When is Team building not Team building?

Today's post will be brief, but I wanted to take the opportunity to say something about team building that has been bugging me for a while.

A pizza party alone is not team building.
A potluck is not team building.
Taking the team for drinks after work is not team building.

These are morale events.  They can be fun.  They may even bond people.  But they are not team building.

What are some examples of team building?

A pizza party coupled with a discussion about "how good are we at giving and receiving feedback in this group?" can be team building.

A workshop on communication done with a real work team can be team building.

An informal presentation on conflict management followed by discussion can be team building.

Bringing together a group of unconnected employees, teaching them about communication, then sending them back to different parts of the company is not team building.

So what makes Team building?

* There is an actual work team involved together.  (not strangers, not a random assortment)
* There is some kind of learning associated with how the team functions.
* Participants actually engage with the topic and each other - not just listening to a lecture.
* Participants learn tools or techniques that they can apply with the team when they leave the event.

I'm writing this today because I get lots of comments from people about how they do Team building because they have free donuts once a week in the break room.  Don't get me wrong, I think bringing people together to talk and form relationships is important.  But I'll offer this. If you really want to build a team - be very intentional about it.  Don't just assume that if you bring donuts that everyone will work effectively together.  You're more likely to contribute to giving employees diabetes than giving them job skills.

That is my 2 cents anyway.  What is yours?

Comments

[Tim Wright]

Cheri -

Good distinctions between morale boosting and team building. The factors you list that contribute to team building are surely on the mark, I believe.

I think the analogy for creating a successful team is one of growth rather than building. A dynamic team is planted, nurtured, and tended through its developmental period. Then, as necessary, it is pruned, trimmed, fertilized, and well-harvested through its maturity.

I suggest these requisites for successfully growing such a dynamic team:

Attention to trust. All too often we consider trust only once it has "gone south." Efforts to develop trust as a positive and continuous factor in/of a team pay off in the short and the long term.

Attention to focus. Assuming that since everyone knows why the team exists and what its purpose is they all share a common focus is just that...assuming. From start up there should be ample and detailed discussion (not one-way presentation) of team focus. Focus includes but is not limited to goals/objectives, process and procedure, individual responsibilities and expectations.

Attention to time. Not so much in regards to "how much time do we have?" or "What's our deadline?" Rather attention to the different relationships with time held by different team members. Every team has an 11th-hour player. Every team has a "get it done from the get-go" member. Every team has others in between those two. The sooner everyone knows where all others come from concerning time, the sooner possible upsets are precluded.

Thanks for letting me share these thoughts.

[Ron]

Cheri your brought up some interesting points. I think of all pizza parties passed off as team building event in early years? I believe we managers can effectively build teams if we focus on teaching, coaching, and leading our members to new growth and horizons.

[John]

Ron, how ironic for you to use management-speak when talking about team building???
Team building is NOT 'being coached by your manager' !

[Maria]

This is something I have considered myself. I work for a team building company and have found quite often that a client will come to me and ask for a team building event but describe what they want and it becomes evident that they are looking for corporate entertainment, for example - an after dinner quiz or race night, these are activities that can be done in teams but they are classed as entertainment to us because the objective is FUN! It is difficult to explain this to a client without patronising or offending them, although this sort of thing as you pointed out does increase morale, in order to 'build a team' if you have a team that needs re-bonding or has communication issues you need to set clear objectives for the event/session and speak to someone about how you will achieve them.

And John, I have to disagree, team building can be coaching from your manager, if your manager has the ability and understanding necessary to carry out such a task in the right way it can be more effective than when carried out by an external consultant who the team have no respect for.