“Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.” – Andrew Carnegie
Enlightened leaders understand that cohesive teams create innovative solutions, deliver superior customer service and save thousands — sometimes millions — of dollars for their organizations. Yet, many leaders believe that teambuilding exercises are a waste of time and a detraction from the work.
Authentic team building activities are group activities that help people learn more about one another, create a common focus and mirror the cultural attributes desired for the organization. When executed successfully, the activities inspire and move individuals to work more closely together to achieve a common result.
Team building isn’t just limited to those times when employees go offsite for an orchestrated experience, although those can certainly be excellent for every organization.
The most productive team building that organizations can execute consistently is to make the first two weeks of work experience for new employees mirror the culture, accountability and expectations they should be able to understand and deliver after their probationary period is complete. However, new hires of most organizations often complain that their onboarding process is an “orientation” where they complete insurance and benefit forms and, if they’re lucky, get to hear a bit of the company’s history before being released to their work area.
Innovative companies are utilizing a best practice called an onboarding process. This is a growing movement in recognition of the high-cost disengagement and lack of accountability setting that occurs in organizations with poor orientations.
In addition, the mentor spends time helping the employee build a list of the people he or she needs to work most closely with and why meeting and working with those folks is important. The mentor does not have to be the manager and, in many cases, is a senior employee who is recognized and compensated for doing a great job with the onboarding of new employees.
Another commonly applied opportunity for teambuilding is when teams are created within organizations to tackle specific issues. When pulling together people with diverse skill sets, it is important to create a common culture, to learn more about one other in a fun way and to create an inspirational way to focus the team on the desired outcome. For these experiences, using assessment tools like Everything DiSC or Psycho-Geometrics facilitates learning about self and others from a strength-based perspective of employees’ most common behaviors and reactions.
The knowledge gained about employees from the assessments is very useful for managers to have when creating task forces and teams that have a deadline and a desired outcome. This information helps leaders ensure that a good mix of employee strengths is represented on the team for task expertise as well as goal-focused and relationship-oriented talents.
Mixing new and “heritage” team members is also a real art that can pay off, if done well. A study reported in the Harvard Business Review showed that when 20 to 40 percent of the team members were already well connected to one another, the team had strong collaboration right from the start. The caveat to management is to be involved enough to make sure heritage team members don’t create cliques that exclude the newcomers!
Ongoing team building with a mix of opportunities seems to be a great way to create and reinforce the cultural attributes and social networking that organizations need to thrive. Ideas include an informal offsite field trip together to a give a new and creative outlet that inspires people or a common volunteering experience to reinforce the blessings folks have. Larger organizations often offer hobby clubs (think book clubs, chess or cars), exercise classes like running or yoga and other activities to link employees together around “life other than work” topics. As with anything, consistency and clear communication are key to the success of whatever employers offer and support.
“The strength of the team working towards a goal stands in stark contrast to traditional delivery methods that create adversarial relationships. Communication, participation and collaboration — all qualities that are necessary for a successful project — are much stronger in a team. Further, the bonds that are developed around personal, professional and organizational pride add intangible value that brings returns to the project. Done well, team building can jump-start an effort. In our large construction projects, we find that bringing the many individual contractors together to bond through some common team building saves hundreds of thousands of dollars and gets the projects completed many months earlier. Folks get to know one another, understand each other’s work styles, build trust, and most importantly, discuss the potential barriers and how to navigate those — in advance of encountering those. That learning, fun and real planning that we do together keeps people focused on the mission that we share in common.” – BRAD POLLITT, AIA Vice President Facilities, UF & UF Health
Onboarding creates a personalized experience for the new hire, often complete with a mentor who walks the new hire through the building and introduces him or her to others while explaining the real culture of the organization and how things work.
APPLYING THIS KNOWLEDGE
ONBOARDING. For a positive new onboarding experience, be sure to get employee input on culture, desired attributes, etc., and make sure that, as a leader, you approve the language used, activities selected, etc., to ensure they create the culture you want to achieve. Select the right leadership and personality mix for the mentors, and recognize and reward them well for new hires who transition into valuable employees.
TEAM BUILDING. When planning team-building activities, make sure to focus on the desired outcomes first. What is that you want as outcomes of the experience? Better knowledge about each other’s work and leadership styles? A greater understanding of how to approach a common goal? A fun social experience so folks get to know one another socially? Different outcomes need specific activities, so be sure the activity matches the desired outcomes.