Whether you are an organisation, or a professional responsible for facilitating the team building process of a team or group, the following tips are ensured to give you some new ideas on how to accelerate your team building initiatives:
1. Create Common Vision
A common vision for all team members is essential for team
building and organisational success. Spend time visioning as a team – what you
want to create and where you want to go. This visioning time should also enable
you to celebrate your current successes!
Ask Yourself: How clear is our vision? Do all team members
hold the same vision?
2. Develop Common Goals
Ensure that your organisational/project and program goals
are understood and supported by all team members. All team members need to
understand how their efforts are feeding into the larger objectives.
Ask Yourself: Do all team members know what role they play
in supporting our larger team/organisational goals? Is everyone clear on what
those goals are?
3. Clarify Roles and Responsibilities
One of the main challenges for organisations and groups to
move ahead to where they really want to be is due to a lack of clarity on
individual roles and responsibilities. Clarifying these roles can help in
supporting and achieving your common vision and goals.
Ask yourself: “How clear is our staff in understanding their
specific roles? Their specific responsibilities? Where do roles and
responsibilities overlap between individual team members? Where do roles and
responsibilities overlap with other departments.
4. Ensure Management Support
Supervisors and managers play a key role in “keeping the
learning alive”. Ensure that supervisors, managers and owners are following up
with staff regarding what their needs are, and how team building efforts can be
enhanced. Managers also play a key role in ensuring that the learning from team
building initiatives is brought back to the office.
Ask yourself: What systems do we currently have in place to
ensure that the learning is sustained? Can we discuss this in staff meetings?
Do we have a coaching program in place?
5. Use Engaging Exercises
Team building can be fun and challenging, supporting teams
to reach their highest potential. Ensure that participants are engaged and
challenged through the process. Consider bringing in an experienced external
facilitator to support your efforts, and even run a train-the-trainer program
with your staff.
Ask Yourself: What types of activities or exercises would
work best for our team members? What are the topics of relevance for them?
6. Take it out of the Office
Holding team building sessions in the office can be
disruptive and distracting. The lure of email, voice mail and urgent items
often take precedence to a full team in-office experience. Reduce everyday
distractions by holding team building sessions outside of the office.
Ask Yourself: What type of environment would our staff team
benefit from? Some organisations prefer a more “corporate” formal team building
session, while others embrace nature and the outdoors.
7. Create An Action Plan
Create an action plan to make the team building part of your
everyday work or life. Often retreat days or team building programs have few
links with everyday business or organisational objectives. Ensure that when
designing the program you create links to the organisation or to everyday life
so that participants can “bring the learning home”. This can be done by
building into the program formal action planning time, and having managers
follow up during regular staff meetings. Coaching can be leveraged to keep the
“learning alive” after team building events. Research whether individual, team
or group coaching will work best for your organisation.
Ask Yourself: What can we do to support and sustain
individual and team action planning? What current systems do we have to revisit
the action plans? Some examples may include staff meetings, manager check-ins,
internal/external coaching.
8. Spend time learning what your team members need
Creating a group or organisational context where
communication is open, and individual team members feel comfortable bringing
their needs up, will make teambuilding efforts more focused and productive.
Find out exactly what team members are looking for to
enhance their work and efforts before the team building event. This can be done
by the facilitator and/or the team building committee, through email
questionnaires, focus groups, or individual meetings.
One of the most common pitfalls of team building initiatives
is that it does not match the needs of the team. Ensure you invest enough time
before the event itself to assess what team members really want.
Ask Yourself: What are the top three priorities for our team
members? What is the best way to find this out from individual members?
9. Keep it regular
Once a year team building programs can do a lot for boosting
morale on the short-term, but ask yourself, “What would it be like if we did
something more often?”. Imagine the results!
Using the same facilitator over successive programs can
often give added traction to the event. Trust and understanding of the team is
usually higher each successive event, when using the same facilitator.
Ask Yourself: What amount of time can we commit to team
building efforts in our organisation this year? What will that look like?
10. Have Fun!
Most importantly, team building initiatives should be fun
and engaging for all staff members. They should be relevant and meaningful for
the team. Design with the facilitator(s) what structure and topics will give
your team the most leverage.
Ask Yourself: What would fun look like for us, given our
organisational culture and philosophy?
Look to integrate some of these ideas and systems into your
next team building initiative, whether it is a retreat, team coaching, or a
workshop, to build a more extraordinary, sustained, productive team.
Team Coaching: http://www.groupcoachingessentials.com/pages/team-coaching
Teams365 Blog: PotentialsRealized.com
Teams365 Blog: PotentialsRealized.com
