Team building revisited: when team building is done right, organisations reap rewards in team effectiveness, leadership, and pos

All too often, senior management teams with clear objectives of strategic team development end up spending their valuable time learning what items to take from a "plane crash" to survive in a "desert" in a resort recreation hall. Sales conferences with groups of energetic professionals, eager to spice up the agenda with an enjoyable relationship-building event, end up in an indoor theory-based workshop that is irksome.

Organisations need to ensure that team building providers know the nature of their unique business, and the details of the group, like age range, seniority, ability level, and provide an experience that aligns with this uniqueness.

Pragmatic Outcomes

Results from effective teambuilding can range from a fun and memorable experience that builds team spirit, to strategic sessions that result in goals and accountability. Because of this huge difference in outcomes, it is critical that organisations and team building providers are clear and realistic about their outcome expectations.

For example, if a group has a day to spend on team building, a lot of great things should result. But it is impossible to go beyond raising people's awareness and strengthening relationships in this type of a time frame, and expectations that go beyond this are bound to be let down.

Before the programme is picked, both client and provider must be clear on the outcomes that are expected from the experience, and how they will measure if and when that outcome is achieved.

Experienced Facilitators

Even after ensuring that the programme is both appropriate and the outcome expectations are realistic, the impact of the experience will be limited if the facilitators cannot deliver the experience or establish a healthy rapport with the team.

Often senior leadership teams get lectured on high performance by facilitators with little business acumen. At other times, groups that could strongly benefit from a fun, motivational, and adventurous team of facilitators, end up with intellectual overkill.

While it may seem that getting an effective team building programme is a lot of work, it doesn't have to be. Most reputable team building programme providers will already know the necessity of getting answers to these questions, and one or two conversations about the desired outcomes and measurements can often give you the reassurance you need that your teambuilding choice will be a winning one. --N Ravindran

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