Business performance and success comes down to a few essential ingredients. One of these vital ingredients is to have effective, flexible and cohesive teams.
Regardless of what industry your business performs in, or what specific tasks your department handles, you will need a team of employees to help you achieve what is required.
Although teamwork allows us to achieve so much more than we could achieve alone, teams don’t just happen on their own, they must be built. Building a team is not always an easy task, as we are working with unique people, each with their own personal backgrounds and previous experiences. These things can determine how effectively a person will be able to work in a team and can impact the following:
How trusting a person will be of other team members;
Communication styles;
Conflict styles – how someone will manage conflict within the team;
How committed and loyal to the team a person will be;
Whether someone is more focused on personal success rather than team success;
What team role the person will assume; and
How well they will work with others.
Once a team is built, the hard work really begins. Teams must be continually developed and nourished to ensure maximum motivation and output from your employees, and ultimately business performance.
It is imperative that a team is functioning as one, that you are working together to accomplish every task and that there is guidance and support along the way.
This is where the role of the leader comes in. Although everyone plays a role in building the team, the leader plays the most significant role in guiding, shaping and maintaining the team.
This can be achieved through the use of team building activities.
What is Team Building?
Team building is a type of psychological discipline that can help individuals come together as a team to complete an activity. Team building activities are generally designed to:
Inspire and motivate employees;
Open up communication channels among the team;
Establish team roles;
Encourage individuals to work together to solve a common problem;
Increase team effectiveness and performance; and
Provide a sense of fun.
Team building also allows a leader to identify an employee’s strengths and potential areas for development in the areas of leadership ability, personal motivation, communication styles and problem solving ability. Through these activities, you will have the opportunity to provide some positive feedback to individuals and work with them to take the right actions to assist them to become effective and productive workers.
Why is Team Building Important?
Team building is important as it will help the team to learn how to communicate with each other and help them to discover that through shared problem solving, they can achieve more.
Team building assists team members to forget any differences that they may have and at the same time help them to overcome any future obstacles by working together towards a common goal.
The potential benefits of team building include:
Improved communication between team members;
Improved workplace culture;
Increased employee job satisfaction;
Increased motivation levels;
The ability to get to know each other on a deeper level;
The ability for team members to learn more about themselves;
Assists in determining the strengths and areas for improvement of individuals and the team as a whole;
Improved productivity of the team;
Improved problem solving ability;
Decreased team conflict;
Increased team bonds;
Increased team collaboration;
Shared workloads and problems; and
Increased trust and team loyalty.
With such a great list of potential benefits, team building is considered to be one of the most effective ways to ensure a higher level of employee satisfaction and retention. If an employee feels like they are part of a high-performing, successful team then they will feel increased loyalty to the organisation as a whole and be more prepared to remain in their role. Team building is a great way to develop an employee’s interpersonal skills such as leadership, negotiation skills, problem solving ability and communication. All of which are very important components of a successful business.
How do I Implement Team Building Activities?
There are many highly effective and inexpensive team building activities that can be implemented quickly.
I recommend adding a small team building activity into a team meeting at least once a fortnight. These don’t need to be lengthy, it might just be a 10 minute activity and can be as simple as a team brainstorm to come up with solutions to fix a problem.
If you don’t currently conduct team meetings, then this is your first step. Team meetings allow you to open up dialogue between team members and ensure that everyone is on the same page. They also provide the platform for ongoing team building.
A quick search of the internet will bring up many widely-used team building activities focused around a number of different areas. These are a great place to start.
An alternative to this is to get a professional in to do an initial team building session, then you can take up the reigns and continue to build upon the initial session.
About PDI Solutions
PDI Solutions can work with organisations to develop and deliver training solutions tailored to your particular organisation, including targeted team building sessions. Contact us today for a free consultation at info@pdisolutions.com.au or visit our website at pdisolutions.com.au
