02 August 2023 · 9 min read
Team building activities provide skills, training and resources to your team. They create a harmonious team environment. To be effective, activities must be held regularly. If they are a part of your culture, your workplace continues to benefit.
We organise team building activities for many reasons and many teams. Some are standalone activities at the end of the work week. (These increase team bonding and motivation.) Other activities can be held during a conference. (This will get people networking.)
Some activities provide learning and development. They focus on specific objectives and outcomes increasing the purpose of team building activities.
We are get asked:
If you need answers to those questions then we suggest you read on!
Team building activities should be an ongoing part of your corporate culture. When they are a one-off annual event they don’t have as many benefits. Team building offers learning in a fun stress-free environment. The benefits of team building activities are:
– to the employee
– to the whole company.
Colleagues can start to understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Key learning objectives are identified for team building activities. These can then be transferred to roles and tasks back at work.
During team building activities many people step out of their comfort zones. They take on roles that they wouldn’t normally do in the office. (Such as leadership.) Managers may be surprised to see how people perform in different roles. A quiet worker can have a lot to contribute. Or a leader may not listen to another’s point of view. These points illustrate the importance of team building activities.
Many companies focus on making the client happy. This is a good thing as our clients are important! But we can’t forget to focus on our other valuable asset: staff. Well-chosen and planned activities boost morale. Your business performance is also boosted.
A team is not a group of people who work together. A team is a group of people that trust each other.
The importance of Team Building is in an article by Mind Tools.
It discusses making Team Building an everyday priority. Read about Team Building Exercises and Activities.
The first step is to be clear on your objectives for your event.
A great quote from Stephen Covey is “Start with the end in mind”
Choose your activity with your objectives in mind. If you do this, you are far more likely to create a fantastic experience.
Second, communicate the objective. Make this clear as early as possible. If you choose an activity to ‘network’, or ‘try something new’, then say so. (This is important if you have an objective that is learning oriented.)
Last, match the activity to your team. What activity will suit them? Don’t match an adventurous activity with a quiet group. Don’t match networking activity with a group that know each other well. It won’t be effective!
Team Building Activities with the right objectives deliver benefits. The benefits are both to the team and the staff member. It’s important to get the process right. Poorly chosen team building exercises waste time. They can have a negative effect on your team.
Picking a team building activity that’s right for my team. Will give you more details and insights.
Some examples of key learning area that Team Building Activities include:
Most Team Building Activities put people under time pressure therefore forcing them to prioritise tasks. This in turn teaches people how to get more done in less time. Further it teaches skills such as goal setting and other key time management techniques.
Most team building activities are like mini projects and require people to delegate clear roles and priorities. However they can also provide great feedback on leadership and management of key individuals within your team. This will motivate them to take on new challenges/roles.
There are a lot of team building activities that require creativity and innovation to figure out the solution and be successful. They can therefore allow you to see how the more creative members of your team work and how they contribute to great outcomes.
Effective communication is critical. Team building activities will either succeed or fail based on the quality of communication between team members. It is important to give feedback on how effectively your team communicates, listens, and works together. A vital skill for all areas of life.
When you are choosing a team building activity you can choose an option where everyone is working together in a collaborative, instead of competitive, environment. This in turn will give you great insight into how your team works together in solving problems.
Team Building Activities create opportunities for leadership qualities to emerge. Team Leadership and team building goes together. It will demonstrate the natural leaders in your team and how they influence other team members.
Team building activities are more than just team bonding time. They provide a place for learning in a fun, stress-free environment.
You have chosen your team building activity with a purpose. So what type of benefits can you expect?
The main goal is improved output. Team building activities encourage teams to work together. This reduces duplication of effort.
Employee morale is important. Morale helps motivation, relationships and the company.
Team building activities can help nurture company culture. A successful team building activity creates a high. This has a flow-on effect of increasing confidence. It also shows that the company feels they are worthwhile.
A properly planned team building activity increases group effort. Collaboration means:
Your aim is to organise team building activities that people enjoy as a group. This helps your staff build stronger ties. Their ties and networks outside their day-to-day role are valuable. It can help them draw on others’ specialist skills when they need them.
A successful business is based on creativity and innovation. Employing people with diverse ideas and skills ensures you have a range of strengths. Team building activities allow your team to develop their creativity. This shows that creativity in the workplace is welcome. It also shows that you listen to innovative ideas.
Miscommunication can lead to many problems. Team building activities with problem-solving helps break down barriers.
Culture influences every aspect of your company. It takes a team to create a great culture.
According to Team Focus there are two principles for a great culture. “Keep it simple” and “engage your people.”
More information on workplace cultureK
According Mind Tools, team building activities aim to:
“Motivate your people to work together … to develop their strengths … and address any weaknesses.”
They say any team building activity should encourage teamwork. Team building is to help your people to work in harmony. It needs to be a continual process. A part of your organisation’s culture.
A one-off team building event needs a clear purpose, such as skills improvement. They must also be designed to avoid conflict.
Successful team building events allow people to spend time together. They encourage shared experience and working towards a common objective. Activities that are out of people’s comfort zones encourages teamwork.
Team building activities can fall flat if done once with no objective. They are run and then forgotten. It’s important to find ways to keep the challenge, excitement and learning alive. You want to create opportunities for people to connect and interact. This develops strong bonds within the workplace and team.
Any team building activity should aim to build a stronger team. Team building is not talking about company policies or new products. It is having your team in the one place in a non-work environment. This builds the trust and respect that goes back to the office.
You should base your objectives on your team’s strengths and weaknesses.
Your team building activities can address any issues these questions unearth.
One-off team building exercises can address a particular weakness. But you want to make sure they don’t do more harm than good.
Poorly planned events can be embarrassing or awkward.
You choose the specific team building activities to help your focus areas.
Here are 6 areas of focus and some activities you can look at:
These activities boost problem-solving or decision-making skills. (We also have a whole problem-solving category.)
Here are activities to help your team communicate effectively. There are many other options. Let us know your goals, and we can find other team building activities.
Encourage your team to develop their leadership skills. These activities focus on connection and delegation. We have many other activities that meet these objectives so just ask.
Collaboration is an important skill to develop within your team. Knowing each other’s strengths and weaknesses will help. These are a few of our top activities.
Team building activities use time pressure to choose the order of tasks. This teaches people how to get more done in less time. These are our top 2 activities that focus on time management. (Let us know your objective for more suggestions.)
Team building activities that focus on learning and development
These are 2 of our top learning and development team building activities. We have a whole category of them if you want to look at more. You can contact us for more information.
Team Building is the practice of running an enjoyable and interactive event for your colleagues to encourage teamwork and cohesion in a corporate team.
Team Building activities are usually group focussed games and physical activities run by an independent facilitator who use various strategies to effectively bring your workplace or colleagues together all working towards a common goal.
Team Building activities play an important role in the development and motivation of your team. Taking your team out of the corporate environment and pushing their boundaries both as individuals and as a team as a whole is a beneficial way of growing your teams confidence and helps to build a strong corporate culture.
If you would like to read more about the importance of Team Building Activities read our in-depth article – Ultimate Guide to Team Building Activities. By the end of it you will be an expert and know all the advantages, disadvantages, common mistakes and what to do in order to organise an amazing Team Building Activity. We will share resources and our extensive knowledge and experience in organising corporate team building activities.
