Teamwork is important in every industry. It motivates the employees and bonds the members of staff in a way that can only increase morale and productivity. But if you believe that just gathering the troops round the office meeting table and banging a fist or two works, think on.
Many corporate events are shelved because of cost. It is not uncommon for management to be heard saying, “We can’t go gallivanting off to some rock climbing expedition as it’ll cost the firm money in training, equipment and safety team hire.”
They may have a point but there are thousands of testimonials from management teams who swear by the team building ethic, increased morale, better productivity and even company profits that will have paid for a rock climbing weekend several times over.
Team building games and activities can be a project which takes place in the office. Why not take an afternoon off on a Friday and get the employees to take part in a number of games. Projects that are critical to the success of a company can be better taken on when the team is solid and together.
Empowering the staff is more about attitude and how one behaves towards employees than procedures and rules. Teamwork is an ethic that succeeds on fostering respect, encouragement, care, enthusing and talking in an encouraging manner, not by exploitation or dictating to them.
To motivate a person, you can do so by involving them in designing and deciding which activities they can go on. A paint balling experience may sound like a lot of fun but it can turn horribly sour when the boss is cornered and splattered a close range by chuckling underlings armed with their paint guns.
Certain activities can be trite for some employees; you would not want to take staff members clearly not suited for a go karting race, sheer wall climb or a bungee jump. Find out what they enjoy doing and how they would like to learn. And keep the activities removed from work and factory-related stuff.
When you ask people as a unit you’ll no doubt end up with several suggestions; perhaps you could take on more than one team building activity and use them on a rotating basis. Some companies actually have team building exercises built in to the work place on a weekly basis. Corporate events should work as both a promotion of the firm and an activity that might include the entire family of the employee.
