This article will provide an explanation of what is meant by the word team building, what is the history of its occurrence, what types of it exist today, and what are its goals and objectives. In addition, we will try to understand what is better – a team or a group, analyze various examples of games aimed at strengthening the corporate spirit and consider the advantages and disadvantages of custom and independently organized team building.
What is team building?
Today’s realities are such that the corporate spirit is becoming increasingly important. Leaders of organizations are increasingly trying to develop corporate culture and strengthen corporate spirit in every possible way.
For the workflow to be successful as a result, managers do not just have to hire employees, each of which will be assigned a certain range of responsibilities. It is important that each of the subordinates understand that he is part of a single whole. So, team building, is understood as a series of activities, the purpose of which is to create a team and develop a sense of cohesion in it.
Translated from English, part of this concept or the word “team” means “team”, and “building”, in turn, is translated as building. In practice, there are cases when managers misunderstand the meaning of this word and mean by it corporate evenings accompanied by the use of alcoholic beverages. In fact, there are a lot of tricks besides corporate evenings that allow you to achieve a feeling of a single whole between team members.
History of occurrence
For the first time in history, games whose purpose was to unite the team began to be used in the 40s in the British army. This technique justified itself so much that after a dozen years the most advanced managers of American companies began to practice something similar among their employees.
At the initial stage, it was like a kind of theatrical spectacle, where each member of the team dressed up in a costume from a certain era, and everyone played small scenes together.
As for the countries of the post-Soviet space, it took them many decades to realize the full value of such techniques. And only at the beginning of the 20th century, certain business trainings began to be practiced in Russia, which for a long time remained an exclusive method of team building. And only a little later this arsenal included cultural and sporting events.
Kinds
There are the following types of activities aimed at creating a spirit of unity in the team:
- sports, when various games and outdoor competitions are held;
- historical, when members of the team are reincarnated as historical characters;
- psychological, in which employees undergo various trainings or tests, and also perform a number of tasks related to psychological topics;
- creative, when colleagues are engaged in the joint creation, for example, wall newspapers, staging performances.
Team Building Goals
The objectives of the events were already identified when defining the concept of team building.
As for the goals, here it is necessary to highlight the following key goals:
- creating a sense of unity between members of the team;
- elimination among employees of the feeling of competition for the spirit of cooperation;
- training in effective interaction;
- development of mutual understanding and trust to each other;
- team building at a higher level;
- strengthening the authority of the leader;
- the possibility of psychological relief.
Which is better: a team or a group?
As you can see, within the framework of team building, such units as a team or a group are distinguished. So what is the difference between them, and which of these states is better.
If we are talking about a team, then within it the desire for personal advantage is not welcome, while in a group, on the contrary, independent individuals try to defend personal interests.
In turn, in the team, its members treat the work as their own business. In a group, each of the employees performs their duties as an employee.
Within the team, each member seeks to demonstrate their skills by completing assigned tasks.
If we are talking about a group, then new proposals are unlikely to find support. Most likely, in this situation, lobbying of interests will be observed.
There are many features of each of the proposed units of the labor collective, which were studied back in 1977 by scientists Tuckman and Jensen.
Organizational moments
You can entrust the organization of team building to professionals or do something similar on your own. In the latter case, experts recommend paying attention to some points:
- first you need to understand what the goal is and what budget you can count on;
- after that, you can think about the time of the event. With much greater enthusiasm, this idea will be perceived if such an event is arranged not on weekends, but during working hours;
- thinking about something like this, it is better to consult with a specialist in this field. This will achieve maximum effect;
- the leader must make sure that everything happens fun and exciting. The main thing in this business is to arouse interest among the members of the team;
- it is important that within the framework of the event all colleagues, regardless of the level of their position, be equal;
- it should be ensured that during team building everyone has the opportunity to show all their abilities;
- and sometime after the designated event, it is important to get feedback from subordinates in order to work on the mistakes for the future.
Game examples
There are many examples of games that can be organized as part of team building. One of these activities is the game “Crocodile”, in which participants should demonstrate any object, any animal, film, etc. without words.
You can also play for construction, when, according to the task received, team members are built, for example, in a certain geometric figure or in a row according to age or some other criterion.
By organizing team building, you can give your subordinates the opportunity to write a story together. So, each team member writes a sentence on a piece of paper, then folds it and passes it to the next participant. After the last representative of the team writes his proposal, the resulting statement is read out publicly.
As you can see, there are a huge number of options for how members of the same team can spend time together and strengthen the spirit of unity.
Which is better: to organize a team-building or conduct it yourself?
It happens that not every leader is able to independently organize such an event. In such cases, specialized team-building companies can be of great help. This will make the organized event more effective.
These companies employ psychologists who will be able to properly organize the whole process.
When choosing an organizer, you should also pay attention to his experience, as this is no less important.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is worth adding that such a tool as team building can help solve a number of problems that arise in the team of each company and improve the psychological background among employees.