Teambuilding – why bother?
In 2021 YouGov conducted a survey into employee thoughts on teambuilding exercises. The findings were based on the thoughts of 1,700 employees and specifically targeted formal exercises not just informal drinks with colleagues.
Of the 42% who had experienced formal teambuilding exercises only 43% felt their team worked together more effectively as result and 60% found the experience embarrassing or cringeworthy.
Given those findings, is it really worth the efforts and costs associated with arranging and participating in formal teambuilding interventions? The answer to that question lies in the real nature of the challenge the ‘teambuilding’ is aimed at. What are we trying to achieve by bringing people together and asking them to participate in a range of activities designed to be unusual and to create uncommon shared experiences? Is it anymore than generating stories to be shared round the water cooler or coffee machine?
Certainly, memorable shared experiences help connect people outside of the content of their day-to-day work. It can deepen understanding of colleagues’ preferred behaviours, sources of motivation and appetite for change. Well designed and facilitated, it can support cultural change, generate innovative solutions to team challenges and/or enable commitment and ownership of a new approach by the team.
Being realistic about potential outcomes and clear about the role that those outcomes may play in the ‘bigger picture’ of individual, team and organisation development is key. I’ll comment further on what the last 35 years has taught me about this in future posts.
I’m clear that taking time out of a busy work role with colleagues and investing in your relationship with them, can be a very valuable thing to do. Simply filling that time with a series of ‘fun and engaging’ activities may well lead to the kind of responses that YouGov found in 2021. Careful design and facilitation of that time can add some real value to your business.
Lindley’s work with experiential and outdoor learning stems back to 1965 and we’ll be shortly celebrating 60 years of enabling individuals and organisations to realise their potential. Look out for an invite to the celebrations!
Over the years many organisations have come to Lindley’s Hollowford Centre in Derbyshire and experienced very successful and rewarding teambuilding events. If you’re interested in enhancing the way a team or multiple teams work together, get in touch to explore options.
Andy Robinson
01433 620377
07730 832760
