Team Building

   

Team Building

What is team building?

Source: Teambuilding

            Team building is the process of helping a group of people learn to work effectively as a team. Team building usually involves activities and events that are fun and motivational and help the team build skills like problem-solving, planning and communication (Indeed Editorial Team, 2022).

Importance of team building

Team building is one of the most important investments you can make for your employees. Team building:

• Encourages networking and socializing. Socializing increases morale and helps employees work together more effectively to solve problems in the workplace.

• Boosts team performance. After completing team building activities together, employees better understand one another's interests, strengths and weaknesses.

• Improves productivity. Fun team-building activities can help employees connect in a more effective way, teaching them to work well together.

• Fosters innovation and creativity. Successful team building contributes to a more creative workplace, as people tend to have a larger imagination when they are comfortable.

• Improves communication. Team-building activities help people to be more comfortable with one another, improving communication in the workplace 

   (Indeed Editorial Team, 2022).

Let us now discuss the various benefits of team building to an organization:

Source: vantagecircle

Identify Strengths and Weaknesses

Through team-building exercises, the strengths and weaknesses of each member can be identified. In day-to-day routine work, such an analysis cannot be done. These competencies can be used by managers to form effective teams.

Direct Towards Vision and Mission

Team building activities define the role and importance of the team for the organization to reach its vision. It makes the individuals understand the organization’s goals, objectives, mission and vision very clearly and motivates them to contribute towards it.

Develops Communication and Collaboration

 Team building activities enhance the interpersonal relations of the team members. It makes individuals comfortable and familiar with one another. Collaboration develops trust and understanding among the team members.

Establishes Roles and Responsibilities

 It defines and clarifies the role of each member of a team. Moreover, the members are given individual responsibilities, along with the motivation to perform as a team.

Initiates Creative Thinking and Problem-Solving

In a team, individuals are motivated to give their views, opinions and solution to a particular problem. It leads to brainstorming and exploring their creative side.

Builds Trust and Morale

By conducting team-building activities, the organization makes the employees feel valued. It encourages them to develop their skills and build strong interpersonal relations, ultimately boosting the morale and trust of the team members.

Introduces and Manages Change

The technique of team building makes it easier for managers to incorporate an organizational change by making the individuals familiar with the change and its necessity. It also helps in managing such change and its impact on the working and team’s performance.

Facilitates Delegation

The managers find it more suitable to delegate the work to a team rather than an individual. Therefore, team building helps managers to efficiently and adequately delegate tasks to the team.

Better Productivity

 If the team is wisely formed and all the team members work collaboratively to achieve the objectives, the productivity of all the individuals will improve. Thus, increasing the productivity of the team and the organization.

Team building is not an easy task. A high-performance team can fulfil organizational objectives. However, an inefficient team can lead to a wastage of time and resources of the organization (Limited, I.U., (no date).

Source: emploi.lefigaro

Therefore, we can say that there are multiple adverse effects of team building too, which are as follows:

Develops Conflict

 Sometimes, the team lacks coordination and understanding among its members. This leads to conflict and clashes within the team and hence decreases efficiency and productivity. A lot of time is wasted in such conflict management.

Unproductive or Freeride Team Members

At times, some of the team members do not contribute much to team performance. Such individuals are considered to be freeriding team members. They prove to be inefficient and less productive for the team.

May Lead to Non-Cooperation

Every individual is different from one other. The team members sometimes lack cooperation and unity. This non-cooperation among the team members leads to a waste of effort and hinders the performance of the team as a whole.

Difficult to Evaluate Individual Performance

Whatever the result or the outcome the organization gets by team building is the team’s achievement or failure. Usually, the organization overlooks the contribution of each member individually while rewarding the efforts of the whole team.

Involves Cost

Team building activities require time and money. Moreover, a lot of time, cost and resources are consumed in ensuring coordination, balance, feedback, decision making and conflict management within the teams formed.

Accountability and Credibility Issues

In case of failure, it becomes difficult to find out the reason. The team members sometimes do take up accountability for their work, holding the other members to be responsible for the unfavourable outcome. In case of success, the team members get busy taking up the credit themselves, ignoring the efforts of the whole team together (Limited, I.U., (no date).

10 Key Elements of Teamwork

Effective teamwork won’t manifest itself without dedicated guidance and the right project management skills.

To achieve a team-centred workplace culture, leadership must make a concerted effort to build a transparent and supportive environment that encourages teamwork at all levels. By becoming familiar with the different attributes that constitute strong team management, leaders can take an assertive approach when establishing effective teamwork in their organization.

Here are 10 practical ways how to achieve teamwork in the workplace:

1. Communicate openly and transparently

2. Establish a clear organizational purpose

3. Set concrete team goals

4. Promote ownership and accountability

5. Delegate tasks based on strengths

6. Promote efficiency and avoid micromanagement

7. Support employees in building team cohesion

8. Create a culture of ideas and innovation

9. Reward teams for taking risks

10. Make trust an essential value (DeakinCo, 2022)

 

Conclusion

Team-building activities are essential for managers because they help to improve team morale and communication. By establishing team-building skills and teamwork, managers can overcome communication barriers and build trust within their team. Team building enhances members' knowledge by exchanging ideas. And it supports the growth of the organization.

Reference

DeakinCo (2022). 10 key elements of effective teamwork . Available at: https://deakinco.com/resource/the-five-elements-of-successful-teamwork/ (Accessed: March 21, 2023).

Indeed Editorial Team. (2022, November 26). 30 Team-Building Ideas for the Workplace. Indeed Career Guide. https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/team-building

Limited, I.(U. (2022) Advantages and disadvantages of Team Building, LinkedIn. Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/advantages-disadvantages-team-building-ssfdgfsfdg-rtyty (Accessed: March 18, 2023). 

Sharma, S. (2023). 5 important benefits and challenges of team-building activities at work - Risely. [online] Available at: https://www.risely.me/benefits-challenges-team-building-activities-at-work/ [Accessed 20 Mar. 2023].