December 1, 2014
What are the outcomes, the team building goals, that organizations and managers seek? For some, they may consider team building as playing a silly game. Others may think of it as about indulging in irrelevant and expensive out-of-office activities. Most of them are often quick at dismissing team building as a complete waste of energy and resources. Some of them who have problems in their workstation with demotivated staff, poor performance or frequent conflicts in groups see it as positive, but as an unattainable approach. What all these managers lack is a clear understanding of the team building goals, and the role of these goals in achieving perfect performance. Actually, the overall goal of team building is to flourish the inner ability of team members to take the best out of them, give them full chance of explorations so they can achieve high performance. However, there are specific ultimate team building goals that will help develop the team so it can always yield maximum results throughout the stages of development of the organization. These goals include the following.
- To improve communication among team members
Team building activities are often performed to enhance the communication and coordination among members of a particular team. Effective interpersonal communication improves personal relations and strengthens the bonds among team members. This eventually leads to a pleasant environment where no one hesitates to communicate effectively, making requests and offers, with others. Challenges, therefore, are faced very efficiently leading to an increase in trust. Managers can divide employees and give them fewer people to communicate with while also ensuring that they better understand the audience with whom they communicate. This will make it easier for the employees to work together to come up with new ideas and solve problems.
- To build trust
Team building activities are designed to help develop trust among team members. Trust is the most critical element to any organization, especially when teamwork is needed on a daily basis. Trust can make or break a team, and without teams, business will not survive for long. Teams building activities often foster mutual trust hence allowing team members to be more dependent on one another and be more efficient and productive as well. An activity such as pairing employees and making them maintain their eye contact for at least a minute will help make them become more trusting and comfortable with each other.
- To make team members feel more confident and positive at work
One obstacle to maximum performance among employees is stress and depression. There are team building activities specifically geared towards helping make employees less depressed and brighten their moods. Stress is relieved and it reflects on their work. Constant blames and cribbing towards others eventually stops and so are chances of avoidable mistakes. Positivity may result and the workplace environment benefits. Confidence will creep in and team members will be able to express themselves much more freely. The word “boss” will no longer have a negative connotation.
- Increase collaboration and ease conflicts
Team building activities are supposed to establish very strong bonds among co-workers. Blame games when problems arise and unnecessary conflicts and disputes have to be eliminated. Employees must be able to work closely with one another and become accustomed to each other’s personalities. According to Inc. Magazine, an effective team is the one with “a penchant for collaboration and a keep awareness of interdependency.”