What is Team Building?

Team Building Builds Teams

It may seem obvious but this question is rarely posed, let alone answered. A lot of us in the industry talk about team building but there is no single definition for what team building itself is. The answer depends on who is asking, who is answering, and why.

In our case team building is a service we offer. For a manager or team leader, team building is a set of behaviours they must enact to communicate with their staff effectively. It is also an idea, a philosophy, that aims to bring people together to complete a shared task, in the best way possible (for everyone).

Team building is also a practice. It is the process of changing behaviour in individuals in order to increase communication, productivity, and happiness within a group. In this article, we will discuss 5 elements essential to team building, and how they can make your workplace a more appealing place to work.

1. Communication

For an organisation to solve a problem it must facilitate the flow of information. Like electricity traveling through a wire or water through a pipe, information travels through systems via people. For a business to successfully operate, communication must work to facilitate the travel and transfer of information. So, the more effective and efficient the communication the more responsive, productive, and sustainable the business is.

2. Collaboration

Collaboration facilitates communication while also developing new ideas. Done well, it creates solutions to problems in a bit-by-bit manner. Every person views a problem from a unique perspective and so can provide a unique solution. Multiple perspectives imply multiple solutions. Communication within a collaboration is VERY important. Without it, the solution will become too complex. Which leads us to our next element.

3. Occum’s Razor

The simplest solution is probably the correct one. Attributed to William Occum, a 14th-century medieval philosopher, he used it to defend divine miracles. But it holds up in most practical and pragmatic examples of day to day life. In team building, simplicity is key. We want to develop teams to collaborate with efficient communication and this involves being able to discover and implement the simplest solutions. This helps the emergence of our next quality.

4. Coherence

How effectively a group can communicate, collaborate, and simplify. Coherence is something like setting your garden hose to the spray function. You want to balance communication within the collaboration while maintaining simplicity. This is an element of team building because it is also a goal of team building. We want to increase coherence to drive teams to work together, and with agency. How we do that is done with our final element.

5. Fun

We don’t like what’s not fun. If you want to instill behavioural change then you will need to create an emotional experience. Fun is the most altruistic, ethical, and enjoyable method of creating an emotional reaction. We love to laugh. And whatever makes us laugh will be remembered as something good. An effective leader wants people to feel good about them.

It is not difficult. Or maybe it is better to write: it does not have to be difficult. Read through this list. Start at step one and work your way through to step five and you will create an effective team building experience. But if you want to do it the easy way, go in the reverse order. Show your team some fun, let them cohere by simplifying their communication within a collaborative environment.

This is where competitive outdoor adventure games, or online remote team building software excels. It has been expertly designed to generate joy through communicative, collaborative exercises. The time limits and competitive nature of the games we use increase efficiency, often through simplicity, and thus cohesion. 

So What Is Team Building?

Team building is the act of designing and delivering purposeful play. Play that is designed to make a group of people solve problems. But they must solve the problems by communicating complex pieces of information in a simple and efficient way. When they do this they are rewarded with joy, pride, and a sense of accomplishment. 

Successful team building reminds people that problems to solutions are found in communion with others. It instills a cohesive team spirit. Simply put: Successful team building builds teams.

If you are interested in using our services, knowledge, and expertise to design an experience for your team then contact us via the link below. We’d love the opportunity to make your workplace a more appealing place to work.