So, you’re looking into Team Building activities? 

This page will provide you with three key ideas you can implement to increase the effectiveness of your team building. 

1) What makes your environment safe to be stretched? First and foremost, when you are hoping to build a team or even increase a current team’s effectiveness, one of the key ideas many people overlook is the safety of the environment. The safety, the environment is pivotal, because growth will not occur unless awareness can occur. Awareness typically will not occur in a perceived uncomfortable or dangerous environment. When you create team building activities you need to blend this world of “it’s safe to grow and safe to do new things” with “this activity is a little bit uncomfortable.” If you go too much to the uncomfortable side of things, people clam up, and you will not have an effective team building activity. If you go too far on the flip side, and it’s just a fun environment but doesn’t raise any sort of awareness, then you find yourself in a situation where everybody had a good time, however, when you get back to the office, nothing seems to have changed in the day to day business performance. A safe environment that is equally fun and uncomfortable at the same time, is something worth creating inside of your team building activities. I can help you create a safe environment. Let’s talk about what you want to accomplish. 

2) How does this activity maximize every team member’s strengths? The second key to consider in creating a team building activity is to maximize the strengths of every team member in the activity. This can be difficult to do. A common tendency with “team building” activities is the idea that they all must be physical in nature. A popular example for this would be a ropes course-style activity. I’m a former ropes course facilitator. I love them for their uses. And there may be times when team members are not physically able to participate. That becomes a wedge in the team rather than a bonding activity. Consider every team member when you make plans to build the team. I have an activity that does this and much more. Let’s talk about its potential. 

3) In what ways would an outside facilitator increase your team building? The third key to consider is one that most people don’t address at all. It can be highly effective for team building activities. Bring in a third party facilitator; someone completely outside the day to day business operations of your team. Doing this can increase effectiveness through the facilitator taking the role of a sounding board to ideas that perhaps employees are nervous to share with their “higher ups.” In fact, if you are considering team building, it is possible that your employees don’t have the relationship with their manager or boss that you are hoping for them to have. A third party facilitator opens up the conversation and the ability for people to share with the facilitator what’s truly going on in the business. It also allows for team leaders, bosses, or managers to be participants inside the team building activity, rather than trying to be the ones to run activity. I can absolutely help with this! Let’s jump on a call and talk about what the Leadership Game can do for your next team building activity.