving forward long-term efforts are needed after the activity is over which no one likes acknowledging because it’s harder than simply putting on an activity and going back to your desk without another thought.
How To Change Perceptions About Team Building
Team building gets a bad reputation because companies do it wrong too often. They choose experiences based on ease instead of organizational necessity; they gamify it without strategic investment beyond checking a box; they forget about all expectations moving forward as soon as people return to their desks and complain about getting back up to speed on emails.
But when time and intention is spent doing it right, bringing teams together outside normal work contexts significantly improves collaboration moving forward along with communication and trust, and the key is being honest with what’s needed instead of generic “team development” initiatives without any clarity focused.
The best team building experiences never feel like forced corporate obligations; they feel like time well spent for people who will ultimately be easier to work with after the fact. That’s at least a standard worth aiming for, even if most companies never quite get there.
- What Changes When You Switch From Reactive to Proactive Security
- What Actually Goes Into Running a Successful Corporate Conference
- How the Best Companies Build World-Class Executive Teams
- What Happens During a Professional Water Safety Assessment
- How Material Buildup Creates Safety Hazards Nobody Sees Coming