Collaboration is essential in twenty-first century businesses and if you are a company owner or a manager with staff that do not know how to work with others, you can find yourself in trouble. However, working collaboratively is not always uncomplicated. You probably had your share of undertaking experiences where you have free riders. This could be extremely irritating. Your company, unit, or team can gain much from doing teambuilding activities.
On the whole, teambuilding activities help develop trust and break down barriers, which can go a long way toward achieving more effective collaboration. Teambuilding activities allow management and staff to temporarily forget work deadlines, sales targets and company structure and concentrate on mingling informally. During a teambuilding event, you also pull out workers from their usual stressors, enabling them to build new and vital necessary skills, such as how to solve certain problems and improving communication within the team. It can be hard for staff to build new skills effectively in a fast paced office environment. Another advantage to teambuilding activities is that they help demonstrate which roles every member is naturally good in. By letting members to develop and focus on what they are good at, everybody can best contribute and perform seamlessly together.
Tips when selecting team building programs
Identify what your company needs- It is important to determine what you would like the participants to get from the event. For example, if you feel a growing conflict within the group, it may be unwise to invite them to a paintball teambuilding activity as this is only going to raise hostility and competition. If employees rarely speak to one another, concentrate on communication exercises.
Choose programs that everybody will delight in - The bottomline is, if participants dislike doing that activity, they will not open up to the idea of making improvements to lines of communication. On the other hand, if you do events that everyone can enjoy, you can readily persuade staff to partake more and truly get something out of the experience. One popular team building event today that is enjoyable to do is Bike-a-thon, where you build a bike. What makes it different from and better than other teambuilding functions is that it has a charity aspect. In this event, participants join hands to build bicycles, which are then given to deserving young boys and girls.
Don't make it a one-time event - Having a big annual teambuilding event gives little to ensure the company's long-term success. It would be advisable to have frequent teambuilding programs throughout the year so your staff can connect and learn to trust one another better.