Team Building is not just a once-a-year affair. It is a day-to-day effort. Lying at the core of successful organizations, lies the ability to motivate and inspire teams, to lead teams, divisions, departments and the whole organization with a clear sense of a common vision, alignment of various goals and purpose as well as effective, powerful communication, trust and respect among the various stakeholders, a sense of commitment, accountability and a willingness to achieve.

Many a time, staff, colleagues, subordinates, bosses must meet and exchange.At the pace of information, change and business, meetings become an ever more necessary means of spending time and finding space for these exchanges to take place meaningfully and in a conducive manners.

Therefore the quality of corporate meetings in general – whether incentives travel, rewards trips, strategic meeting and any sort of corporate retreats – is becoming more and more important for those decision makers, leaders and team members.

Team Building

Below we are summarizing useful information regarding team building. Some information is derived from the Team Building section of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. As we have been designing and delivering literally 1,000 of team building programs over the last 8 years, we are also including our views regarding designing team building, delivering team building, facilitating team building and sustaining team building.

What does it imply to design a team building program? What does a Team Building Consultant do?

A team-building consultant is responsible for each component of a team building intervention. Designing of the team building intervention is key as each organization, each team and in fact each intervention will require a different approach. A key question to answer is how to create a learning experience that allows space and time for the participants while leading in constructive directions, towards the goal of building the team.

At this stage, it is important to note that building a team is a vast enterprise and may lie in various sometimes contradictory actions. For example a team of people that have been working well and happily for many years does not require the same approach than a new team of people with vary different profiles (say some artists with some financial controller and some social workers put together in a team).

In a case, the focus of the team building will be more in the form of team coaching, inspiring leaders, pushing the limits, exploring potential. In the latter case, the focus maybe to work to build trust and support… possibly working on communication, or conflict management but creating the condition for teamwork first.

A team-building consultant will likely interact with the team once, or for a limited number of times. During this relationship, the consultant will actively work to assess the team, make recommendations, and provide activities (exercises that compose a team building intervention) for the team. These responsibilities usually require a team building consultant to write a proposal after his or her evaluation of the organization and the team, indicating how he or she would go about improving the team’s performance. Once the organization and consultant determine which recommendations to utilize (if not all), the consultant is then responsible for providing a useful intervention that will transfer back into the organizational setting. This responsibility usually requires the consultant to create a detailed plan of events, while allowing for flexibility. After the intervention has been employed, the consultant will typically evaluate the team building program and communicate the results to the organization.

Things a Team Building Consultant Might Ask

What does your organization want to get out of the exercise? The organization should make their goals clear to a team building consultant or facilitator. This will allow the consultant to more effectively work with the organization to find the best exercises that fit their needs.

What are the needs of the current team? Sometimes an organization will not know exactly what is wrong with a team. The team itself may have some clear ideas about what they need to improve on. Again, a consultant or facilitator will be able to assist the team better if they are able to get this kind of information. With this information, they can tailor the team building and individual exercises to best help the team.

What is the general age of the participants within the team? Some team building exercises are designed for younger groups. These exercises are not appropriate for older groups and could cause the organization and the team members to think that team building is a waste of time. In addition, some exercises are simply beyond some individuals physical capabilities. It is important to make exercises all inclusive, so that all individuals within the teams can participate.

Reasons for Team Building Includes

• Improving communication
• Making the workplace more enjoyable
• Motivating a team
• Getting to know each other
• Getting everyone “onto the same page”, including goal setting
• Teaching the team self-regulation strategies
• Helping participants to learn more about themselves (strengths and  weaknesses)
• Identifying and utilizing the strengths of team members
• Improving team productivity
• Practicing effective collaboration with team members

Key Benefits of a Team Building

• Improve processes and procedures
• Improve organizational productivity
• Improve the ability to problem solve
• Identify a team’s strengths and weaknesses
• Improve morale and leadership skills
• Break the barriers that thwart creativity / performance
• Clearly define objectives and goals

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