Published on Wednesday, Jul 04, 2007
Team-building programmes are the latest craze taking the corporate world by storm. As teamwork is currently the hottest mantra for success, almost every organisation worth its salt organises regular teaming events where employees ‘learn to work together by playing together’!
A top consultant highlights, “The rapid shifts in workplace environments and personnel eventually make it harder for people to work as a team”. With this acute necessity for and significance of encouraging staff camaraderie, numerous team-building event management companies have mushroomed across the world.
Though small team-building sessions can be held in the office itself, most employers prefer to remove them from the formal workplace turf to a neutral ground.
Cut off from the hustle and bustle of daily work – incessant emails, screaming bosses, project deadlines, assignments, responsibilities and other everyday concerns, employees think and behave differently. This provides a rare chance to get to know each other while having fun.
The advantages
The comfortable and stress-free atmosphere lends itself well to interpersonal interactions and shared bonhomie. By spending quality time together away from the office hierarchy, employees relax and bond on a personal level, horizontally (with colleagues from the same or different departments) as well as vertically (subordinates with managers and managers with higher executives and so on).
Team-building events also present a unique platform to revive plummeting enthusiasm, build a sense of direction and enthuse the workforce. They can be organised for brainstorming creative ideas, developing lateral thinking and communicating changed goals. Or could simply be a reward for exemplary and dedicated performance.
The ingredients
Huge groups of employees routinely take off to five-star hotels, posh resorts, wildlife sanctuaries or other cosy getaways for a solid dose of multi-activity team-building sessions.
Everything goes in the name of team building from adventure games like rock climbing, river rafting and go karting to team sports like football or rugby to initiative exercises like treasure hunt, building boats or cracking murder mysteries!
Know the latest in team building? Corporates making bulk booking for their entire staff for that latest southern star thriller!
Anything from spy games to organising a short stage show can be translated into an exhilarating activity as long as it neither compels participation nor humiliates participants. Teams though should be chosen at random so that employees effectively learn how to harmonise personality types and balance skill sets for a winning outcome.
The activities should also have undertones of interpersonal interaction and group perspective to foster a sense of collaboration among team members.
What’s more, the challenges can be custom-designed on the lines of workplace issues like delegation, communication, consensus building, problem solving, conflict resolution and time management to integrate them with real-time work goals.
The outcome
Engaging in healthy competition promotes individual development as employees learn to be more effective, efficient and result-oriented.
Besides, the element of cooperation not only brings the members together for a common cause but also encourages the cohesive concept of working together as a team.
When employees willingly join forces with colleagues and bosses to sail a yacht or solve a puzzle, their true attitude and behaviour surfaces.
This can transform negative perceptions. This helps them understand each other’s motivations, recognise weaknesses and realise how to make the most of individual strengths. With valuable insights into others’ way of working, they learn to plan together and iron out problems with workable plans and effective solutions.
The ensuing games, role-plays and discussions (of family backgrounds, hobbies and friends) also break personal and political barriers, as staff from different levels and departments come together and enthusiastically pool their talents for a shared purpose. A common vision binds them together and that goes a long way in inculcating mutual trust and support.
The resultant powerful sense of belonging with and on the team will spill over into the workplace and facilitate them to find effective ways of working together.
Increased commitment, morale, effective performance and lasting relationships are bound to follow.
To wrap up, a team-building event effectively breaks the monotony of work and improves working relationships. Employees have a good laugh, enjoy and get back to work with a sense of working as a true team player.
A top consultant highlights, “The rapid shifts in workplace environments and personnel eventually make it harder for people to work as a team”. With this acute necessity for and significance of encouraging staff camaraderie, numerous team-building event management companies have mushroomed across the world.
Though small team-building sessions can be held in the office itself, most employers prefer to remove them from the formal workplace turf to a neutral ground.
Cut off from the hustle and bustle of daily work – incessant emails, screaming bosses, project deadlines, assignments, responsibilities and other everyday concerns, employees think and behave differently. This provides a rare chance to get to know each other while having fun.
The advantages
The comfortable and stress-free atmosphere lends itself well to interpersonal interactions and shared bonhomie. By spending quality time together away from the office hierarchy, employees relax and bond on a personal level, horizontally (with colleagues from the same or different departments) as well as vertically (subordinates with managers and managers with higher executives and so on).
Team-building events also present a unique platform to revive plummeting enthusiasm, build a sense of direction and enthuse the workforce. They can be organised for brainstorming creative ideas, developing lateral thinking and communicating changed goals. Or could simply be a reward for exemplary and dedicated performance.
The ingredients
Huge groups of employees routinely take off to five-star hotels, posh resorts, wildlife sanctuaries or other cosy getaways for a solid dose of multi-activity team-building sessions.
Everything goes in the name of team building from adventure games like rock climbing, river rafting and go karting to team sports like football or rugby to initiative exercises like treasure hunt, building boats or cracking murder mysteries!
Know the latest in team building? Corporates making bulk booking for their entire staff for that latest southern star thriller!
Anything from spy games to organising a short stage show can be translated into an exhilarating activity as long as it neither compels participation nor humiliates participants. Teams though should be chosen at random so that employees effectively learn how to harmonise personality types and balance skill sets for a winning outcome.
The activities should also have undertones of interpersonal interaction and group perspective to foster a sense of collaboration among team members.
What’s more, the challenges can be custom-designed on the lines of workplace issues like delegation, communication, consensus building, problem solving, conflict resolution and time management to integrate them with real-time work goals.
The outcome
Engaging in healthy competition promotes individual development as employees learn to be more effective, efficient and result-oriented.
Besides, the element of cooperation not only brings the members together for a common cause but also encourages the cohesive concept of working together as a team.
When employees willingly join forces with colleagues and bosses to sail a yacht or solve a puzzle, their true attitude and behaviour surfaces.
This can transform negative perceptions. This helps them understand each other’s motivations, recognise weaknesses and realise how to make the most of individual strengths. With valuable insights into others’ way of working, they learn to plan together and iron out problems with workable plans and effective solutions.
The ensuing games, role-plays and discussions (of family backgrounds, hobbies and friends) also break personal and political barriers, as staff from different levels and departments come together and enthusiastically pool their talents for a shared purpose. A common vision binds them together and that goes a long way in inculcating mutual trust and support.
The resultant powerful sense of belonging with and on the team will spill over into the workplace and facilitate them to find effective ways of working together.
Increased commitment, morale, effective performance and lasting relationships are bound to follow.
To wrap up, a team-building event effectively breaks the monotony of work and improves working relationships. Employees have a good laugh, enjoy and get back to work with a sense of working as a true team player.
P. AGGARWAL
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