Photo by: aikaizen
HR
expert Larry Bassi points out that investing in people (training) leads to
lower employee turnover, thus higher customer satisfaction which in turn is a
driver of profitability by upto 22%.
A team
is a coordinated group of individuals organized to work together to achieve a
common goal. Further, becoming a team is a process that takes time and is
constantly evolving and changing, explains HR writers Beebe and Masterson. Team
building has proved a major challenge in many organizations with a study by
American Management Association indicating that, Getting people who have
different agendas to work together is amongst the biggest obstacles facing
leaders today. A similar survey by Watson Wyatt work study argues that
companies whose employees understand the mission and goals enjoy greater return
than other firms.
Team
building activities has in ages been applied in employee development and cohesion.
It is a prerequisite that every manager builds on a team that shares a common
goal. According to Nestrom and Scannel in their book, “The Big Book of Team
Building Games”, high performing teams usually exhibit an overall team purpose,
mutual accountability, collective work products, shared leadership roles, high
cohesiveness, collaboration in deciding task assignments and procedures, and collective
assessment of their own success. It further explains that a team’s performance
can always be improved by development of leadership skills and tools for
running more effective team meetings.
In any
team building activity, it is important to encourage team members to examine
closely how they work together, have members come up with ideal ways of working
together, explore gaps and weaknesses and eventually establish action plans for
implementing more effective ways of cooperating and achieving a common goal.
Team
builders are experts who understand best what a group needs after assessing and
evaluating a group’s traits. They together with team leaders help the group learn
about itself and come up with effective steps to aide their situation thus come
up with solutions to their problems. The ability to transform skills acquired
during an outdoor team building exercise to real work processes and success is
key, Managers and supervisors are on top of the chain and oversea teams,
provide direction, correction as well as manage performance towards
accomplishing set targets.
Team-building
exercises can be a powerful way to unite a group, develop strengths, and
address weaknesses, but only if the exercises are planned and carried out
strategically. In other words, there has to be a real purpose behind your
decision to do the exercise; for example, improving the team's problem-solving
or creativity skills and should never be because you felt like giving your
people a nice day out of the office.
Photo by: raftinginkenya
