Employee Development & Team Building

Team building activities can help your employees develop better communication, problem solving and leadership skills.

Team building programs are a fun way to help your workforce develop communication, problem-solving, goal-setting and leadership skills. Team building activities promote respect, trust and collaboration while also providing participants with an opportunity to learn firsthand the importance of these skills.

Types

A team building facilitator can be brought right to the workplace, but to shake up office roles and expectations, you may want to choose an off-site location. Most team building facilitators routinely use outdoor spaces for their programs, and many are affiliated with ropes courses or outfitters who provide the option for more physically challenging agendas. While these high-intensity programs can be a lot of fun, they are not necessary to achieve the benefits of team building.

Sequencing

Team building programs typically begin with easy, get-to-know-you type games. From there, the facilitator will continue to increase the difficulty of the challenges he presents to the group, always striving to push the group just a little beyond its comfort zone. Facilitators are ready to adjust their plans and back off (or step it up) if a task proves too difficult (or too easy). Much of what happens depends on the group and the willingness of members to fully participate, but a professional facilitator is well practiced in inspiring participants to try. For greatest success with a program, provide the facilitator with as much information as you can about your goals and needs. This will help him develop a program that will best help you achieve your objectives.

Safety

Professional team building facilitators take care to consider the potential risks associated with some activities. It is important to let the facilitator know about your employees' pre-existing conditions, injuries or other factors that might limit an individual's participation. Not all limits are physical. Facilitators try to remain tuned into the emotional well-being of participants to prevent humiliation, loss of trust or anxiety. Activities follow the challenge by choice principle that allows anyone to decline participation for any reason; this means the facilitator and other participants will not pressure a person into participating. The person who steps out may step back in at any time.

Debriefing

To ensure that participants are able to understand, retain and later apply what they've learned through the hands-on activities, facilitators will end most tasks with a discussion session. During these discussions, the facilitator usually asks open-ended questions about what the participants experienced, felt, learned or tried. He may also point out something he observed, then invite comment. Usually, the debriefing session focuses on ways to apply to other situations what was learned during the program.

Objective

For team building to be effective, insight and learning must come from within the group itself and not from the facilitator. This helps empower the group and downplay the facilitator's own role as leader. Most facilitators will have a strong presence early in the program, before gradually backing off to let the group take over.

References

• Time Management Guide: Essentials of Teambuilding