Team Building

Teamwork Is the Fuel That Allows Common People To
Attain Uncommon Results

(quote Andrew Carnegie)

Team Building is a collective term for various types of activities used to enhance social relations and define roles within teams, often involving collaborative tasks.
Team Building is distinct from Team Training, which is designed to improve the efficiency, rather than interpersonal relations.

Perhaps the best way to define teamwork is:
When a group of people work together cohesively, towards a common goal, creating a positive working atmosphere, and supporting each other to combine individual strengths to enhance team performance.

Team bonding activities improve workplace projects that involve teamwork:
After completing team building activities together, employees better understand each other’s strengths, weaknesses, and interests. This understanding helps them work even better together on future progress vital to a company.

Organisations are more likely to perform well when their people work effectively as a team:
Because good teamwork creates synergy – where the combined effect of the team is greater than the sum of individual efforts. … As well as enhancing organisations’ performance good teamwork also benefits the individual.

Socializing and making friends in the workplace is one of the best ways to increase productivity in the office:
Not only does this increase morale in the office, but allows for the office to work better solving everyday workplace problems.
Team bonding activities also improve workplace projects that involve teamwork. After completing team building activities, employees better understand each other’s strengths, weaknesses, and interests. This understanding helps employees work better together on future projects vital to a company.

Competition has been proven to increase production:
So, channel that increased production into a fun, team building activity and you will find employees bonding in a way near impossible by other means.
After any sports team wins a major championship, they celebrate and have fun. This motivates them to want to win even more. This extreme example shows that the celebration, cheering, and fun that come with every Team-Bonding event can motivate employees to bring their job to the next level.

People tend to have a larger imagination:
When they are around people they are comfortable with. Successful team building events not only bring people closer together but they also lead to more successful and creative workplace ideas. Everyday workplace collaboration is key to a successful business.
For example, a coach always has assistants to help-out when needed.

Communication and Working Together as a Team:
This is the top reason why people choose team building because everybody wants a friendly work environment. Where people are comfortable and happy to talk to and work with anyone.
One of the best reasons for team building is the activities work to accomplish improved communication. A successful team building activity will surely mean a more comfortable, successful workplace environment for any business, company, large or small.

Team building is very important if you wish to extract the best out of your workforce. Employees are urged to work smarter and not just harder, to deliver the desired results. Though it contributes in its own way, individual brilliance does not singlehandedly decide the fate of an entire project.
It is the joint efforts of the whole team that eventually decide the success or failure of a project.

Team building in an office helps to foster better and open communication between the

employees themselves, as well as between the employees and the higher management. Team building goes a long way in improving professional relations, understanding and co-operation, which is reflected in the quality of work being done.
Team building in the workplace significantly contributes towards employee motivation and building trust among the employees, thereby ensuring better productivity.

Here are some common team building exercises for communication, success and improved team performance.

Promote Informal Addressing:

Speak freely and step out of the traditional / formal employee boss interaction. This will give your employees reassurance that you are one among them and not a corporate dictator. This will work to your advantage as it will encourage open workplace communication, sharing of ideas, and will help to maintain healthy work relations.

Organize a Day Trip:
Reward your employees for the good work that they have done by organizing a day trip. Encourage employees to bring along their spouses and children. This can be a welcome break from the daily work-related pressures and can help fellow employees and their bosses to interact, bond, and get to know each other better. In many ways, this can translate into better returns at the workplace.

Celebrate Each Other’s Success:
Learn to appreciate and acknowledge each other’s efforts. Celebrate the success of a job well done or a project delivered well ahead of the deadline because this helps wiping out any negativity and keep the team united.

Initiate Group Discussion Sessions:
When you have a major project-related decision to make, ask your employees for their views on the subject. Have a group discussion on the matter and seek their suggestions and opinions. Even though it will be you who has the last word, this gesture will promote teamwork, boost employee confidence and make them feel valued and wanted.

Get Off the Grid:

Take your employees on an outing outside of the city. Limit screen time and get involved in an outdoor team activity, like golf.
There are venues within a few hours of major cities but only a few that will combine a conference with accommodation, meals and an activity. Find one that relates to your type of business or company within your budget.
These are great for unwinding in a relaxing, stress free environment while bonding with your team.

Team Building Slogans

Team building projects and activities are seldom complete without the use of some inspirational team building slogans.
Here are some popular inspirational quotes and slogans that you can use when working towards team building for success:

• *** “There is no ‘I’ in TEAM” ~ Anonymous
• “A single arrow is easily broken, but not ten in a bundle” ~ Japanese proverb
• “A boat doesn’t go forward if each one is rowing their own way” ~ Swahili proverb
• “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success” ~ Henry Ford
• “One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team” ~ Kareem Abdul Jabbar
• “A group becomes a team when each member is sure enough of themselves and their contribution to praise the skill of the others” ~ Norman Hidle
• “You don’t get harmony when everybody sings the same note” ~ Doug Floyd
• “Teamwork makes the dream work, but a vision becomes a nightmare when the leader has a big dream and a bad team”. ~ John C. Maxwell

Here is another spin on Team Building:

*** “There is no ‘I’ in team” is one of the common phrases in team-building seminars. There is a “me” in team, however, and if you’re going to build a motivated team that delivers results, you need to focus on the “me.”

Anyone who has taken a basic management course has heard of Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Per Maslow, people are motivated by five needs, which range from biological, such as eating, to higher, self-actualization needs, such as being creative. Each of these needs is focused on the self.

People are not motivated by esoteric ideas, such as increasing shareholder value or building a world-class organization. They are motivated to meet their basic needs – to pay the bills, be happy, be valued.

The key to motivating a team is to translate business goals into personal value. A motivating leader understands this and makes sure the team knows what’s in it for them if they meet the goals.

You May Find “It’s About Me” To Be a Very Selfish View.
But nothing could be further from the truth. Here’s an example of how it can be about me and remain unselfish:

Let’s say I have been assigned a project to implement a new system that will increase productivity and save the company $2.5 million. That’s a good corporate goal, but it means increased workload and extended leaves from my family. So, what’s in it for me?

If the project is successful, I will get a bonus, my merit raise will increase, my career path and job security will be enhanced, and I could get a promotion. Now I’m getting motivated.

To motivate my team, I need to apply the same strategy and tell them what’s in it for them.

• They will be exposed to new technology,
• a new network with new equipment will be needed,
• there will be opportunities for training,
• they will get a bonus and potential salary increase if the project is successful,
• and they will be able to move into more senior positions.

Now they are motivated.

My “me” is motivated, their “me” is motivated and we are a motivated team ready to do whatever is needed to make the project successful – which will ultimately satisfy senior management’s “me,” as it will be able to meet its goals.

There is no “I” in team, but there is a “me” – a bunch of them, to be precise. A motivated and successful team is made up of individuals who understand what’s in it for them.

On another note remember:

Team leadership and team building go hand in hand. Successful team building in

the workplace often translates into success for everyone. It is not difficult and does not require you to go out of your way or do anything extraordinary as a common person.

As the popular saying goes,

“Teamwork is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.”

Compiled by Redgum Village. www.redgumvillage.com.au

Business Conference and Team Bonding Venue in Dandaragan West Australia

Many of these quotes and examples are directly from Google search, networkworld and our own experiences