lTips for Team Building

Then, they wondered why that sense of teamwork at the retreat or seminar, failed to impact long term beliefs and actions back at work.  

All the team building exercises have to be part of a larger teamwork effort. Think of team building as something you do every day.

 Form teams to solve real work issues and to improve real work processes. Provide training in systematic methods so the team expends its energy on the project, not on figuring out how to work together to approach it.

Hold department meetings to review projects and progress, to obtain broad input, and to coordinate shared work processes. If team members are not getting along, examine the work processes they mutually own. The problem is often the fact that the members haven’t agreed on how they will deliver an idea or the steps required to get something done.

Build fun and shared occasions into the organization’s agenda. Hold pot luck lunches; take the team to a sporting event. Sponsor dinners at a local restaurant. Go hiking or hold a monthly company meeting to bring people together. 

Use ice breakers and teamwork exercises at meetings. Participants took turns bringing a “fun” ice breaker to the meeting. These activities were short but they helped participants laugh together and get to know each other – a small investment in a big time sense of team.

Celebrate team successes publicly. Buy everyone the same t-shirt or hat. Put team member names in a drawing for company merchandise and gift certificates. You limit teamwork only by your imagination.

Take care of the hard issues above and do the types of teamwork activities listed here. You’ll be amazed at the progress you will make in creating a teamwork culture, a culture that enables individuals to contribute more than they ever thought.

Source: forbes.com
Source: http://www.navigossearch.com