There are no i’s in team. There shouldn’t be broken bones, either.
But a company’s attempt to increase staff camaraderie by placing employees in out-of-the ordinary circumstances — blanketed under the pretense of team building — could do more team breaking. NPR’s “Morning Edition” recently reported on a Washington, D.C.-area company’s ill-begotten trip to a paintball range for a so-called team-building exercise — where the staff’s emotion and poor judgment took over. Many supervisors returned home having been pummeled with pellets and covered in welts.
If you’ve been charged with facilitating a team-building exercise for your department or company, you’ve got a tall task. These events now have a soiled reputation for being either too boring to make an impact or too extreme to come away unscathed, and managers with good intentions struggle to make the activity positive and meaningful. Lest your efforts become one more trust-fall-gone-wrong video on YouTube, take these tips to heart.
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First, you need a solid definition of what qualifies as team building. Shawn Dunning, director of the corporate team-building firm Adventure Associates Inc., in El Cerrito, California, says the term is extremely subjective. Still, there are core tenets: “A team-building activity is any positive, shared experience that reinforces positive, team skills,” says David Jacobson, founder of the New York City-based corporate entertainment and team-building company TrivWorks. “It has to have some form of structure and someone who has put it together with clearly defined goals.”
Are you hoping to improve employee relations, or do you want to help your staff develop a new skill? Decide your purpose and goals, and let them dictate the type of team building to try, Jacobson says. And while on the subject of type — unless your purpose is to endanger your colleagues, some activities are non grata.
For example, “there’s something called zorbing,” says Anne Thornley-Brown, founder and president of the Toronto-based management consulting firm Executive Oasis International. “It’s this large clear ball that you can put one or two people inside and then push them down a hill. But there have been [recreational] instances where the ball has veered off course, and people have been killed.” Zorbing is a worst-case example, but generally team-building shouldn’t simulate violence, cause harm or humiliate participants.
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All physical activities aren’t off limits, though. Adventure Associates Inc. facilitates nationwide team-building activities, some of which get the blood pumping, like indoor rock climbing, geocaching and scavenger hunts. “We’re not doing picnic Olympics,” Dunning explains. “There isn’t a single activity in our repertoire that automatically leads to the most physically fit doing better than others.”
What’s important is that employees recognize the parallel between the activity and the workplace and that they’re appropriately challenged. “Every one of our programs includes a discussion with participants about their appropriate level of challenge,” Dunning says. “And challenge is important. Learning happens when you’re outside of your comfort zone.”
Jacobson’s company, TrivWorks, facilitates live trivia events for team building. This format fosters good-natured competition, a crucial component of effective team-building, according to Jacobson. His company’s events are also inclusive, even for employees who don’t enjoy physical activity. “We offer live customized trivia for your group, your team goals and anyone can participate and engage,” he says.
Fun isn’t a dirty word, but remember team building isn’t strictly social. In other words, impromptu happy hours or the annual holiday party aren’t applicable. “Those are just nice add-ons,” Thornley-Brown explains. “It would be as if I invited you to dinner and served an appetizer or a dessert, but no actual meal.”
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Don’t make your staff play guessing games as to the purpose of the event, either. “Participants have to be clear about the organizational strengths, issues or challenges, and what they’re attempting to achieve,” Thornley-Brown says. Guessing games on the duration of the event also won’t win you any friends — professional facilitators plan events that last anywhere from half a day to several days, so pick activities that will help you meet your objective without inconveniencing your staff.
Finally, a productive team-building experience is positive for its attendees, with obvious lessons learned. “The worst possible outcome is having the exact opposite of what you intended happen,” Jacobson says. “You’ve crushed morale and left your employees alienated or disconnected.” However: “If the exercise is good, your team will take what they did or learned back to the workplace,” Jacobson continues. “They’re going to collaborate and communicate better.”
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Corporate Team-Building Activities: The Good, the Bad and the Really Ugly originally appeared on usnews.com
