Suspending eggs from string, talking openly about our likes and dislikes or even white water rafting in Wales… just some of the activities team-building exercises can have us partaking in. But can these pursuits really develop into tangible results?
Some old-school managers would consider laughter in the office to be a ludicrous ‘new-age’ notion and one to be dismissed in disgust, but modern-day businesses are leaning toward the thinking that having fun working relationships with colleagues is essential in order to nurture a productive and effective working environment. Whatever your opinion, like it or not, in this day-and-age we are moving into an era where it is more than acceptable to go for a few after-work drinks with colleagues and completing tasks on the ‘It’s A Knockout’ ground is seen as the way to build better communication and consequently, better work-based decisions.
Even in games like football you will find that society tends to lean toward singling out a particular team member as the ‘star player’. This may be accepted by the other players when they themselves are earning ludicrous amounts of money! but in business where everyone is vying to be noticed and pushed up the ranks, it could lead to unease. As individuals we humans do tend to favour looking after number one, but if this is looked down on by the boss then we are more than likely going to get involved with others. To make sure everybody works together to make things happen, fostering a ‘team’ approach is extremely important. Team-building is not a one-off yearly event, it is an everyday thing and if staff are rewarded for successes as a team and not just as an individual they are more likely to take on this thinking.
The attractiveness of team-building excursions, whether it be down to the pub for a drink or something slightly more extrovert, might be that by bringing everyone together on neutral ground you rid working relationships of hierarchy. A director has as much knowledge about such ludicrous team-day exercises as getting an egg to drop down a homemade shoot without smashing as the office junior and this means that the opportunity to do this successfully is down to ‘everyone’ working collectively. In normal everyday life individual strengths and weaknesses may not be so apparent and therefore opportunities for excelling at a task collectively might be hidden. Working together as a team brings everyone’s strengths into play and could lead to the grand finale of success.
We spend most of our waking time submersed in a working environment and if it is possible to have fun while you’re there doing your job, then this surely has to be one of the things that will keep staff working productively but bear in mind that there is a healthy balance. It is still prevalent in societies like Japan to take after work drinks to the extreme. You will often find wives stuck at home holding the baby until 12 or 1 in the morning with no questions asked and some may argue that this is an unacceptable amount of ‘team-building’ activity!
