Team building is a collection of interactions, activities, events, and other formal strategies to promote team effectiveness, cooperation, morale, trust, cohesion, etc. Ultimately, helping teams work better together. Team building also plays a large role in employee engagement and satisfaction. Gallup’s workplace research finds that one of the key indicators of employee engagement is having a “best friend” at work. Team building efforts not only help teams work more efficiently but also provide opportunities for interacting and relationship building.
Let’s explore some dos and don’ts of team building:
DO: Align Activities with Team Scope
To be effective, team building activities should align with the unique needs of the team, including the scope of day-to-day interactions. If the team often collaborates on creative projects, consider activities that encourage brainstorming, problem solving, and innovation. Alternatively, if team members work independently and barely know each other, consider activities that enable connection and relationship building. This alignment ensures that these exercises are directly applicable to the workplace and relevant to team members.
DON’T: Schedule All Activities Outside of Work Hours
I’ve been on teams that love getting together after work. Surely, there are plenty of times when team events are beneficial and/or appreciated outside of work hours. But when this becomes the norm for team building opportunities, employees are put in an unfair position in which they must sacrifice another part of their life to participate. This automatically excludes people that have unbreakable commitments (which disproportionately affects some groups more than others). It can also lead to a divide between those that attend vs do not attend.
Focus on team building activities that can be done during the team’s normal work hours. If your team is spread across multiple time zones, consider this in the planning process as well by ensuring that scheduled times are appropriate for everyone. If you work in the type of business that cannot pull away during regular working hours, that’s a perfect reason to get more creative with the opportunities you provide.
DO: Incorporate Team Building into the Day-to-Day
Speaking of creativity, not all team building needs to be a workshop or big event. Consider ways that you can incorporate team building opportunities into the team’s existing workflow. Here are some ideas:
- Collaborative projects: Assign projects to partners or groups to enable collaboration and teamwork.
- Check-ins: A brief check-in during existing team meetings where members share a goal, challenge, or another relevant topic. This helps everyone stay informed and encourages support and collaboration.
- Peer Recognition: Create a system where team members can recognize and appreciate each other’s strengths and contributions.
- Rotating Roles: Rotate responsibilities for a short period to help team members understand each other’s perspectives and challenges.
- Virtual Meetups: For remote teams, provide virtual meeting rooms where team members can grab morning coffee or meet for lunch.
- Potlucks: Pick a day for team members to bring a dish to share, encouraging connection and celebration of diverse cultures through food.
DON’T: Make It Awkward
Team building should not make team members feel uncomfortable. Many people already feel an inherent awkwardness when meeting new people and developing working relationships, so it’s important that participants feel psychologically (and physically) safe. Avoid activities that are overly intrusive, for example, requiring people to share deep personal details about their lives or excessive physical touching (I’m looking at you, human knot!). When people feel uncomfortable it can lead to awkwardness and disengagement instead of building team spirit.
DO: Select Inclusive Activities
Ensure that your team building activities are inclusive and considerate of everyone’s abilities and cultural differences. This means selecting activities that don’t exclude team members due to physical limitations, personal beliefs, dietary restrictions, etc. It’s also a good practice to mix up activities so that you can better cater to a range of interests. Collect ideas from your team to encourage participation.
DON’T: Force Participation
Not every activity must be mandatory. Offering the option of a virtual meetup in the morning for your remote team can be a simple and organic way to help team members get to know each other, but it becomes just another awkward, time-consuming, mandatory meeting when it’s forced. Forced participation can lead to resentment and reduced morale. Including team feedback in the planning process can help align activities with the team’s interests and engagement level. Provide opportunities and encourage voluntary participation where appropriate and use participation rates as a measurable indicator of progress.
DO: Set Clear Goals for Each Activity
Every team building activity should have a clear objective, whether it’s to improve communication, enhance problem-solving skills, or simply break the ice. Align goals and team building activities with a larger team development plan. Setting specific goals ensures that each activity has a purpose and can contribute to measurable outcomes.
DON’T: Ignore Follow-Up
Team building activities lose a lot of value if they aren’t followed up on and incorporated into larger team development efforts. Ignoring follow-up after formal team building activities is the same thing as having your team attend a learning workshop and then never speaking of it again. This results in lost opportunities for growth and improvement, and much of what is learned is forgotten. Ensure that the team has opportunities to reflect, provide feedback, and take future action.
DO: Make It Fun!
If the team hates doing it, what’s the point? When the experience is enjoyable, employees are more likely to be engaged, and when they are engaged, they are more likely to take something valuable away from the experience. When team members have fun together, they build stronger bonds which help foster a positive work environment. Here are some examples of fun activities:
- Escape Room Challenges: Solve puzzles and clues to “escape” a themed challenge, fostering teamwork, problem-solving, and communication.
- Office Trivia: Host a trivia game with questions about the company, team members, and shared experiences to promote camaraderie and a sense of belonging. This doubles as a great opportunity to recognize individual or team achievements.
- Team Sports: Organize a sports team to encourage physical activity and teamwork.
- Volunteer Day: Arrange a day for the team to volunteer at a local charity or community project.
- Explore Your City: Get out of the office and explore, whether it’s a scavenger hunt, a city tour, or a local food crawl.
- Board Game Tournament: Play strategy-based games for light-hearted competition that encourages communication and decision-making.
Conclusion
Team building activities are a valuable tool for fostering a cohesive and collaborative work environment. By considering these dos and don’ts, you can create effective and enjoyable activities that strengthen your team and enhance workplace dynamics. Remember, the key is to align activities with your team’s needs, encourage collaboration, respect cultural differences, and most importantly, make it fun!