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Breaking the Ice
In the ‘Forming’ stages, team members may be full of positivity, but they may also feel nervous or anxious. At this point, team building activities break the ice and give a group of people the opportunity to get to know each other in a friendly, non-work-related environment.
It also gives new teams their first taste of working with each other, as they negotiate roles and test out lines of communication. In a team building activity, the stakes are much lower, and people feel more able to put themselves out there without fear of making a mistake.
Re-Energising
Teams who are in the ‘Storming’ stage of group development may be experiencing a turbulent time. In this phase, members of the team are increasingly starting to push established boundaries, or conflict and frustrations are starting to appear. It is worth nothing that storming is normal, but it’s how it is handled that determines success.
Teams in the ‘storming’ phase can use team building to reconnect with one another, understand the ways in which they communicate and generate synergy. Certainly, in this situation team building exercises can help ‘reset’ a team to a certain extent and re-energise them, eventually leading to ‘norming’ and ‘performing’.
Finally, team building activities can be hugely valuable in the final stages of group development too. They help to keep teams fresh, agile and creative providing feedback on how well they are performing together and giving the opportunity for feedback outside of the work environment.
As well as helping with group development, team building can also work to improve skills both in individual participants and the team. These include:
Communication
Problem solving
Leadership
Collaboration
Creativity
Resilience
Confidence
In some cases, team building activities can work to bring people out of their shell and reveal hidden talents or skills. In these situations, it may be that what is discovered can be applied within the team moving forwards for more effective collaboration and cohesion.
As we’ve covered earlier within this article, team building is essential to reaching the successful phases of group development: norming and performing.
In order to get the very best out of your team, they must be clear of the intended goal, understand their role and its importance (as well as the roles of others) and communicate effectively. Team building gives them the opportunity to try out different techniques and work on the communication skills needed in order to do so.
This, alongside appropriate support and continued professional development within the workplace has a transformative effect on teams as they pave the way to success.
If you would like to find out more about team building, contact us for more information. We are constantly formulating new ideas around team building exercises from Escape Rooms to Treasure Hunts and outdoor pursuits that are ideal for any group of individuals, all of which are designed to help develop a series of important skills as well as promote better team working.
