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Team Building Tips for better performing Teams

Cooking workshop, climbing or escape game, teambuilding activities have become part of the habits of human resources managers. They contribute to consolidating teams and must therefore be well thought out and the results analyzed to be worthwhile.

Good team bonding in a company is essential.  A cohesive team makes better decisions. Employees also have more fun at work, which is important for retention and productivity.

This type of activity aims to strengthen the bonds between team members through group experiences. The basis of a team that stands together is trust. Cohesion exists when all members know that they can be honest and transparent without risk: admitting their mistakes, recognizing that the other’s idea is better than their own, asking for help. Teambuilding accelerates the process of gaining this confidence.

Another advantage: these activities can help improve the functioning of a team by allowing “awareness through experience and understanding of oneself and others. In this way, we will better understand our own reactions and those of others in the work . They can help free the floor and bring out discussions around emerging problems in the team, build trust, reveal internal dysfunctions, etc.

Leaving the office
Teambuilding activities are generally organized outside the workplace. Employees can thus show themselves in a different light. Participating in an activity with colleagues outside the office and in a more informal atmosphere reveals other personality traits and calls on other skills.

The activities are designed. and chosen according to the goal sought by the leader:  Whether they are a simple playful moment to strengthen ties or a challenge to force team members to work together and join forces, these activities are “useful for developing collective skills, giving a positive experience to a team or teach people to get to know each other .

Teambuilding is relevant at any time in the life of a team: at the beginning, when the members do not know each other, when a new colleague arrives, to increase cohesion, to work on a dysfunction, etc. The frequency of these activities therefore depends on the situation of each team.

For the activity to be useful, it is first necessary to analyze the team and make a diagnosis. Believing that a fun activity will solve all the problems is a mistake. It’s more of a trigger. If we do nothing afterwards and it is not part of a more global plan, it is useless. There must be a purpose and the results of the activity must be analyzed so that the learnings are applied to the workplace. The activity itself reveals certain modes of functioning of the team, personality traits of each other, strengths and sometimes failings.

A suitable choice
You have to first set the objective and then understand who the team is. If they are introverted computer scientists, choosing to have them do an improvisation would not necessarily be relevant. Taking employees too far out of their comfort zone risks making them feel incompetent.

What to do with your team?
The list of activities offered has greatly diversified over time. Each has its function, its moment and its public. Here are some examples :

  • The serious type: personality test, scenario like “You’re all on a sinking boat in the middle of the ocean, you have to agree on the 10 things to take in the lifeboat »;
  • Fun: treasure hunt, role play, improvisation, rally;
  • Physical: rafting down a river, dance workshop, self-defense class;
  • Cultural: culinary workshop, mixology afternoon, outing to the museum, wine tasting;
  • Offbeat and original: zombie game, police investigation, replaying a classic piece of music without musical knowledge, fire simulation, etc.

When they are well chosen, carried out in a global framework and analyzed to be reinvested in the workplace, teambuilding activities are a success. In this digital age where virtual contacts are sometimes more numerous than face-to-face exchanges, they improve communication within the team, increase the feeling of belonging, increase the level of commitment and to achieve collective results. A strong and united team, better results for the company.

 

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