Teambuilding do or don't?

A little while ago somebody told me teambuilding was just to make his employees feel better. This “Boss” gave his employees some time to do “teambuilding activities” just because he felt he needed to... Well, I felt heartbroken after that sentence. Yes, teambuilding is fun. But not only just fun... Right? Okay, maybe a lot of people do under-estimate teambuilding, but I think having some good times together really can benefit your company.

“Teambuilding is just to make my employees feel better”

A while ago I had a side job, we worked different shifts. Every week and sometimes even every day I worked with other colleagues. Keeps the job fun definitely. BUT.. because we did rely a lot on each other, people started complaining to each other because some small mistakes were made. A lot of those mistakes weren’t even mistakes but were just minor misunderstandings because a working manual was changed or something like that. Because we didn’t know each other that well, friction between colleagues was there and people didn’t speak about it. I think some of you will recognize this as well from your daily job or a previous job.

At some point, I suggested going for a drink sometimes with a couple of colleagues. It started with a tiny group, four people or so. Very soon more people joined us. Just to learn each other a little better. From that moment the friction between people started to disappear. Because we started to know each other a little better we started to become more tolerant of each other. This was the start of a new team-building activity each month.

What I try to say is... Team-building is not only for fun! It’s nice if you develop new skills during teambuilding, sure. But in my opinion, the main reason to send your employees out for some teambuilding activities is to get to know each other! Bonding! With your colleagues and the company, you work for!

"The main reason to send your employees out for some team-building is to bond them with each other and your company"

Maybe we shouldn’t call it teambuilding anymore but team bonding... I am very curious about how you people think about team building!

Is it just for fun or… does your boss benefit from it as well..? Please let me know I'm curious how you think about this!

The cool thing is… I chased a dream and now I’m working for UB GAMES . We develop these awesome team-building game concepts. I’m more than happy to sell them all over the world.

Bonding people with serious fun!