Team building is a management technique used to increase work group effectiveness and productivity through various activities. Building a solid and capable team requires many skills, analysis, and observation. The only motive here is to achieve the vision and goals of the organization.
CMA consulting claims that the key to the successful work of the team is team spirit. Managers are well aware of this and pay due attention to various activities to create a corporate culture and a team of like-minded people.
Under the team building term, we should understand active corporate recreation, which contributes to team building. Teambuilding is focused on achieving goals such as:
- development of employees’ ability to work in a team;
- Identification of leaders and team building;
- providing an opportunity for employees to communicate outside the office in a more supportive environment;
- creating conditions for psychological relaxation.
The organization of team building can be entrusted to people chosen from among the employees and professionals from various agencies that specialize in such events. Improperly organized and implemented team building will not bring benefits and can cause quite tangible harm.
For example, not all employees will participate in certain sports games because of age, and others are not in the best physical shape. It may be difficult for them to compete with other, more physically fit employees. Therefore, when choosing activities, it is necessary to carefully consider what exactly the team will be engaged in, taking into account each employee’s intellectual and physical characteristics.
Team Building: Cons
Team building is not an easy task. A high-performing team can accomplish organizational goals. However, an ineffective team can result in an inefficient waste of the organization’s time and resources.
Thus, we can say that there are many adverse effects of team building, namely:
- the risk of physical and psychological trauma;
- too long, heated, and conflicted discussion of the negative things that happened at the event;
- decline in the self-esteem of some team members, which will be a consequence of failures in the process of active corporate recreation.
Team Building: Pros
Team-building has evolved radically as a method of developing and managing effective teams in the workplace. The pursuit of effective team communication has led to the need for frequent team-building games in-person.
- giving the employees a psychological release;
- achievement of cohesion in the company;
- raising the team spirit;
- creating an atmosphere of mutual support among employees of the company.
Positive results are sure to manifest if team building is truly professional.
As one of the most successful examples of team building event is rafting on the river. First, they have no age restrictions. Secondly, in order to take part in them, you do not need to have special physical fitness, it is enough to be able to swim. The rafting or the race is not an end in itself, the main objective – is to unite the team.
You can succeed only if all team members work accurately and consistently: the helmsman must monitor the fairway and other boats, the rowers – row the oars synchronously, and the drummer – to set a precise rhythm. These races provide a lot of vivid emotions and raise team spirit. Those team members who cannot directly participate in the competition will also have fun cheering on their colleagues.
