Does Team Building Work?

Recent trends in workplace culture have turned into more team-oriented environments, where individuals are valued less than their contributions to the group. As a result, some companies now offer all sorts of events and activities that focus on building community and gratitude within the organization.

This is not to say that there’s no room for individual success at your company, but it can be difficult to find recognition outside of what you're doing for the team. The most successful employees often feel left out because they don’t get enough credit for their achievements or the rest of the staff doesn’t seem to appreciate their efforts.

It's easy to think that this situation will change when those top performers leave, but what happens then? If you've got a small pool of talented people working under you, chances are someone soon will take over and assume leadership roles.

That can lead to resentment, since these leaders didn't spend time developing relationships with their peers. In fact, some may even perceive them as being jealous of others' success because they weren’t given the opportunity to succeed alone.

What about when these leaders move onto another position? Or if they receive an award or promotion? They'll probably share very little information about themselves due to professional boundaries, so their colleagues won’t know how hard they worked to achieve their goal.

In this article we'll look at whether or not teambuilding exercises actually work.

You should always try to do team building events

As we've discussed, team building is really just an integral part of creating strong teams. Creating internal bonds and relationships can be very powerful when working on projects together or as members of a team.

Building trust, confidence, and rapport among colleagues can have incredible benefits for your organization. When you're talking about teamwork, there's no better time than now to invest in it.

Team bonding experiences are usually cost-effective too, which makes them even more worthwhile. While some people may feel that spending money to go out for drinks or dinner is for only the rich, giving these opportunities to everyone in the workplace will help strengthen important relationships.

In fact, many organizations make use of this concept by offering free snacks and beverages as well as discounts at local restaurants and cafés during such activities.

Here are some tips for team building

A few years ago, people made a lot of talk about how teams needed to do more team-building activities. Since then, it has become less popular to suggest that you need to do things like have an ice cream party or play games in order to create cohesion within your group.

In fact, many experts now believe that such activities are unnecessary because true teamwork is built through frequent interactions among coworkers.

Teamwork happens naturally when individuals work together towards a common goal. This can be occurring at the same time every day, or once per week.

It does not require extra events with drinks and snacks. It is also not limited to only those who go to the same place for lunch. Teams come together online and offline from different people with different skills, and they learn how to work effectively together without any formal training.

What makes a good team member is typically someone who wants to help others and contribute their knowledge and experience. These behaviors will promote trust, respect, and cooperation between teammates.

Take a theme for your team building event

The term ‘team building’ has become very popular in recent years. Teams organize fun events to connect, learn about each other, and strengthen their bond as a group.

A team building event can focus on any number of things, but they all have one thing in common – creating new relationships or enhancing existing ones.

That is what teams are built upon!

By having these collaborations, conversations, and interactions, it creates an atmosphere that encourages teamwork and communication. It also helps promote trust since people feel comfortable around each other.

It is not just important for individuals, but also the organization as a whole.

Make it interesting and educational

As mentioned before, team building is not about having fun with your coworkers or going to a potluck lunch. It’s actually much more than that! Teambuilding can be done for any reason, but it must be designed to boost workplace productivity and engagement.

Team-building events should be focused on helping employees connect and work together as a unit. This will create a supportive environment where people feel they can speak their mind without fear of being criticized or attacked.

It also promotes trust and loyalty among colleagues by showing that everyone in this organization cares about what happens inside the office. Employees begin to believe that there is someone watching out for them which helps motivate them to do good work.

Another important thing to remember is that while some activities may look like fun, others can really help you achieve your goals at work. Activities such as taking tests or doing presentations are helpful when working hours get busy. These types of exercises promote teamwork and communication skills.

Running group meetings or giving each other feedback isn’t an easy task, so making sure anyone who wants to contribute has time to do so is very important.

Have a team goal for the event

As mentioned before, team building is not about having fun alone or giving people feel good experiences. It’s actually to create a team that works well together towards one common goal. This way you can achieve more as a group than any individual could alone.

That sounds heavy but it makes sense. If someone was only trying to have fun with friends they would stop after an hour. They would be in too busy of a state to really focus and connect with others.

Team building events are usually focused on achieving specific goals so participants can go home knowing that they left everything out there and didn’t waste time and money.

Research has shown that teams that work together outside of the workplace develop stronger bonds and trust than individuals who aren’t part of a team.

Make it a fun experience

As mentioned earlier, team building is not about having a big event every week with snacks and drinks. These are good things, but they can be done almost constantly to make teambuilding a part of your workplace.

What makes an effective team-building activity? You’ve probably heard of some like swimming or off-site meetings. But have you ever tried doing something different — something that doesn’t feel forced?

Something more informal like bowling or hiking is much better for creating strong bonds than taking people out to dinner at a fancy restaurant. It’s also less expensive!

Making group activities focused on friendship rather than business will strengthen relationships in the long run. And we all know how important those are.

Hold the event at the office

As mentioned earlier, gathering with your team for an event like a movie or bowling night is a great way to promote teamwork. However, this kind of event can sometimes feel more like a party than a productive activity — people are talking and having fun, but little progress is being made.

This happens because most of the time, people attending the event already know each other well, so they talk about their personal lives instead of work. For example, maybe one person brings up how his/her parent’s divorce affected them and then everyone else agrees and talks about their own parents’ divorces.

By sharing these experiences, it creates a very open environment where nobody feels left out. It may even create some strong bonds as friends come together to help each other through difficult times. But unless you’re doing something related to business, this type of group interaction isn’t useful when trying to achieve goals.

Instead, try holding a brainstorming session or educational event at the workplace. This gives people who don’t know each other well the chance to meet and discuss ideas without distractions.

Hold the event at a local bar or restaurant

As mentioned earlier, gathering with colleagues for a casual lunch is one of the best team building activities you can do. You will want to make sure that everything goes well however, so choose a location with adequate parking and easy access.

Make it clear where everyone should be sitting during the meeting and what time it starts. This way people won’t have to search around and someone else can help them find their seat.

The organizers of the event should also check if anyone needs special accommodations like a wheelchair accessible table or an assistant to take notes.