Any job becomes infinitely easier once it’s done with the right people. Surrounding yourself in any company with the people you “click” with can mean all the difference in the world. While the pandemic may have put a damper on such traditional settings and methods, the human touch is hard to stop. Team building, like any other building activity, requires group effort, time and willingness to be successful.
Bonds between people forge and temper over time, with various business adversities that are there to strengthen them. Team building can be an effective tool to loosen up and dump all that work-related stress. With a few helpful tips&tricks, you can get started on planning your next team-building activity.
1. Timing is everything.
In real estate, it’s location, location, location. When it comes to team building, replace the word with timing. Getting the whole team on board and on the same page can be challenging but not impossible with some planning. All that work-related stress will melt once everyone’s schedule gets synced and updated.
Don’t force people into timeframes and dates they are not comfortable with or have other plane schedules. Team building is there to bring the whole team together, spontaneously and willingly. If someone is forced to use his/her vacation days or cancel their private planes, it only brings negative energy to the event and undermines the whole point of team building. So plan and plan smart. Being flexible is what planning is all about.
2. Suprise everyone involved
Traditional ways of doing team-building activities rarely get mentioned or form enthusiasm for future events. Events that have been done to death spark little to no interest in participants who wish to get over it as soon as possible and escape. Keeping things fresh and spicing up the formula by breaking the traditional forms is the way to go. Gathering your team at an exotic restaurant, paid by the company, of course, and having a group meal sparks conversation. Keeping things casual helps people relax and bonding time can happen without other planned activities. Nice and simple is the name of the game, and there is no need to complicate things.
3. Pros to the help
Why reinvent the wheel and break new ground when there are professionals to help? Organizing, booking, planning and juggling about million other things can be stressful for one person, which undermines the whole point of a team-building activity, which is fun. Reaching out and outsourcing your team building needs to experienced and trusted event planners in Sydney makes all the difference in the world.
When you do team-building activities by yourself, you are investing your time, money and effort into an activity that has a chance of failure. And image wasting all those resources of yours and your employees. But, when you reach out to trained professionals with plenty of experience under their belt, then you minimize or eliminate the risk of failure to happen.
4. Feedback is crucial
One team-building event by itself makes little to no difference. Continuous action is required for you to see any progress. While your first or second team-building event may not be ideal, future ones can improve with feedback. Don’t be afraid to ask for honest and direct feedback from your employees that participated in the team-building event. When you listen to their opinions on what they like and dislike you can tailor make future events to their liking. There is no point in throwing away company money and wasting everyone’s time on activities that produce little to no results. Employee feedback is there to help you make a team-building event that will be talked about in the company for years to come.
5. Corporate culture is your foundation
Getting an overall “feel” of what type of team-building event you should host is the second step. The first one is getting familiar with what your company culture stands for. A serious, professional business company oriented toward high-paying clientele and confidence would only have more harm than good from an inadequate event. If all of your employees are on board for a more casual type of event, then anything besides that is like trying to swim upstream.
Don’t force your personal beliefs or try to change the overall feel or company tone. Instead, try to adequately judge and calculate the best addition to it would be. Team building events have to be an addition and supplement to the everyday business lives of everybody involved. High-paying financial bankers and accountants have little to no use for outback camping in the same way national park rangers have used for suit and tie business seminars. Read the room and answer accordingly.
6. Volunteer work
When all else fails, or you don’t want to take risks, that’s the moment you turn to corporate volunteer work. Volunteer work is what universally connects us and what all of your employees can relate to. Each company should know its local areas the best, and from that, you can derive with what local activities you can associate your team. Team building done on volunteer work is hitting two birds with one stone.
You get public recognition, and your team gets to bond and promote your company. While volunteer work is mostly unpaid and carries costs that you have to cover, the benefits are substantial. It’s a team-building event, mostly organized by other organizations. Your company gets public recognition for participating, and your employees get to engage in team building and community improvement activities.
Team building events promote corporate culture, team connectivity, employee productivity and company values. Making a constant and reliable team of people you can rely on is employee retention that every company dreams of. Any change that you can make in this department will more than pay for itself in the long run. Think of team building as an investment into your future employee retention and productivity increase. All of those benefits your company, and there is no reason to skimp on them. A happy worker that feels validated and connected to the rest of the team can tackle and overcome any obstacle in his way. We wish you all the best and plenty of fun memories in your future team-building activities.
