Team building will create a sense of unity in your business. It can ensure that efficiency levels are high and guarantee that everyone is working to the best of their ability. It’s also possible, through team-building exercises, to create a feeling of community. This means that employees will feel connected to your business on more than just an informal level. They will feel loyal to your company and will also be happier in their positions. Research has shown that team building really does improve work performance. Thus, working towards team building in your company could be one of the greatest investments that you will ever make. Before we look at how to team-build in a business, let’s consider a few of the other key advantages.
1: Networking and Social Activity
By encouraging team feeling, you can build up both networking and social activity. We have already talked about how this will improve productivity levels. But it can also improve how employees interact with clients and customers. The same skills required to work as a team can be used to increase client relations and generate new leads for your company. As such, it’s a solid ROI that you can’t afford to miss out on.
2: Imagination and Innovation
Consider the phrase ‘two heads are better than one.’ It’s absolutely true and you’ll quickly discover this once you start boosting team activity in your business. By working as a team, it is possible to develop more imaginative and creative concepts. This is due to the fact that different ideologies and mindsets will be colliding in a way that leads to fresh ideas and innovation. You might discover that by putting different workers together with combined goals, the results are incredible.
3: Fun Encourages Competitiveness
We’ve already discussed the financial benefits of encouraging team activity in your company. But what makes employees who work as a team generate this type of outcome? Well, to understand that, we need to think about sports teams. Sports team members work together, they play together and again, it creates a sense of unity. As such, they are driven by a shared passion to win and succeed. Psychologically it creates an us vs them dynamic. Essentially, your employees will be looking at competitors and they will want to work together to beat them. They will want to make sure that your company comes out on top. And, due to the fact that this is a shared goal, they will probably succeed.
Clever Team-Building Exercises
There are a few different team-building exercises you can try in your business. You might want to think about a shared reward scheme, and we can give you a basic example of this. Let’s say that you’re running a call center. As telecommunicators, the role of the employees is to get callers to donate money. Somewhere in the room, there is an indoor goal and football. Each time an employee gets a donation, they get to take a shot at the goal. It’s fun, playful and it’s something that the employees can share. Once someone stands up to take a shot, everyone knows they have succeeded and are getting a reward. They are then further driven to do the same.
A simpler approach would be to have employee group meetings. These meetings can be used to discuss shared targets, how the company is performing and any issues that need to be addressed. It is also an opportunity for employees to present any problems they have tackled. Working together the group can then form solutions, suggest other goals and even reshape the business model.
If you’re willing to dedicate the time and money you may want to arrange team-building exercises for employees outside of work. This could be something like a weekend retreat. Employees go away together and complete team orientated tasks often in fun and exciting environments. Again, the skills they learn here can always be used to benefit the work environment. But this also gives employees a chance to get to know one another and feel more connected. It encourages a work force to act like one entity rather than a group of cogs trying to slide into the right place.
It is crucial to understand that team-building activities don’t need to be that specific or controlled. You can get people to gel and work together without forcing it. For instance, heading out as a group to an event like a concert could be exactly what you need to make employees feel connected.
Thus, there are lots of reasons why team building is important and no shortage of ways to incorporate it into your company.