The relevance of team-building at work

A lot of companies build different teams—sales, marketing, logistics, to name a few— because they know how efficient teams can be. Teamwork lets everyone join in building a single plan, promotes camaraderie, tests leadership skills, and, most of the time, produces a more creative output than a single person would have made.

However, coming up with an effective team is harder and more challenging than it seems. This is why HR managers constantly try to come up with different gimmicks and plans to help them figure out the secret formula they need in making such teams work.

Employing team-building activities is one such strategy. Aside from the fun and games team members experience outside the office, team-building activities have a lot of benefits, such as:

A chance to relax and build rapport. For the bosses and the human resource managers out there, teambuilding activities can actually double as an outing. Because company outings are usually done in resorts, private pools and tourist spots, they give everyone a chance to relax and be in a different setting, miles away from their desks in the office. This gives everyone the “human interaction” they need to know each other well, which can eventually create a bond that they will bring with them when they return to their own cubicles.

A way to review the company’s overall performance. Keep in mind that company team-buildings are different from simple outings because during the former, you have a clear purpose: to build the team and to improve your employees’ performance. You can reserve a few hours for some question and answer sessions; conduct a review with your employees of the things that they may be constantly forgetting; get everyone to familiarize themselves with the company’s new policies; and review the company’s overall performance for the past couple of months. What is good here is that everyone will now be aware of the problems that might be happening in other departments, can pitch solutions, help each other out, and eventually build a better system of operation in the company.

Learn new team dynamics. Instead of attempting to build a team through trial and error, which would consume a lot of time and may even be chaotic, your best bet would be to know your employees well enough to know which team to place them in before all hell breaks loose. A well-executed teambuilding will let you figure out how to do this. In this casual setting, you get to see who gets along with whom, who gets bossy, who thinks absolutely out of this world, and who does not get along well with others. Through this, you will know who the next leader will be and who needs to see your human resource manager for a good number of hours.

There are no shortcuts, formulas or spreadsheets to creating an effective team because it needs constant observation and full understanding of your employees. Sure, trial and error is a risky and taxing way to do it, but knowing them fully will surely reduce that risk. The only thing left to do is for you to place the missing pieces in their respective teams. While teambuilding activities are no panacea, if done properly, they can be far more than just a company outing.

*Originally published by the Manila Bulletin. C-6, Sunday, July 6, 2014. Written by Ruben Anlacan, Jr. (President, BusinessCoach, Inc.) All rights reserved. May not be reproduced or copied without express written permission of the copyright holders.