How To Teach Team Building


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Team building is an integral part of any successful organization. Teams are made up of individuals with different skills, strengths, and experiences who work together towards a common goal.
Teambuilding is also an excellent way to improve workplace relationships. By bringing together people from various groups, departments, and areas of responsibility, it creates a sense of community and understanding.
It can strengthen communication and cooperation by having members check each other’s reactions and learn about the others’ roles, responsibilities, and abilities. This helps them work more effectively together and encourages everyone to share knowledge and resources.
This article will go into detail about some easy team-building exercises that can be done at anytime or anywhere. There are several types of activities you can choose from, so pick one and give it a try!
Disclaimer
The content in this article should not be used as direct advice for improving teamwork and organizational effectiveness. Rather, these ideas can help create context and framework for your own strategies.
These tips may feel basic, but they have helped many teams find success. If you would like to add anything here, let us know in the comments! We want to make sure everything has been considered.
Make it clear what is and is not allowed
As mentioned before, team building exercises should be done with intent to improve relationships. This may mean having a party together or doing activities that have little to nothing to do with work.
It can also include going out of your way to make friends, or creating an open environment where people feel comfortable being themselves. All of these things contribute to improving teamwork and communication in the workplace.
Making sure that everyone on the same team understands how each other works and encourages collaboration will only help the organization succeed. When people are working together for a common goal, success comes more easily.
Team building never really ends. It’s a constant process that can be repeated over and over again as long as there’s a desire to create strong teams.
Make it clear what time it is expected
As mentioned before, team building exercises should be clearly defined. You can even make it so that you do not have to actually go through with the exercise unless there is some sort of evaluation given by a person outside of the group.
This way, people can agree or disagree without feeling uncomfortable because they feel like part of the team. It also helps show how well connected each individual in the team is, as they must work together to evaluate the outcome!
Teambuilding does not end when the event ends- it’s an ongoing process that can be facilitated and enhanced every day. If someone was able to connect with one another during this event, then chances are good that they will continue to bond over time.
Tell everyone the plan
As mentioned before, team building is about bringing together people who have different skills and experiences and encouraging them to work well together. But how can you do that if nobody knows what the goal of the group activity is?
The first step in teaching someone new something is telling them what you know! By explaining your own skill or knowledge, you give them a frame for understanding the concept. In this case, they will understand why it’s important to establish teamwork as a habit.
Start by saying “Teamwork is _________. It’s when we work with others instead of just for ourselves.” Then, let them add anything they want – “We should be willing to share responsibilities and rewards,” or “It’s better than competition, because we’re not only competing against each other, but also our own doubts and fears.”
After their reminder, tell them their job is to brainstorm the best ways to promote teamwork in their department, organization, or industry. They may even get some ideas they had never thought of before!
Now, compare their list to yours and see which ones make sense. You may need to voice concern over some, like “This doesn’t seem very practical.” Or maybe there are things you didn’t think of, but they are good alternatives. Either way, keep an open mind, and ask questions to learn more.
Let people talk to each other
As mentioned before, team building is not about having fun in a room with people of similar interests. That would be boring! Teambuilding exercises should challenge your group to interact with different individuals and things.
Teambuilding activities that ask you to speak with someone else’s race or culture are very important to do.
By talking to people from outside of your cultural background, it shows how open you are to new experiences and cultures. It also brings out qualities in others that they may not know about themselves.
These types of conversations can really help bring your group together.
Try to be consistent
As mentioned before, team building exercises should be done consistently to succeed. If you do not give your teams time to practice these skills on a recurring basis, they will not learn them!
Teambuilding is an integral part of workplace morale and success. When used correctly, it can help promote teamwork, communication, and trust. It also helps reduce staff attrition as people recognize that this organization values their input and participation in the work-place.
As such, it is important to make sure that team building activities are given enough time and resources for participants to feel successful.
The timing and length of team building events depend on what type of event you want to conduct and how much effort you wish to put into each one. Some types of events require only half a day while others take more than a week.
It depends on the size of the group and the nature of the exercise what takes how long. For example, if the groups have to work together on an assignment then there must be adequate time to do so.
However, some exercises may be brief due to time constraints or poor results. You would want to try another one later if someone has already completed the task and been awarded a reward like snacks or drinks.
Overall, keep the duration around two hours unless it is a longer activity. This gives everyone time to enjoy themselves after the event and leave with a sense of accomplishment.
Make it clear what the focus is
As mentioned earlier, team building can be done for any goal. Teambuilding exercises should always have one thing in common though – creating trust. You cannot effectively build teamwork if you do not start with that initial trust.
By this point, you’ve probably noticed a theme developing. Creating trust is almost the defining feature of most team-focused activities. If group interactions are typically about who does or doesn’t trust whom, then rewinding the tape and trying again may be needed here.
When engaging in teambuilding exercises, make sure your participants know what to expect! What you ask them to do will either bring out their trust skills or break down barriers, so being well prepared is important.
Teambuilding is also an excellent way to address morale issues. Whether due to changing priorities, leadership changes, or just because they’re having trouble getting along with others, sometimes there’s no better solution than to simply get rid of the people involved. A good teambuilder can help mitigate or even eliminate such conflicts.
Try to be consistent
As mentioned before, team building activities should be done consistently to achieve success. This could mean doing them weekly or even monthly depending on how frequently you need to repeat the activity.
Teambuilding is not a one time event that happens once a year at work. It can be done continually throughout the year!
It’s important to look for ways to do team-building events every week or every month so that your teams always have it organized in their schedule.
This will help promote teamwork and collaboration as well as give everyone some down time.
There are many different types of teambuilding exercises out there. You don’t have to use all of them, but if you add variety into your workplace’s routine, your teams will enjoy it more.
What about lunch together? Or going to the same movie? All of these things promote friendship and trust within your groups.
Take people to different parts of the team building activity
One of the classic team-building exercises is to have participants work in groups of two. Each pair works together for an amount of time, then you separate them and ask which member of their group would like to be joined by who they’ve wanted to meet all along.
This exercise can sometimes feel uncomfortable for members of the same group. They may need some extra time to get comfortable having each other as part of their team before the break.
For someone in a new group, it may be even more difficult to play this game because they don’t know what to expect. It could make them feel very lonely or nervous about being included.
If that happens, try giving these individuals permission to leave the game early. You should let them go if they tell you that they no longer want to participate.