Does Team Building Actually Work?

Team building has become an intrinsic part of corporate cultures all over the world. The principle is that teams can become more cohesive if they spend time together outside the work environment. They get to know each other on a personal level and this fosters improved collaboration and communication. Or does it?

The answer is not clear cut. Just like with any other activities, there is a right and a wrong way of doing team building. In this article, we will look at all these aspects and let you draw your own conclusions.

Everyone is different and has specific abilities and weak points. When organizations bring their employees together for a team building, they should consider their weaknesses, as well as their strengths.

Some employees are not physically fit or have medical conditions that prevent them from performing strenuous activities. Thus, a team building involving action sports like rafting or jogging would exclude them from the fun and games. Instead of improving collaboration, such activities will foster bitterness and negative attitudes.

Who builds the highest tower with office furniture? Who runs faster? Who bakes the tastiest cake? Many team building activities have a competitive spirit. Such activities are great if organizations seek to identify team members with specific skills.

But they will not bring your employees together. They will not bring leaders closer to their team members. Competition brings out individualism, not collaboration.

One of the most popular types of team building activities in the last few years is the escape room concept. Team members are locked in a room and have limited time available to find clues, interpret them and escape from the room.

This type of activity is popular because it gives everyone the chance to use their abilities. Some people are good at interpreting clues. Others have acute vision and can see hiding places. Others are nimble on their feet and can climb narrow staircases to reach the respective hiding place. Thus, everyone has the chance to shine and show off their specific talents.

Some leaders promote the concept of spending time after work with their team as a sort of ongoing team building. However, what it actually reads like is forced socialization. The employees are not comfortable saying no, fearing that this would have a negative impact on the way they are perceived by managers.

Thus, they feel coerced to spend their spare time with managers and coworkers and, in time, this will engender frustration, tension, and hostility. However, there is a right way to go about it: when the decision to go out after work comes spontaneously from several team members.

5. Can You Implement Team Building Lessons into Everyday Work?

Last but not least, there is the issue of adequacy. Do team buildings teach employees to do their job better? Can you extrapolate what they learned during a team building to what they do at the office?

If there is no relevance and no connection between the two, then the team building was a failure. It did not help your team improve collaboration, productivity, and other skills. It simply took them away from their family for a few days and forced them to perform purposeless activities.

Team building can uplift or drag down team spirit. It all depends on the type of activities you plan for a team building and how you motivate your employees to participate. At the same time, it depends on the perception the employees have on the balance of power during these activities: is everyone truly equal to everyone else? Do hierarchical lines disappear or at least get blurred?

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