When you come to a big company and get an invitation to attend a team building event, you are excited. But, somewhere along the line that excitement turns into "Oh, no, not again." And you are not the only one that sees team building as a fashion that once was.
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The first team building is an exciting experience: you meet other people, see what other departments are doing, work with others on new tasks, form a team with people you never saw before. In huge companies that makes sense.
But that's - just a basic idea. When we go deeper, we can see too often that a good idea can turn into a boring and money losing event.
The team building idea is very simple: summon people that otherwise don't have a chance to work together and give them some simple problems to solve working in teams. Sounds good.
Unfortunately, this is where good ends. Let put aside that people in general like to spend some time out of the office and let's focus on real benefits.
The first and obvious things is: the team. During a team building event, people are supposed to work in team, obviously. However, that introduces some problems.
First, some employees like to work alone because they like it that way or because their workplace demand so. They are lone wolves by their nature, so fitting into a team is a problem for them. They might be excellent employees but outside a team.
Then, companies tend to use team building event to teach people how to work in a team. The idea is to bring employees to work together to see what are the benefits of team work.
And here is the problem: if your employees can't function in teams, you have a deeper problem. You should work on the company culture because that's not something you can solve by sending workers to build paper planes, climb trees together or push one another on a zip line.
Third, teamwork during a team building event limits creative thinking.
Your employees have limited time on hand and they must find a working solution fast, without too much creativity. Indeed, some creativity must exist but the focus is not on a new and exciting solution, it's on getting things done.
That leads us to the fourth problem: people tend to suppress their thinking and then we have "group thinking" in which some team members can't - or don't want - to say what they really think. It is "OK, let's make it fast" way of thinking.
And that leads us to No5: conflict.
In every team independent thinking is necessary and that leads to conflict that in turn leads to the best ideas. But, when your time for finding a solution is limited, you will naturally step back from revolutionary solution and conflict. As we all know: if everyone agrees all the time - somebody's not telling the truth.
Now, the loss.
You have to pay for a team building event, organize it, send email around, transport people somewhere and in the end your people are neither at work nor with their families. If you are repeating that over and over again, mark my words, when you say "team building" your employees will think "Oh, not again."
It brings benefits only to firms that organize those events.
When you are forcing your employees to work as a team, you are effectively telling them to think the same and work the same.
It's very similar to what once existed in socialism: we all wear the same clothes, think the same, work the same. Maybe the idea was good in its core but people are different and it can't work.
So, what is effective team building? The answer is simple: the corporate culture.
If your people have time to interact with other employees, visit and work other departments; if they may say "Hey, boss, nice car!" to the CEO without fear; if your employees may cooperate, work together and fight together - then you will have great teams.
You most certainly will not create great teams ordering your people to stand while somebody yells at adults "C'mon people! Are you excited? ARE YOU EXCITED! C'MON LET'S GO, LET'S GO, MAKE THAT PAPER PLANE!!!"
Remember, you are the leader of the company with all complex human interactions possible, not a head of a kindergarten. ■