Incognito Team Building
Corporations have been going about building teamwork in some of the strangest ways. It all began when corporations started having employees hang from ropes, then shooting each other with paintballs, and now they are even trying having employees participate in inflatable-sumo-wrestling. What will the future hold? Will corporations be asking their employees to swim with dolphins to build teamwork, or perhaps group parachuting will be the key to transforming your squabbling employees into a winning team.
So, if these antics will not develop your employees into a well-oiled self-directed team, what will? It's simple, if you want to build employee teamwork, do it in the office and do not tell your employees you're doing it. So, why keep it a secret?
First, employees are human, who gravitate to work in groups versus individually if given the opportunity. Secondly, since employees are already geared to work in teams, your primary goal is to integrate teamwork practices into everyday work patterns. It is up to the leaders within the organization to integrate teamwork practices, not the employees.
Lastly, if you announce that the company plans to build teamwork, most employees will respond by asking when the team building practices will be over, so they can get back to work, obviously there is an aversion to it.
Steps to Team-Building in the Office:
1. Define your teams. Most large organizations will have one main team with numerous sub teams. A sub team may be composed of just one employee and employees may be on several different sub teams. 2. Setup a meeting and ask each sub team to define their goals, and what would be helpful for them to have from the other sub teams within the department. Prepare your employees for this meeting by letting them know ahead of time what they will be asked, so they can prepare proper responses. End the meeting after all participants have reported to each other their goals and needs. Do not mention the words teamwork or team building. 3. In future meetings, ask employees to report what assistance they are receiving from other sub teams. Focus only on the positives and applaud those sub teams that have assisted other sub teams. It may take a few meetings for employees to pick-up on the trend of asking how other sub teams are assisting, so don't give up if your employees are slow to report. 4. Incorporate sub team assistance as a performance point during employees' performance reviews. Be direct by asking employees to report how they have assisted other sub teams while they met their own goals.
These are the basic skills necessary to build teamwork within your organization's various sub teams. Remember that your employees are already geared to operate in groups; all you need to do is integrate teamwork practices into your organization's operations. Hence, please cancel the inflatable-sumo-wrestling team-building exercise you have planned for next week.