As humans, we are social animals, and the relationships in our lives are our motivations for just about everything we do! They are an integral part of the way we interact in the workplace, just as much as they are the reason that we spend every second Sunday with our mothers-in-law... and good teams and good relationships are vital for a productive workplace. Team building are a time-tested way of improving relationships and therefore productivity in your workplace. Today we check out the basics of corporate events and their team building strategies and potential.
What can team building do for your workplace?
So many organisations assume that all they need to do to succeed is to write great job descriptions, and make sure everyone follows them to the letter. Unfortunately, this approach ignores both the natural impact of relationships in the workplace, and their massive potential! Team building can help the people within your company:
• Communicate more effectively
• Get to know each other
• Allow self-discovery
• Identify strengths to be utilised, and weaknesses to be compensated for
• Set goals that work towards the company's common good
• Teach people to self-regulate, in order to reduce supervisory involvement in managing relationships
• Practice collaboration and improve leadership skills
Ultimately, all of these positives that come out of should result in improved productivity, lower employee turnover, a generally more pleasant workplace... and improved profits!
3 Types of Team Building
There are 4 main types of corporate events used for team building, each of which works towards developing a different aspect of teamwork:
Problem solving events: An example of this type of corporate event would be 'Secret agent experiences' or scavenger hunts, where employees must work as a team to find a solution to a problem. These strongly resemble what needs to be done in the workplace, and can combine fun with learning.
Shared experience events: These are the most common type of corporate event for team building. They aim to entertain... but more than that, they aim to create a backdrop of pleasant times and goodwill among employees that mitigates workplace challenges and difficulties. Examples of this type of corporate event include wine tasting, go kart racing, archery, circus skills workshops, etc.
Communication events: One popular example of this type of corporate event is the drumming workshops that are held across the country. Participants have to communicate to transport and set up the equipment as well as non-verbally, in order to play the percussion arrangement that they get taught.
Effective follow-up
Like any worthwhile business exercise, there has to be some assessment afterwards of the success of a team building corporate event! Your follow-up phase for a corporate event could include activities designed to strengthen the teams formed, such as:
• Collecting data on employee opinions of the event
• Having a debriefing phase, where the team is asked to reflect on how they worked together, and what could have been done better.
• Having an awards ceremony
• Asking participants to write about their experiences for a corporate publication
Corporate events are an excellent way to help build and strengthen the team that is your entire organisation. With effective follow-up, they can help create not only a dream-team... but a dream organisation.
No comments:
Post a Comment