Garry Neale asked:
Although team building activities are often the brunt of jokes in the office place, the team building process is important for developing cooperation and teamwork amongst co-workers. Teambuilding helps employees form an effective team and strive toward common goals in the workplace, improving overall productivity.
In an office environment, teams have to work together effectively to get the job done and achieve assigned objectives. Mutual respect and shared motivation are also important. Team building activities are helpful because they’re designed to nurture positive teamwork and help each member of the team use their strengths to achieve the set objectives.
Companies are faced with a lot of different human resources issues these days – understaffing, burnout, outsourcing, and other problems are becoming more prevalent. It’s more important than ever to incorporate team building into your business practices if you want keep up morale and benefit your company.
Encouraging communication is key to a happy staff, which is the cornerstone of teambuilding. Team building activities encourage improved communication through different methods, but they all share the same purpose – to strengthen the teams that are integral to the successful operation of your business.
Team building exercises help team members practice collaboration, brainstorming, creativity, trust, and feedback. Particular focus areas may include problem solving, organization, and conflict resolution, as well as leadership, interpersonal, presentation, and negotiation skills.
Teambuilding exercises fall into more than one category – for instance, there are team building activities that take place outside and inside the workplace. Some examples of team building activities include rope courses, cooking school, or field days full of different team building games and exercises. Sometimes the teambuilding activities that take place are rather fun, such as car racing and scavenger hunts.
Corporate team building events are sometimes special celebrations planned around holidays. This type of corporate team building is usually organized to encourage goodwill amongst employees. Although team building games can be a lot of fun, some people respond better to community-type team building exercises. Holiday events may include a Halloween costume contest, or a big feast on another fun holiday. Team building exercises that start a company tradition are very effective at bringing people together. Other great ideas: sporting events, potluck meals, team t-shirts, and drawings for interesting prizes. The more you work to bring people together, the easier it will be to form teams that work well and are able to achieve company objectives efficiently and successfully. Team building can be very effective if done right, so it pays to find a company that will set everything up for you.
If your company needs some good team building ideas, research the various team building companies that provide this type of service to a wide range of businesses. They come up with the team building ideas for you so you don’t have to be involved in every detail of the planning. This way you can organize and set up team building activities for your company that are sure to improve employee relations and boost morale.