John McCarthy gives us some team-building tips.
Throughout life, we all like to be made to feel worthy and appreciated, knowing that our presence is part of an essential drive towards a positive outcome. Within the workplace, job satisfaction is a vital element in ensuring the successful running of a business. In achieving this, it is important for an employee to feel needed, acknowledged and praised for their contribution to the progression of company objectives by rewarding them with recognition. Team building is a successful mechanism used to improve the relationship between management and workforce through a series of motivational and energetic events.
It allows the opportunity for you, the employer, to become more familiar with the individual personalities of your employees away from their daily routine in the workplace. The core objective is to improve the communication, leadership and motivation within the company infrastructure. Use these events to identify the key strengths and skills within your workforce, which can then be strategically placed to help you achieve your long-term goals. With this, comes reward through acknowledgement and praise for the key attributes identified, which gives employees a sense of achievement and motivation to work harder with the vision to progress within the company.
So how can team-building events benefit your company infrastructure? Here are the top ten reasons why such practices are important:
Improves communication – interaction and networking helps break any existing barriers and divisions that may already exist within the company hierarchy. Relationships between management and employees are developed and improved, creating a positive effect on the quality of work.
Meeting new people - bringing together people from management and workforce, some of which may not have worked in a close proximity previously.
Boosts morale and enhances leadership skills - efficient communication and identification of key strengths within the workforce can then be positively utilised to develop new ideas and strategies.
Motivates employees - through recognition and reward.
Enhances creativity - newly developed teams can help boost creativity and form fresh ideas.
Creates a more enjoyable working environment - knowing opinions can be expressed and new ideas will be appreciated.
Develops problem-solving skills - enhancing the ability to identify a problem, and using rational and strategic thinking to find a solution.
Identifies strengths and weaknesses within the team – using strengths to the company’s advantage and encouraging improvement where necessary.
Reiterate and improve company strategies - to help improve long-term goals and objectives.
Improve team structure and interaction - through improved communication, networking and developing relationships.
Now you’ve reaped the benefits, let’s look at how you can achieve them:
There are many different types of team building activities for you and your workforce to get stuck into to help build trust, ease conflict and increase collaboration through effective communication.
Some are more active than others - a proactive scavenger hunt around a picturesque country retreat for example, is an ideal activity to exercise teamwork and initiative. Thus, a workshop in a secluded location with minimal interruption enables a group to really focus, which works to a definitive advantage when forming collective goals and developing strategies. Workshops prove beneficial when undertaking tasks involving problem solving and interpersonal understanding.
Group games and questionnaires are two key activities that have proved beneficial to relationship building, encouraging the elimination of hierarchy barriers, and instead, invoking strength in mutual empathy. One of the key objectives of team building is to ensure that people mix outside the familiar friendship groups already formed in the workplace. Therefore social events can sometimes be key to encouraging employees to relax and engage with others, by which an evening meal or drinks party would be the most effective approach to gaining a successful result.
Team building as a whole has proved to be a successful mechanism in driving long-term improvements into any given corporation. However, it is important to remember that for team building to work effectively you must first identify the objectives you hope to achieve and the rewards you wish to gain, and then tailor an event that will endeavour to impact both in order to gain positive long-term results.
John McCarthy is general manager of Clevedon Hall. Clevedon Hall is an exclusive events venue in Somerset.
