Team Building Activities – Guarantee Increased Work Group Effectiveness

Team Building Activities – Guarantee Increased Work Group Effectiveness

As strange as it may sound, team building is one of those vague and misused terms which managers occasionally call into play as a solution for sluggish work unit performance. Just so you know, the rise in popularity and use of team building parallels the growing perception of work as the output of teams of workers rather than compartmentalised tasks on an assembly line. Recent reports have clearly demonstrated the importance of effective team structures to the overall performance and effectiveness of the worker. Just so you are aware, the building of a team usually requires a great deal of effort rather than simply recognising the interdependence which exists amongst workers and other independent work units. Below is an overview of team building process which points out how to analyse behaviours and activities which hinder effectiveness as well as highlights on how to develop and implement courses of action (most of which have proven to overcome recurring problems).

While the underlying objective of team building is to set up a much more effective work group, the specific purpose of the process usually largely depends on the assessment of information that is gathered in the initial stages of data collection. More specifically, team building will always seek to resolve at least one of the following issues:

a. The lack of clear goals and the failure to meet the expected performance targets
b. Interpersonal conflicts and distrust
c. The lack of clear roles and leadership

In addition to the above, successful team building usually requires the involvement of a third party, a facilitator. This should always be a professional with vast knowledge as well as rich experience in the field of applied behavioral sciences (and is not a member of either team) preferably an internal resource person within the organisation or better yet someone from the outside. One key role of the facilitator besides introducing different Corporate Team Building Activities is to assist team members learn more about group dynamics, help members understand their individual behaviors as well as how to identify and master the skills which they need in order to increase their overall efficiency not only while working as a team but also at individual level. Take note, the facilitators main function is not to directly resolve the team’s problems but to help the members figure out how to cope with each other and become more self sufficient.

During actual team building meetings, data feedback sessions serve as a spring board for the rest of the session’s activities. With support from the facilitator, the team should then be able to formulate an agenda and proceed to decide on the priorities of the issues that may have come up from the diagnostic phase.

To crown it all up, Corporate Team Building Activities have proven to help individuals that are part of a team become more sensitive to the impact of their behaviors as far as the effective functioning of a team is concerned. These activities bring about more self awareness which in turn usually leads to changed behavior patterns. In addition to also positively affecting the relationship of the group to the rest of the organisation, team building also helps members realise that different approaches exist to the way teams operate and are expected to perform their duties.