Companies always follow the motto “Customer is the king”. They try to understand the customers and improve the relationship with them. But amidst all this, they often end up neglecting the most valuable asset of their organisation i.e., Employees. An organisation needs to boost the morale of its employees too. Because at the end of the day, even your employees will feel exhausted and drained out from doing their best. So, if you’re wondering how you raise your employee’s morale and encourage them. Team building activities are your answer.
What is team-building? Why is it important?
Team Building activities bring your employees together and help and encourage them to improve their teamwork and collaboration. It is the best way to get to know the co-workers too. Especially if there is a new employee in your team, usually it would take weeks for them to get comfortable around others, so conducting such activities can unintentionally draw them closer to others. Irrespective of your organisation’s structure or size, these activities have always proven to be beneficial. Investing in team-building activities can help your business in the long run.
Your employees are everyday business handling multiple projects conducting such events can liven up the office environment and create an opportunity to connect with co-workers. If you think that is all it does then you’re wrong. It has the power to nurture the relationship- building, encourages open communication and innovative thinking. It creates room for your employees to improve themselves and in the long run, it will boost their performance and improves productivity.
Thinking of Team building activities can make your adrenaline rush and fill you with excitement. As it strengthens your bonds, brings new perspectives and ideas to the table. It boosts camaraderie and collaboration in your office. If you have ever taken part in a team-building activity then you will know how it brings a team together and provides you with fun too. But if not done properly it may turn awkward too. So, see that you come up with innovative ideas for your next team building.
Benefits of Team-building
Socializing and making new friends at your workplace can improve productivity at your office, coming up with solutions to issues in office becomes easy and increases morale too.
Here are a few benefits of Team-building.
- Improves Teamwork and performance in the office.
- Builds healthy competition and improves your productivity.
- Improves communication and brings people closer.
- It celebrates team spirit and motivates employees to do better.
- Fosters creativity and innovation.
- Develops problem-solving skills
- Builds trust and breaks barriers between people.
Invest in Team Building activities
Conducting Team-building activities in your conference room can be boring and regular. People may feel tired of these same old games. You need to come up with activities that can boost their excitement and are fun. Taking your team for a day outside your office may seem impossible as you have to consider both cost and missed work. But sometimes it is important to take such steps for your most valuable assets i.e., employees. Don’t you think? As they are the vital parts of your organisation investing in them will only improve your business.
A team not well put together may only bring your company down. So, team building activities not only push your employees towards fun it also helps them create lasting memories. It is an excellent chance for networking, as they will get know many people and it can help them expand their network. Not to mention it not only brings teams together, but it also bridges gaps between departments too. Your employees will feel valued and they would work with you as a team for a long, long time.
To make your team-building activities a success, you must plan it to perfection. To make the event a success you must see that your employees are engaging and having fun.
Here are a few tips to make the team-building a success.
It’s not team-building
The first rule while conducting a team-building activity is to not refer to it as a team-building activity. Not everyone is an extrovert who enjoys such activities. While putting a tag as team building to your activities may seem burdensome for others. So it gets awkward when you force people to bond. For a moment to feel as organic as possible why don’t you ask people casually such as “Let’s take an afternoon away from the office” or “Let’s take a day away from work”. You don’t specifically have to say it out loud as team building. Your purpose is it to bring employees together and strengthen their bonds. You should let people bond on their own accord not by force.
Institute trust
For any relationship to stay stable for a long time, be it personal or professional they must have trust in each other. As a business leader, it is your responsibility to build trust within your team and with your team. Team members should deliver their promises on time, support other members of your team to reach the shared goal and always maintain open communication. For any team building activity to work, you must first strengthen your bond with the employees. Be transparent, flexible and open with them all the time. Show them how important they’re for you and lastly participate in all team exercise. Show them you will be with them on the field rather than cheering them from the bleachers.
Understand yourself and your employees
It is important for you as a business leader to understand both you and your employees. How can you lead a team when you’re unaware of your limitations, strengths and tendencies. When you become aware of all those things you can be the best possible help to your team to achieve your shared goals. No two persons are the same in a team, you have a particular working style so do others.
When you’re working for a group of people you must understand and learn the preferences of each person to avoid any disturbances in the workplace. Even for team building activities also all these things will apply. Don’t take decisions on your own. What you like may not be liked by everybody in your team. So make yourself approachable so they can trust and express their opinions freely. For any team building activity a success there must be mutual trust and understanding within and with your team.
Bring together your team
One single person cannot make an event or activity a success. It takes a perfect team to plan a perfect event. And they must be present in different teams or departments within your organisation. So, it is your responsibility to bring them together. There are many different roles are included while conducting an event. And some many specific tasks and responsibilities needed to be handled.
So when you have a team with people who can come up with creative ideas, challenges, Who can implement those ideas and manage all other daily activities and other administrative tasks, an organiser who can hold a perfect event. And lastly, a facilitator who can manage relationships well within and outside the team and make communicating easy. Divide your employees into smaller groups to make it meaningful and intimate. Don’t club people from the same department or team, club people from different groups and it gives them a chance to interact with new people.
Make it an ongoing activity
Team building activities should not be a one-time activity. You achieve team bonding and trust in just one session, right? You must make it an ongoing activity to achieve all the desired results you wanted. Your employees deal with hundreds of projects so they also need regular oiling to function well and to keep the pressure at bay. Remember this is the investment you make for your people. It takes time to build mental toughness, bonding and trust. Interact with them and participate in all the activities to gain their trust and improve your bonding with them. Team building is a fun, motivating and exciting way to make socialize with each other.
Unique games
Team building is an important activity and it necessary doesn’t always have to be conducted in your conference room. You can conduct it outdoors and come up with new and interesting games. How many days are you going to use the same old games? You can ask one person in your team for each activity to schedule and come up with games and this way you can improve their creativity and improve their innovation too.
Feedback
It is important to follow up with your team after each team. Conduct a survey or pass around a feedback form to understand their opinions on which games they prefer and which games to be skipped and if there are any improvements they would like to suggest. When you don’t understand their needs they will never be interested in joining and actively participating in the events. Listening to and understanding people’s opinions will only make your business better than yesterday. So when you receive the feedback make sure you don’t repeat all the listed things in the next activity.
Conclusion
An employee spends 8-9 hours of his day at the office. The workplace becomes their second home and colleagues family. So each person in a team needs to be on the same foot and sync. If a team lacks coordination then it becomes impossible to achieve the shared goals. To avoid such awkward encounters and ensure that your teammates trust each other and form a bond, the organisation needs to conduct team building activities. When you’re employees are happy then your productivity will automatically increase. So conducting team building activities regularly may help your business.
