The importance of team building is increasing day by day. With the advent of COVID-19, 2500 % more firms are now investing in virtual team development on a global level. For a team to work together first, members need to be bonded into one unit.

Team-building exercises help improve the interpersonal relationships between team members and build trust and respect among them. In such team-building activities, teams work together for a common goal that is not related to work. It is a good way of spending time with everyone in the workforce, making them more enthusiastic about the coming projects.

Importance of Team Building

Team Building

Have you had a chance to see how crows protect their nest from predators? Crows are very small in size when compared to mighty hawks. But when they come together to work for a single purpose, they can defeat the hawk in no time. This is the power of teamwork. This is what a close-knit team can do for your business as well.

Team building activities are all about giving your employees a chance to know each other, foster positive relationships, and become comfortable with each other, all this while working towards achieving a common goal.

Turn Colleagues Into Friends

When all your employees do at a workplace is discuss the new project and the deadlines, they don’t really get a chance to know each other as friends. Why is it important for your business, though?

When your employees get to know their co-workers, they are more likely to get a glimpse of their strengths and weaknesses. A team leader, who is aware of such character traits of each team member, can take steps to bring the best out of their strengths and help them win a battle against their weaknesses or fears.

Sharing work and responsibilities also becomes easier when the employees “know” the people in the team. Work may indeed be tough and taxing, but being around people they like can help your employees enjoy the process and yield good results.

Builds Trust

A team where the members don’t trust each other is a team that is bound to fail in adverse conditions. But, it is also true that relying on a person whom you just met a few months ago is difficult. This is where your team-building exercises and activities can help you.

A team-building activity, especially that works on the communication skills of employees, gives the understanding that co-workers need to have more faith in one another. It is easier to build trust in lighter scenarios like adventure games or a sports team than in a very important project. You help your entire team build trust in each other steadily with these small activities, so when the risks are higher, they can rely on each other.

Increases Productivity

Productivity increases with team-building not because the employees are more in number but because they support each other within the team. Solving difficult problems becomes easier when you can freely share the problem with the entire team and find the solution together. Team building encourages collaboration which results in improving the company’s culture overall.

Employees can help when someone in their team needs assistance or needs to delegate some of their responsibilities, resulting in work being performed more effectively and at a higher standard in the long term.

With a productive workforce, you can achieve company goals faster.

Increase Employee Engagement

Employee engagement issues occur when employees don’t feel like they are a part of a team. Your team-building efforts can make your employees feel happier while working for you. A happier and more motivated employee can get better results and is also more likely to stay in the company for a longer time.

Igniting a conversation among your employees gives them a kickstart to mingle with one another outside of the workplace. This is critical to keeping them bonded to one another and, eventually, to your company. Regular team-building events provide a fantastic chance for connecting and can help enhance overall employee satisfaction.

Improves Communication

Improves Communication

Open communication is probably the most important to a business’s functioning. People communicate differently. Some go straight for the new task and share their ideas while others like to observe and put in their thoughts later. A team-building activity is a great way to bring these different people together and help them understand each other.

Another aspect of this is clear and transparent communication. When the team members are comfortable with communicating with each other, they can give proper feedback and honest opinions. This will help your team members produce quality work that will benefit your company in the long run.

Additionally, you must understand that some people are shy, but they are great at what they do. With team building, you can bring out the best in them by giving them a chance to communicate with everyone more comfortably.

A team-building event gives your employees a chance to meet co-workers they don’t know very well, such as those in other departments. You may open up opportunities for dialogue inside your firm by encouraging your employees to collaborate with a fresh set of people. This promotes an open work environment, allowing your staff to approach different individuals and be completely upfront with one another.

Learn New Skills

When your employees work in teams, they get to experience different roles and responsibilities. They can learn skills like conflict resolution, teamwork, problem-solving, and much more.

Employees also get a chance to hone their leadership skills. These employees might someday lead your company. Team building is a great way to understand what it means to be a leader. Conflicts in a team will exist, but how a team resolves conflicts decides the fate of that team. Effective team building will help employees learn such tactics and skills.

New Innovations and Ideas

When people are surrounded by people they trust, they are not afraid to speak their minds, even the ideas seem absurd. In the world of business, where you have to stand out from the crowd, such bizarre ideas can be of help sometimes. This helps ensure that brainstorming sessions in your company prove to be effective.

When the employees know there is a group of people who will listen to them, they get the freedom to unlock their creativity. One idea can lead to another and cultivate something completely out of the box.

Improves Company Culture

In some workplaces, you can sense that the company’s culture is being forced. Instead, you can let your employees indulge in team-building activities and create an authentic workplace culture.

A strong culture is where people help each other out, where there is open dialogue, where employees feel valued, and where employees can be their authentic selves.

What Does a Strong Team Look Like?

Strong Team

How will you identify if your company has a team that performs well? Research done in MIT’s Human Dynamics Laboratory reveals the characteristics of strong teams. Look for these characteristics in your team and you’ll know that your employees need a nice break for team building.

This is what a high performing teams look like, according to the research:

  • Everyone on the team speaks and listens equally. It is not just the leader who does all the talking.
  • Members talk to each other face to face and are motivated to share ideas.
  • There is good communication amongst the team members, not just with the leader.
  • Team members converse with each other using backchannel cues.
  • They don’t work together all the time. They meet, sit to work for a while, and come back to share the progress and queries.

List of Team Building Activities

Corporate team building activities

Corporate team building activities or events are held by organizations to make their workforce a better team. Your HR professionals can organize such activities themselves, or you can hire a third party to do that for you.

There is no particular definition of a successful team-building program. You have to experiment, or the best way to do this is to keep an eye on your employees and plan something that they will like. Here are a few examples.

Adventure Activities

You can send your teams for some adventure games, sports, or maybe even on trips. Fun, adventurous trips are great to learn leadership skills and build trust among the players. They get to know the person’s abilities and way of facing challenges.

Social Work

You can bring your team together to help people in need. Social causes are something that most employees sympathize with. The results that they will achieve as a team will create a strong connection among the team members and a will to do good work.

Innovations

You can have team activities where you will have to create something new. This allows your employees to freely share their ideas with other co-workers. Free sharing of ideas is important for a business to create quality work.

Team Building in the Time of COVID 19

Covid-19 was a major trigger for this new wave of team-building efforts. Most of the companies started functioning online and in a virtual environment encouraging good teamwork was a task. Employee engagement was an ongoing problem that was growing with remote teams.

Many companies started investing in a remote team-building exercise to bring people closer to each other behind the screen. Even schools began conducting classroom teamwork activities. Some companies continue to work virtually for an indefinite future, while others provide employees with an option to choose a hybrid work culture.

Either way, the importance of team building in an organization will keep growing. With new employees joining the virtual office, such team-building efforts would make them feel like they are a part of something bigger since day one.

Conclusion

Any successful business person will understand the importance of the very well-known phrase, “teamwork makes the dream work”.

Many small and large businesses are encouraging team-building activities for building effective teams. Whether your employees are meeting in person or virtually, you should incorporate team-building activities to create stronger relationships and develop team spirit.

The benefits of team building include engaged employees, improved productivity, improved company culture, and much more. Fun activities like games, adventurous sports, and working for social causes are important investments that will result in better company revenue. Your workforce is your greatest asset, and you must nurture them into a stronger unit.