Team Building – Meaning, Exercises and its Need

When individuals with similar interest, attitude, and taste come together to work for a common objective, a team is formed. Every individual contributes equally and performs his level best to meet the team targets and achieve the organization’s goal.

Team members strive hard to live up to the expectations of others and successfully accomplish the assigned task. A team cannot do well unless and until each and every member is focused and serious about his responsibilities. For every team member, his team should come first and everything else later. Personal interests must take a backseat.

Every individual must feel motivated to perform his level best. Never impose things on anyone; instead, the individuals must take the initiative on their own. They should come forward and accept the challenge.

Let us go through the below example:

Mike and Jordan were reporting to Steve - their team leader. Steve had a tremendous faith on Mike and Jordan, always appreciated them in front of others and even went out for dinners with his team. His team was way ahead of the other teams and never fell short of their targets. Steve was the most admired team leader.

Steve never had to convince Mike and Jordan to take up any new responsibility; they were always on their toes and accepted new assignments willingly.

Why do you think Mike and Jordan were always eager to work ? The answers to this question are the various efforts which their team leader took to motivate and extract the best out of them. This explains team building.

What is Team Building?

Team building refers to the various activities undertaken to motivate the team members and increase the overall performance of the team. You just can’t expect your team to perform on their own. A motivating factor is a must. Team Building activities consist of various tasks undertaken to groom a team member, motivate him and make him perform his best.

We all are human beings and love appreciation. Any individual performing exceptionally well must be appreciated well in public. He feels happy and motivated to perform even better the next time. If any team member has come out with a unique idea; treat him with any thing that makes him happy. Never criticize any team member or demotivate him if he has failed to perform. Ask him to “Buck up”.

Team Building Exercises

Let us throw some light on some team building execises.

• Encourage many trust building exercises in your team. Team members must trust each other for the maximum output. Blindfold half of your team members and ask them to jump over bricks with the help of members who can see. Repeat this exercise and now blindfold those who could see earlier. This exercise goes a long way in building the trust among the team members. An individual might be a little hesitant initially, but the moment he jumps over the brick with his fellow team member without getting hurt, he starts trusting him. The trust factor increases with time and relations among the team members improve.

• One must know his fellow team member well. You can’t work with someone you don’t know. Include a lot of exercises which help the team members know each other well. Make pairs and ask them to write whatever they know about their partner and vice a versa. You can ask anyone to write his partner’s favourite colour, favourite outfit, preferred hangout zone and so on. Ask his partner to correct him if he is wrong in his answers. People know a lot about each other this way and also find out some unknown facts about their partner. Ask the team members to give their introduction one by one once the team is formed.

• The team members must be compatible with each other. Include icebreaking activities in the team. Take them out for picnics; get togethers where they can interact with each other freely on any topic. Allow the individuals to bring their families as well. People come a lot closer this way. Relationships improve. Remember your team member’s birthday, anniversary or any other important date and do not forget to wish him that day. Ask for a treat! This way, individuals are no longer strangers to each other and the bonding increases.

• Encourage activities where individuals come together as a single unit and work for a common task. Collect some even sized sticks, rope, nails, hammer, and glue stick. Ask your team members to construct a bridge out of the sticks using the rope, hammer, gluestick and nails. You will be surprised to see that everyone will be involved in the activity and help each other in making the bridge. The concentration and will power to do something increases and individuals learn to work as a single unit. They all work together, each one contributing something or the other to construct the bridge i.e. accomplish the task assigned to their team.

Need for Team Building - Why Team Building ?

Team Building activities are of utmost importance as they help in the overall development of the team members and in turn improving the team’s performance. It also strengthens the bond among the employees and they feel motivated to work and achieve the targets. Some kind of team building activities must be undertaken from time to time to encourage the team members to work hard and realize their dreams.