When it is appropriately managed, team building works. If it is not handled correctly and done half-heartedly, it will fail. Although this may sound obvious, the causes of failure are often not immediately apparent.
This article outlines five ways team leaders can almost guarantee team failure during team building.
1. You can skip the team assessment and just do it.
The team wants to have fun and enjoy a day off. They don’t have the usual tedious work to do – and they get paid for it. Let’s have some fun and just play some games.
You could also do an initial assessment to determine strengths and weaknesses. You could then focus on the strengths and root out the reasons for the flaws to make progress in team building. It would be fun, but it wouldn’t be easy.
2. Concentrate on one aspect only and forget about everything else.
It is not enough to have a solid model. Although team building involves many elements, focusing on just one aspect of the process, such as the skills each member must have to reach the goals, is enough.
This could frustrate some team members, who will be able to see that there are other aspects to teamwork that must be addressed and included. The team leader may lose credibility, and the team members might get annoyed. Maybe arguments and conflict could increase. But that’s just life.
3. Don’t give up on team building. You need to be able to solve any issues that may arise.
Your company is busy. Your company has contracts to fulfil, and your work teams will not spend two or three days joking around and laughing.
While you know that improving the team dynamic will be beneficial for your company, it is possible to do this in just a few hours or even a day. Why not have a long-term strategy that addresses and resolves any problems that may arise? For goodness sake, there is still work to do!
4. You can keep your team’s improvement process internal. Don’t spend money hiring external consultants.
It’s not difficult to master this team-building skill. All you need are some exercises to help your team members. It should be challenging. Encourage them to solve some problems. And yes, have a little fun. Isn’t that what it all is about?
It doesn’t make sense to spend a lot of money on valuable workers who will then be treated well at a spa. These guys might be experts, but it’s not rocket science. Just create an internal unit to address your team development needs. These results should be sufficient.
5. It’s over when the team activity is done!
It is possible to spend many days looking at the progress of the group. They are either working more effectively as a group or not. This should be obvious. It is not worth wasting time on progress evaluations. You can always resolve any problems that may arise.
It makes sense to complete these tasks as soon as possible so that you can get on to running your business and making lots. That’s where the fun begins!
