The Value of Team Building
My husband often complains about the team building activities his boss makes them do at work. A lot of the exercises do seem a little juvenile, but I know what his boss is trying to achieve: a team that knows each other well, is comfortable with one another, and are able to work together effectively.
Team building doesn’t have to involve silly activities where you get prizes for answering a question correctly. Team building can be as simple as encouraging everyone to dress up in wigs and costumes for Halloween, or having a special team lunch where everyone gets to order food they like and spend an hour together chatting. Heck, team building could even be everyone going out to happy hour together off of work!
The point is that team building is actually very effective — when it’s not forced by the supervisors. People who spend a lot of time together actually do like to get to know one another, so it’s natural for them to do this on their own when given the opportunity. Supervisors just need to know how to best encourage it. Team lunches (with a little extra time built in for chatting), holiday parties, and encouragement work much better than regimented team building exercises, because the latter are forced and ultimately resented by the employees.
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