Event planners, managers, facilitators, or anyone else involved in planning a team building event inevitably face the question asked by C-level execs, comptrollers, or stakeholders:  “Why do team building? What are the benefits, and is it worth the time and money we spend?”

We're addressing this question in a series of blogs focused on the benefits of team building. Last week’s blog discussed how team building improves morale. This week:   improve communication.

Team Building Improves Communication

Almost every team building game rewards team communication. This is particularly true of competitive games such as scavenger hunts or bike-building games where the short-term objective is to “win.” Participants learn quickly that they need to share information, and that no one person holds a monopoly on Truth, Fact and Know-how when it comes to a game they’ve never played before.

It’s a short step from that realization to its applicability to the work place. Your employees will remember how much more successful they were as a team when they communicated. The fact that they actually had success "playing" together at a team building event, particularly a fun event with positive emotional associations, bodes well for them feeling good about it when they work together, too.

This is in part due to the fact that well-run team building games group individuals into event teams who may not have strong current relationships. For example, if four geographically separated offices come together for a cross-company team building event, it often behooves the company to ensure that each team is composed of members from all four offices. The same could be applied to different departments, levels, etc. in the organization.

This communication improvement also will manifest itself in increased staff participation in organization activities, such as meetings, projects, and decision-making.

Like communication, participation is habit-forming. Once employees learn that their contribution is valued in one arena, they begin to experiment with contributing in others. Likewise, when they learn that the contributions of others are valuable in a “fun” event, they’re more likely to recruit participation in a work setting. This in turn results in higher levels of organizational buy-in for new decisions and initiatives, better quality assurance and a lower likelihood of errors.

Next week:  How Team Building Empowers Staff

Workplace stress is a never-ending problem within the workplace and many managers do not understand its impact. They either hope it will just go away on its own or they simply remain helpless and do not know how to handle it. Pressure is a daily part of all job functions and sometimes can motivate us; however, excessive pressure can lead to stress and many other issues within the workplace. Simply put, work-related stress leads to working days lost.

Rewards for staff when business is good or is in the black, is still how most managers and organizations view team building. Nipping workplace stress in the bud can benefit business and team building can help play a major role in combating stress in the work environment. It can have a positive effect on staff performance and productivity, staff recruitment and retention, customer satisfaction, reputation of an organization, and much more. A well run team building experience can be used very effectively to:

• Reduce stress and conflicts in the workplace

• Break down barriers and improve communication skills within a group

• Improve problem solving

• Improve managerial and leadership skills

• Identify strengths and weaknesses within a team

So schedule your stress reliever today!

An interesting take on team building in the UK with the Exeter Chiefs (not being that sporty, we can only assume that the Chiefs are some sort of soccer... ahem... we mean "football" team). It just goes to show that there are all sorts of team building activities and techniques out there. And in our humble opinion, not all of them were created equal.

The Exeter Chiefs day started out familiar enough with the teams having to discover clues and solve some puzzles to discover a secret four-digit code, but from there on the day's events took, at least for us, an unusual turn. The teams then unchained and had to pull a Land Rover down a course, did some archery target practices, followed by some clay pigeon shooting, and finally got to take part in some "driving exercises while blindfolded."

Apparently the day was a great success, despite at least one blindfolded driver careening into a ditch, and the day left the team "feeling good" and "really helped grow the team morale." (Although being Americans, we're not sure what one of the players meant by being "pretty chuffed" with himself... hmmm.)

It just goes to show that no matter what sort of team you have there is a team building activity that is perfect for you and your crew. And we'd be remiss if we didn't mention it, we're confident that we that perfect event already waiting for you... although in the interest of full disclosure, no Run Brain Run game is going to require you to tow a Land Rover, or fire shotguns, or drive blindfolded (much to our insurance agent's relief), or even get "pretty chuffed," whatever that is.

Event planners, managers, facilitators, or anyone else involved in planning a team building event inevitably face the question asked by C-level execs, comptrollers, or stakeholders:  “Why do team building? What are the benefits, and is it worth the time and money we spend?”

We're addressing this question in a series of blogs focused on the benefits of team building. Last week’s blog introduced the topic and summarized the benefits. Starting this week, we’ll explore each area of benefit in greater detail. This week:  Improving Morale.

Many team building events are geared toward the simple goal of “having fun.” While this may strike some as frivolous, the fact is that allowing individuals - even grown-ups - opportunities to laugh and play together yields positive results in the work place.

This is because individuals develop positive cognitive attitudes (i.e., “feel better”) about their work mates after spending time together in a positive, playful environment. Those positive feelings carry over into the work environment, promoting a more cooperative and enjoyable work atmosphere.

Also, staff appreciate companies who acknowledge their hard work by sponsoring fun team activities. Some companies use team building events specifically as rewards for jobs well done and never even mention the intended team building benefits they hope to achieve.

Improved morale, in turn, yields other positive benefits, such as reduced absenteeism, fewer formal and informal complaints (processing of which can be very expensive), shorter and more amicable contract negotiations, lower staff turnover rates, and that ever-elusive king-of-all-benefits, higher productivity.

So, in short:  get your employees laughing together. You'll see bottom line results that you can measure, and soon.

Next week:  How Team Building Improves Communication