Team building is a misnomer
John Chen, CSP?
??Designer, ??producer, ??Certified Speaking Professional, ??emcee for ??Engaging ??????Virtual & Hybrid Meetings. I wrote the #1?? Amazon ??Hot-New Release ??book on Engaging Virtual Meetings.
First, let’s talk about what team building is – and what it is not. It’s not an event. Does this surprise you, coming from a company that specializes in team building? Yes, we do events, but there is a lot more to team building than you might realize!
Some people think team building is an event; they do it once and stop. They are often surprised when the results stop, too.
Team building is something you cultivate every day.
Let us share with you our point of view based on 18 years of experience leading more than 1,300 groups through life-changing adventures.
There are five things we believe to be true about team building. And we’re pretty sure it’s not what you think.
Cross-team collaboration is the greatest opportunity for Corporate America
Corporate America talks incessantly about cross-team collaboration. What is it? We view cross-team collaboration as two or more teams working together to achieve a single goal. How often does it really happen? Rarely. Research, and our experience, shows that most teams naturally head straight to competition, rather than collaboration.
And Corporate America fosters this behavior. “They” say they want everyone to collaborate. Yet, employees are often incented to compete with each other.
How many times have you shared your bonus with your team? If you were financially rewarded based on your team’s performance, would you do things differently?
Leaders plan an event once and check team building off their list for the year. There is a better way.
Team building is a lot like software. It needs to be upgraded regularly. Your team, just like your computer, is vulnerable to attack when you don’t upgrade your system. And we know you experience peak performance when you upgrade.
Software is like an operating system for a group. Every group has norms; some are good and some are not so good. Think of team building as the upgrade for your team’s operating system; it needs to happen every day.
Build relationships long before you need them.
Team building is a process that starts way before you ever need the team. It accelerates relationship building. Relationships build trust. And trust paves the way for speed. A trusted friend is much more likely to support your new idea or help you meet a crazy deadline, than a stranger.
True team building will never happen over coffee, lunch or bowling.
You build relationships by having a shared experience, which is part of what team building is about. Is your team member social, inclusive or analytical? You can learn a lot more about someone in an hour of well-designed play than you can working with him or her every day for a month.
Who wins?
Every team that builds communication and trust – wins. While 100% of the teams we work with increase their communication and trust, only 1% of teams perform at the highest level.
Do you want to be in that 1%? Stay tuned to our message series to learn about what we call ‘The law of 80/19/1’.
Tell us your truth. What do you believe about team-building?
- Join the conversation by adding a comment to this post below.
- Call or email us to discuss your team building needs.
We look forward to helping you create your next life-changing adventure!
[email protected] | (206) 856-8491
Life-Changing Adventures. Breakthrough Results.
Creative Director + Brand Strategist | Experiential, Events, Marketing
9 年Keeping the lessons learned during a team-building exercise is a very difficult, yet key step. Leaders who begin the team-building before the "event" and weave the lessons learned into the workplace afterwards will reap the greatest benefits. A smart, experienced facilitator can curate the perfect program for any leader who is ready and willing to heed the advice and do the work required to implement it.
??Designer, ??producer, ??Certified Speaking Professional, ??emcee for ??Engaging ??????Virtual & Hybrid Meetings. I wrote the #1?? Amazon ??Hot-New Release ??book on Engaging Virtual Meetings.
9 年Thanks Bryan! Keep your eyes out for more great info! Angela you are right, stack ranking is even more behind the scenes than ever. You can foster collaboration by putting it in the corporate DNA like Nordstrom does. You can also use our little known secret of team consulting that can help you get to the source, even changing the compensation to reward individual, team and company performance at the same time.
Professional Realtor at Keller Williams Realty, Inc.
9 年Great insights John, you've become a master of this subject matter! Please continue to share!
Global communications leader | Brand storyteller | Change management consultant who activates business plans for emerging and marquee B2B technology brands including Mitek, Microsoft, Avanade and Accenture
9 年You sure hit a hot button talking about 'cross-team collaboration'. I don't believe 'stack ranking' is gone from the companies who used to have it. I think it's just now all behind the scenes and not discussed with employees. So how do these companies foster collaboration - across teams - when people are still competing with each other to get ahead?
??Designer, ??producer, ??Certified Speaking Professional, ??emcee for ??Engaging ??????Virtual & Hybrid Meetings. I wrote the #1?? Amazon ??Hot-New Release ??book on Engaging Virtual Meetings.
9 年Thanks Charlie. If teams were only as simple as a recipe of trust, support and respect, then we'd all do it AND amazing leaders all have recipes that work a good percentage of the time. What was the team you were on that was ON FIRE? ;-)