I know I am not the first person to say human beings need to connect with one another.
I conduct many team building events myself as I believe connection is a huge part of a successful organisation. I see many beautiful moments, epiphanies, connections, compassion, employees showing more of their true selves with each other and group cohesion.
But…
If getting your team or workplace to connect and collaborate together is not part of your culture and development process then, a one-off team event will probably not achieve much. Things will just go back to the way they were. Old behaviours and habits will continue.
As I said before, team building events can be very beneficial. However, long-term benefits need a bit more than a half day workshop that has nothing preceding it to support the event, and nothing following it, to embed any of the changes and learnings.
Sooo….what to do?
These days being able to work within a team is essential. What’s more, we also need to connect and create better relationships at work which have far reaching benefits for the organisation, customer service, the employee and into the community.
Employees are simply not happy to do their work and go home, as human beings we are wired to connect.
So, before you jump on phone and book in your next team event, ask yourself these questions:
Working in teams takes emotional awareness and skill for most people and some leaders and managers are actually used to working on their own to achieve outcomes and not sure how to support their teams in working together.
Have you had open communication with your people to give more meaning behind the importance of team building and why you do it?
As a leader/manager do you know the ROI with team building and connection activities?
Do you know the outcomes as a result of these events?
Do you have an plan in place to continue to work through any actions and objectives from the event?
Why is it important to you personally? Does it matter to you? Do your employees know that you care about them or is it quite the opposite?
Do you have a culture of community, connection, learning and growth that aligns with the events? Is it known throughout the organisation that this is part of who we are and what we do?
Connecting and learning is an ongoing process and needs to be part of your business development. That is, the development of your people.
Extremely important is having buy in from employees and a deeper sense of meaning and purpose behind why they attend the events. Do you know what your people want?
It could be as simple as doing a survey to gain feedback from your employees or it could be tied in with KPI’s, customer service levels, etc.
Just one more thing..
Involve your people. Let them help you work out what best suits your culture, your employees and your business.
Team building is great when it is intentional and purposeful.
So, before you think about your next team building event…begin with these questions or book in for our ‘Get Connected’ half day workshop and we can help bring more connection into your culture.
Get in touch to start your workplace connection journey today.