Progressive Intelligence Consulting Group
Team Building Ideas & Team Building Techniques
"The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime." -- Babe Ruth
Team Building Ideas & Team Building Techniques
There are many sources of team building ideas and team building techniques. The reason for the team building exercise and the objectives of the exercise should guide the selection of the team building activities and the setting of the team building event. You should plan for several elements to ensure the results you seek:
- Based on your objectives and desired results, how will you organize the team building event? Will it be multiple days? Off-site or on-site (remember the distractions of the office)? Will it be multiple activities? What are the logistics – overnight/lodging, meals, transportation, work space, communications, etc?
- To facilitate or not facilitate – that is the question. Will you recommend facilitation of some of the team building activities?. Do you have an approved plan and budget for the team building event, especially the cost of outside facilitation? Will you require participation of members of the senior management team?
- Select the team building activities, each aligned with your specific (SMART) objectives, considering the time, number of participants, travel constraints, break-out activities, whether an upfront “ice-breaker” exercise is required, and more. Also, if one or more of the team building activities are to be facilitated, be sure to plan all of the activities and schedule for that day with the facilitator.
- Determine the materials required for each team building activity and ensure that all activities will be clearly explained and that adequate time is provided for post-activity feedback and review.
- Is a brief “training” of the participants or review of pre-event materials required? For example, do all members of the event understand brainstorming (if that is a planned team building activity) and how to participate?
- Plan for unknowns – work with the facilitator to help plan for unknowns.
As a team building technique, using a “workshop” for specific business issues may provide better results. Workshops can be most effective in identifying, managing and incorporating the effects of change. Also, the use of workshops can assist in achieving business initiatives, particularly the creation of plans, process and actions to achieve specific organizational objectives.
From our experience with many different types of team building events, Progressive Intelligence is providing a general outline to setup a team building event or workshop. Since there are many different team building events and workshop formats, we provided a general format below.
- Before your workshop or team building event identify and agree with the participants the purpose, objectives and topics (may be issues or problem areas) to be included.
- It is important to decide the team building event or workshop objectives, relative to the team's 'maturity', experience and development. This will enable the facilitator (if any) and the team building or workshop planner/leader to understand and obtain agreement on the level of freedom and responsibility to give the participants during workshops, and in agreeing to workshop follow-up actions and responsibilities.
- Set and communicate the date, venue and other logistics for meeting and issue agenda, with necessary explanations.
- At the beginning of the workshop or initial team building exercise, review the purpose, objectives, and process. Introduce any pre-agreed expectations; if none are pre-agreed, begin an exercise on expectations (this will be a pre-planned exercise). Remember to do a brief Q&A to encourage participation and calm any fears.
- As an initial workshop exercise, a Brainstorming session can quickly identify ideas and opportunities, with the participation of the entire group – use of a flip chart is best.
- Immediately following the brainstorming, split the group into pairs or threes (more usually creates passengers) and request they come up with an outline actions/initiatives/plans to achieve agreed purpose and objectives.
- Have groups present back their outlines and ideas. Review with the entire group, praising positive aspects in each, and coming to agreement on areas which would benefit from improvement.
- Task and agree for small groups to work together (perhaps in a facilitated session) to refine outlines and plans into a set of clear (SMART) objectives. Use these objectives during the remaining portions of the workshop, as well as afterward for review with the leadership team. These SMART objectives will form the basis for follow-up and coaching during implementation.
- During follow-up and coaching, encourage, support and invite ideas for future workshop items and process improvements.
Corporate Team Building Events & Activities
Corporate team building events and activities, as presented in various settings and often as part of seminars, lunch meetings, or company meetings, “promote” team building and employee motivation. Team building exercises and team building activities are useful in project meetings, to help team members see things differently, use different thinking styles, and promote “outside-the-box” problem solving. Before using any type of corporate team building events or activities, consider whether the event or activity is appropriate for the team members and the current situation of the organization.
Remember, your objectives for all corporate team building events or activities are that the participants enjoy doing the activity; they have an opportunity to learn from their participation; they go away with something they can apply; and that the activity or event will lead to higher performance and improved results.
Always view corporate team building events and exercises as a part of a very broad mix of learning and development experiences. If a leader attempts to solve a behavioral problem with a team building exercise, it can cause the team members to resist participation and become defensive – as we all do when criticized or our weaknesses are on display.
Some employees may have a jaded view of “team building” – after all, some exercises can come off as patronizing, condescending, and trite. Often, day long events and those away from the office are perceived as time wasters. There is often real resistance to corporate team building events. To counter this resistance, involve team members in the design of the event – from selecting activities to choosing the appropriate setting.
Perhaps one or more team members have particular skills that they can contribute to one or more planned activities – perhaps someone was a teacher or facilitator in a past job. Build in one or more exercises that provide real world experiences, perhaps addressing a specific problem or issue currently faced by the team members. Deliver Value.
