Welcome
 

Recently I entered “teambuilding” into Google and it brought back 90 pages of hits (and most of them interesting and relevant). There is clearly no shortage of information on teambuilding available to any type of group you could imagine. Teambuilding has existed as a marketed concept since the 1920s and in that time has proven that it is not a passing fad. As a part of a staff development plan, teambuilding can be motivating, skill building and empower employees to contribute to common goals. However, this month’s article explores some common pitfalls that can sabotage good intentions when providing teambuilding training.

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 Article: Avoiding Potential Pitfalls
 

There is a notion that all training is good training. As long as a group of people are getting together to try to improve their skills there will be success. Unfortunately this concept is often inaccurate. Any type of staff training takes time and financial resources to make possible. Therefore ineffective training wastes these vital resources and can actually damage team morale. The following are three common pitfalls to avoid in order to provide effective teambuilding training for your staff or organization.

Not a Team A team is often described as ‘a group of people working together toward a goal’. However, this group is simply a number of people who happen to work for the same organization or potentially report to the same boss. This is not a team. While the individuals involved may find the teambuilding training interesting, it will probably fall short of everyone’s expectations. It may seem to be merely semantics but an important word is missing from that phrase. The phrase should read “a group of people working together toward a shared goal”. A common misconception is that if individuals share the same boss they are a team. But it is having a shared goal that transforms a group into a team. Without a common ground and dedication to that goal, all attempts to improve teambuilding will have limited impact. If you want to improve teamwork, you need to bring the right people to the table.

Teambuilding as a Bandage If a team is in crisis a tempting solution can be to bring the team together to find common ground through a fun, teambuilding activity. The goal is often to improve communication and hopefully alleviate the problem. While this idea seems worthwhile it can become a considerable drawback if the team does not have a solid foundation from which to start. If the team hasn’t formed properly or the dispute is more than a one time breakdown in communication, a teambuilding day may result in team members simply going through the motions. This can result in the individuals leaving more disenchanted than when they arrived. In the individual’s eyes the organization “wasted my time” without addressing what “is really going on”. In this case the organization or the team would be more likely to benefit from a facilitated discussion around the discord. A facilitated discussion or series of discussions can get to the root of the problem, find common ground and ensure optimal condictions for productive teambuilding training in the future.

Facilitating it Yourself As a manager or supervisor it probably says somewhere in your job description that you should facilitate teambuilding among staff members. Often this is interpreted as the team leader running a teambuilding session. However as the leader you are a vital member of that team and should therefore benefit from the experience as well. If you can be a full participant in the teambuilding session, you can be focused on building your place in the team as well. Whereas, if you are facilitating the training you may be worrying about the next activity, whether the debriefing is hitting all of the points that you wanted it to or if you are influencing the team because of your combined role as leader and facilitator. If resources allow, have a trained outsider facilitate your team’s training off site so that you can all reap the benefits of teambuilding.

 

 Team Tip
 

Teambuilding does not always have to be structured training. Gather a team and join in a fundraising event for another organization. Many fundraising organizations have a team component where individuals from the same company help at an event or fundraise for a cause together. The team will be working together toward a shared goal and the skills gained from the experience will translate into your work environment.