Team Building

Office Solutions, May/Jun 2004 by Gragg, Ellen

Team building is popular with most companies' management and has been so for the past few years, as evidenced Dilbert. It's not actually easy to build a team using team-building activities.

The best team building happens naturally, as a result of a successful work project. It goes something like this: each member of the group contributes according to job, talents, energy, and inclination-, the project starts out with high hopes. Then, something goes wrong, and there are problems, squabbles, and doubts about others' talent and commitment. Finally the problems get fixed, a difficult team member comes through in a way no one expected, the people who doubted one another see the best in each other, the project is a rousing success, and the workers feel like a real team, as if together they could do anything. Credits roll, ending with the Disney logo.

Cynicism aside, it does happen like that sometimes, and anyone who's been part of it knows it can be wonderful. The trouble is, you simply can't summons up a successful project. Management, consultants, and trainers think you can generate strong team feelings with a simulated project or a social event. It's worth a try, but far from easy to come up with a team-building event that doesn't cause more trouble than it solves. For example, picture Dilbert, Tina, Alice, and the gang accidentally feeding a teammate to a bear.

Ideas for Team-Building Events

Some common ideas for team-building:

* Team-building seminars with group projects and challenges

* Playing a traditional sport such as softball or volleyball

* Playing new sports like laser tag, paintball, indoor climbing gym, or video games on a hub

* Working for charity together as in a day working with Habitat for Humanity

* Social events such as dinners or drinks after work or a picnic

All of these can work, but each of them has built-in pitfalls that may not be obvious to the arrangers. The pitfalls start with a situation in which the members are not yet a cohesive group that wants to spend a lot of non-work time together.

Built-in Pitfalls

Team-building seminars are usually expensive, which is something the arranger must budget for, and some of the participants will be miffed by, as in "My team feelings would be improved by a bonus from the money they threw away on this." Additionally, some of the participants may feel manipulated by the games and challenges.

All the rest of the activity choices exacerbate the differences between individuals that the event is intended to overcome. Different events look like fun to various people, but discovering those tastes differ more sharply than previously known can create discomfort in the group. Most people understand differing tastes, but the sudden revelation that something/ always thought everyone liked is anathema to you increases the distance between me and you.

Traditional sports look great-healthy exercise, shared goals-but they don't always work. In some groups, it brings out competitiveness beyond what the relationships can handle. Some people's idea of fun may be in dealing the other team a humiliating loss, which is not great for building working relationships.

Additionally, for some, a sports event brings back ugly memories of being the last chosen in gym or not making the team. Others may simply be uninterested. A nice woman on my own team, who is easy to get along with and willing to participate in most events, firmly squelched an outing by saying, "I don't do any sport during which I can't check email."

New sports often bring the age and life-stage differences of the team members into sharp relief. The email fan above was interested in another idea floated by the group-set up a computer hub and play computer games as a group. The older members of the team thought it was a terrible idea because, "that's what my children do" or "I stare at a computer for work, not for fun." Laser tag, paintball, and indoor climbing gyms can be unappealing to the parents in the work group because they spend their weekends herding children's birthday party groups through the same facilities.

I once assumed working for charity together would be a sure win, but it turns out it can bring out political differences. A friend of mine privately confided that he was deeply offended by the team charity event because he doesn't approve of charity. That was a new one, and I'm reconsidering the friendship. Once again I learned you can't assume anything.

Plain social events-a picnic at the boss's house, a group dinner out-have the appeal of being easy to arrange, and usually the arranger thinks everyone will love it. Not everyone, however, likes social events. Some people are shy. Others are frantically busy. Many consider an event outside of work hours an imposition.

Is There a Solution?

I recently had the good fortune to participate in a successful teambuilding event from which I extrapolated some lessons on team building. A group of us visited an innovative laboratory with which our company collaborates. It was a long day with the bus trip both ways, lunch at the facility, and a tour. Throughout the day we grouped and regrouped according to interest and by accident and wound up talking to people we didn't previously know well. Although it didn't have the residual effect of inventing the next new widget together, there is some carryover into daily business.