Team building is like ice breaking rounds which brings group of individuals together and motivates them to work cooperatively as a team. Every organisational success lies in the cooperation between its employees. They are the heart of every company, and investing in team building exercises enhances their performance and brings positivity in the organization. Regardless of the size and structure of the company, team building events are a must. Taking an entire day away from the office might seem like a lavish expense at the cost of missing work. However, spending on such activities leads to a better corporate and working culture. It acts like an essential component for employees to learn, communicate and work together effectively.
The industry of Team building is such an incredibly creative and innovative one, adding incredible value to the entire global corporate world, regardless whether it is multi national company or a small one. From a high and long-term perspective of progress, companies stand to gain several benefits from regularly searching and participating in team building activities.
Being a part of this industry since 11+ years and after organizing multiple events from 150 to 3000 pax, we at GetOut! events would like to bring a few reasons for why we think that Team Building events are important.
Improves Employee Engagement: “It is about how we create the conditions in which employees offer more of their capability and potential” – David Macleod.
Employee engagement is the extent to which team members engage themselves with each other and feel passionate about their jobs. It’s more than employee satisfaction. Team building exercises allows employees from different departments to engage in activities like fun and play. These activities can also be like about drawing employees ideas towards products and services. This can help coworkers discover each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Such collaboration and communication can lead to more effective and efficient work. In fact, a 2015 Gallup study shows that a highly engaged leadership team can boost employee engagement by up to 39%.
Make Employees feel valued: Can we imagine a job where our work isn’t appreciated, our effort goes unnoticed and we feel we can be replaced in an instant!
Not exactly a place where we would want to stay right?
Every employee needs appreciation which ensures that they are not in the crossroads of being replaced. Activities such as celebration of milestone anniversaries, employee birthdays and different festivals can help bring this satisfaction. Sometimes even small gestures like leaving a post-in notes, public appreciation, etc. can also have a great impact. All this together can bring motivation, improve culture and ensure a balance between work and social life.
Develops Problem solving skills: The attainment of goals within an organization doesn’t really come without encouraging them on the way. It’s important to develop your teams ability to overcome obstacles for paramount success.
To bridge the gap and improve problem solving skills among the team member’s it’s a good idea to engage them in team building exercises. These can be activities which involves team communications for making decisions. When coworkers work together to solve problems it improves their ability to think rationally and strategically. These strategies can be adopted to solve further official issues.
Increases creativity and brings innovation: Everyone in an organisation can innovate. Every employee can bring ideas to solve problems in a better and faster way. The bigger question is “How do we encourage employees not only to be more innovative, but also to be more comfortable to share these ideas with the organisation as a whole?’’
Taking a team outside the office and exposing them to new experiences will help them think outside the box. Through team building exercises like brain teasers, hunt for clues, puzzles, etc. we can encourage them to innovate and share ideas. This ideas will bring innovation in their thought processes. Hence, creating an environment helps give an edge in creating innovations is needed for the growth of an organization.
Acknowledging diversity among employees: Most organisations have a very diverse workforce. Employees come from across the world. It is also accompanied by differences in languages, customs and cultural holidays. When you hold team building activities such as a cultural potluck, you invite people into an inclusive environment to celebrate these differences. It is natural for people to interact with those they have something in common with. When someone is different, they may feel excluded – not because anyone is trying to be mean but simply because people don’t know how to interact. Team building activities revolving around differences help open the lines of communication and teach people how they can be colleagues and maybe even friends.
Having fun & celebration: Though team building exercises motivates employees, increases communication and collaboration one basic reason for organising such activities is to get of your mind from the day-to-day routine. Weather it’s a product launch or surviving a particularly grueling quarter, everyone needs a minds rejuvenation in between. Continually setting up exercises to conduct great fun team building that facilitates the humour out of your teammates, bigger goals can later be accomplished by teams when they are back serious at work.
Conclusion :
In order to prepare for the future, organisations and corporate enterprises globally, must start to look to team building as an important means to counteract the effect of the day to day routine. Insurmountable problems like excessive competitions and lack of productivity could be overcome with more intentional and regular team building activities, organised to improve the quality of our corporate teams.
Therefore, there are dozens of team building activities including indoor and outdoor which you can use to develop relationships among co-workers, celebrate successes, and build communication skills. Regardless of the event’s purpose, always make sure you take time to organize the details, set goals and communicate your expectations to the team.
We’re happy to help your organisation with some Team building exercises!
Or Do you have ideas for such activities? Then comment below.
