Why Team Building Exercises often Fail and How to Make Them Succeed

By Rafael Maga?a

Team building exercises are a common way of transforming a group of individual employees into a highly functional team. At least, that's how they're supposed to work in theory. In practice, it rarely works out that way. Fortunately, if you manage a team of employees, there's a way you can make your team building exercises succeed. All you need to do is realize that team building doesn't stop when the exercise is over. You have to build on your team building exercises.

How Team Building Exercises Work

The basic idea behind a team building exercise is to bring coworkers together and give them a problem to solve or challenge to overcome together. The problem or challenge is supposed to be something that they need to work together to solve, and doing so is supposed to bind them together into a team that understands each other and knows how to work together to solve a common problem. The experience is supposed to be intense enough that it creates a genuine group bond.

Why Team Building Exercises Fail

The problem with this idea is that it often doesn't work. Once the employees get back to the office, old familiar habits raise their heads and the group becomes a collection of individuals once again. However, the problem is not the team building exercise itself, but the idea that you can turn a group of individual employees into a real team in an evening or a weekend. Team building is a job that is mostly done in the office, during every workday. Team building events serve an important purpose: they can introduce the idea of working as a team. They can reward and reinforce the value of teamwork. They can form powerful memories of team bonding that can be built upon. They cannot be used as a replacement for doing the day to day work that team building requires, though. After you have a team building exercise, you need to build on that momentum.

Treat Your Employees as a Team

If you want your employees to see themselves as a team then you must treat them as a team. You need to build the idea of teamwork into the work flow. Begin every project with a team meeting where you define team goals. Give out individual goals last of all, and make it clear that they are individual contributions to the team effort. Make sure that everyone is made to feel comfortable going to the team leaders, including you, for help when they need it. You need to arrange responsibilities in a way that everyone clearly sees their responsibilities to the team and also trusts that they have support from the team.

Communication is Key

A team needs clear, honest communication from its leader if it is to function effectively. You need to not only communicate the team's goals and purposes clearly and honestly, you need to give them a good idea of what you expect will happen in the near future. If you ever keep possible bad news secret, your team will feel betrayed, and like they are not really a part of the company. So if there is the possibility of layoffs, a pay cut, or any other trouble on the horizon, let your team know so they aren't surprised. If they believe they can trust you, they will really feel like part of the company, like they are on a team.

A team needs to have good communication between team members, as well. Each employee needs to know who they need to keep informed of their progress. Each employee needs to know who they can go to for answers when they have questions.

Recognize Achievements as Team Efforts

The way you recognize achievement is important as well. Recognizing individual accomplishments is important, but you need to recognize them in the context of the team. When you praise a team member, include something about how they have really helped the team out. "Nice job on that proposal, now we'll really be able to get the campaign rolling by next week," for example, is an excellent way of framing an employee's accomplishment in terms of their contribution to the team's work.

Make Time for Team Play

Finally, you need to make time for recreation as a team, too. It can't all be about the work. Find some type of recreational activity that your team will enjoy. It could be doing a team icebreaker activity and a glass of wine after work on Friday via virtual conferencing, playing trivia together one weekend a month, or coming together around virtual karaoke once in a while - it doesn't much matter what, just as long as it's something your employees can really enjoy doing together. Do not make the mistake of making this mandatory, however. Mandatory fun is no fun at all.

The Final Word

Team building exercises can be an effective part of building an effective team. They cannot be the only part, though. Building a team is something that you need to work at every day.

___________

Related articles

Don’t Despair, Development Officer: There’s Always a Fresh Way to Thank a Donor

How the Best Board Members Differ from Average Ones

Fundraising — How, Whom, & When to Ask

Nonprofit Fundraising: Capitalizing on Your Large Gift

Why Your Successful Rivals Digital Strategy Works

How to Be a Better Leader by Learning from the Worst

4 Tips to Keep Volunteers Within Your Organization

7 Q’s to Ask — Ready to Hire a Professional Fundraiser?

How to Leverage Your Alumni Network After College

5 Lessons I Learned From My First Board Position 

 ________________

Copyright February 4, 2021 by Rafael Maga?a. Contact for usage license.

Photo Credit: Gillian Fry, Photo Editor & Staff Photographer at Hispanic Executive.

Rafael Maga?a helps organizations grow. Helps leaders accelerate strategy implementation in their organizations. Specializes in donor-centered Philanthropy. Major Gift Officer - Veritus Scholar. Director of Development & Communications at the Emphysema Foundation of America and Breathe Southern California. Enjoys writing about leadership, management and careers. Founder of Latino Professionals, Latina Professionals, & Latinx Professionals. He resides in California. Follow Rafael on LinkedIn (19,000+ followers) and on Twitter: @RafaelMagana

Also, If you enjoyed this article I'd be honored if you would follow and connect with me. My goal on LinkedIn is to share ideas that inspire leaders, managers, entrepreneurs and careers. Over the last six years, I've written over 270 LinkedIn articles and I would like to invite you personally to join my groups Latino Professionals (49,800+ members), Latina Professionals (40,500+ members), Latinx Professionals (16,000+ members) and District Manager Networking in the United States (3,800+ members).

Please join me and help fight for those who suffer from asthma, emphysema or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by making a gift today to support the Emphysema Foundation of America and Breathe Southern California. By making a donation of $250 or more you will help fight lung disease. Make a gift now!

You can also find my articles and tools that might be helpful to you below.

Select your learning interests below 

Why You Should Take Notes According to Richard Branson

Three Reasons to Educate Your Whole Team About Other Departments

6 Tips on Grant Writing

What to Do When Your Boss Favors a Coworker

3 Tips on Managing Someone Who Has Connections to Leadership

Should Your Company Form a Shadow Board to be More Agile?

How to Successfully Disagree With Your Boss

How To Prepare For Your Annual Performance Review

5 Ways To Master Your Next Job Interview

Enjoy my work? Want to work together? Share & comment below and I’ll connect with you to further the conversation.