If you’ve found yourself searching for the best ways to benefit your employees, you’re finally in the right place. I’m a big believer in the benefits of team building events and workshops. These activities can cultivate relationships, inspire, and help people discover their strengths and weaknesses.
Team building events can spice up the ordinary workday. We all start to get lost in a fog when we’ve been living in mundanity. Go to work, go home, then repeat. This continues until something breaks the cycle. I know that life can’t always be filled with excitement and adventure, but we need it sometimes, and definitely in the workplace. If your employees are in the fog, it’s time you plan a workshop.
Why Team Building Benefits Company Morale
What is company morale? Forbes magazine defines morale as “job satisfaction, attitude, and outlook that employees have while at your business.” Maintaining high morale among employees is crucial for keeping a company running. Businesses can’t expect to meet targets and exceed expectations if their employees constantly have a bad attitude.
By investing in a positive company culture, you’re investing in the well-being of your employees.
The Benefits of Working as a Team
There have been plenty of studies that show the benefits of team building in the workplace. Team building effectively increases employee engagement, which is important for company culture. The concept of working together harmoniously is as old as humankind. It was for survival. Now we work together to build a sense of community. When we have community, we have support.
In a related article, what is the purpose of team building, I’ve talked about how building trust is a huge priority, first and foremost. To build a community you have to have trust. It’s the foundation of all relationships. To work together, we have to trust in the abilities of our partners.
Let’s say you have a project due by the weekend and you’re waiting on one of your co-workers to do their part, so you can put the finishing touches on it. How do you trust that the work will get done? You got it…, by team building. Like constructing a sound and sturdy house, building trust takes time.
Having workshops annually or even quarterly will benefit your employees and help them learn to trust one another, creating a positive and supportive network.
“Team trust has positive effect on employee performance and was also found to be significant and strongly correlated with teamwork in achieving organizational productivity.” – Dr. Sonal Agarwal; European Journal of Business, Economic and Accountancy
Placing an emphasis on team building creates the perfect environment for employees to feel like they’re being heard and appreciated. When we feel valued we are inherently happier and this directly impacts productivity. Humans are constantly making connections with people. We’re social creatures.
So it makes sense that working in group situations will help establish genuine relationships and enhance company morale.
An example of good team building and establishing relationships is team sports. In school, we’re often encouraged to try out for a sports team. These types of activities encourage us to build on existing relationships as well as create new ones.
During team sports, players learn each other’s strengths and weaknesses. They learn to communicate effectively and efficiently, all the while cultivating relationships with each other. Everyone becomes interconnected; knowing exactly what the next move is going to be.
The whole point of the game is to win. If relationship between players are negative or nonexistent, the chances of the team winning are slim.
Similar to team sports, team building workshops are designed specifically to get people out of their shells. To inspire colleagues to work together and complement each other’s skills, especially when you’re thrown in with a group of people you’ve never met before. During a team building exercise, maybe you learn that you’re better at organization, rather than time management. You may even trade tasks with a team member to ensure you’re maximizing the group’s potential.
How to Make Team Workshops Beneficial
There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to team building. But there are things to keep in mind when you’re planning a workshop and you want to make sure it benefits your employees.
Here are the three most important things you should consider when organizing a beneficial team building event.
1. Make it fun
When planning for a team building session, it’s absolutely crucial to make it fun. There are so many clichés about workshops being lame and boring, but they don’t have to be. Take a moment to talk to your employees and learn about their interests to get inspiration. A successful team building experience requires engagement. If you’re having fun you’ll be engaged. Even short games and activities during your Monday meeting could bring a change and some excitement into your workplace.
2. Set goals
Goals are incredibly important in our personal lives. Goals give us a sense of direction and purpose. When there is a goal in sight, a chemical reaction happens in our brains. In this Fast Economy article Nick Wolny says, “the act of setting a goal releases the neurotransmitter dopamine and motivates you to take productive action.” We begin to push ourselves to the limit to achieve our greatest desires. So to maximize the benefit of a team building event or workshop, make sure you choose an activity that has clear goals. Sharing a goal will help keep everyone on track and ignite motivation.
3. Encourage creativity
Humans are naturally creative. By encouraging creativity, you can stumble upon the most interesting solutions. As we let go of hesitation and explore how to be creative, we free our minds to endless possibilities. Once we open the door to the hidden parts of ourselves, we learn things about ourselves that can be surprising. Maybe you didn’t know that you were a fierce leader until you had to guide your team through a challenging obstacle course. Creativity needs to be nurtured. It promotes innovation, self fulfillment, expression, and confidence.
Make sure the team program you choose promotes creativity, achieving goals and is inherently fun.
Share the Benefits of Team Building
Now that you know why team building should be a crucial part of your work life, share the knowledge with your team. You can plan your own workshop or hire some of the best team building professionals to give you an experience of a lifetime.
Visit our team building programs to see how we can help take your team from ordinary to extraordinary.