Team Building
In the context of its recent resurgence in popularity, Kilian Murphy explores how team building exercises have moved on from endurance programmes run by ex-military types...
When the subject of team building arises, for many it will summon forth mental images of a group paintball session or rain-sodden archery course. However, because of the wide range of tastes and temperaments located within almost every team, the variety of activities and learning tools associated with the process has had to expand considerably.
Team Building in the Information Age
The team building concept is increasingly relevant and popular within contemporary Irish businesses. There are several theories as to why this is; one of the more pertinent ones is that technological advances have reduced the amount of face-to-face interaction workmates have with each other. Therefore, it is necessary for managers to take a more proactive hand in the building of a team, as workers under their jurisdiction may not, by necessity, have to converse directly with each other. Michael McDonnell, Director of the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD), expands on this theory a little further:
‘In the modern workplace, people can communicate by e-mail, mobile phone, conference call – all kinds of things. There is a temptation to have less personal contact, yet all the evidence indicates that if you can meet people and know them a little bit more socially, it does genuinely help to make things run more smoothly. Let’s just say there is a difficulty between the IT department and the production department; if you have all been away for a day or two on a course, it helps that you can put a name to somebody from the other team.’
Approaches to Outdoor Team Building
So, a day out, or several days out, in a social capacity is a worthwhile idea for those interested in team building. However, it is important to find the right type of day out to suit your team’s needs. McDonnell believes that, not long ago, many businesses were bringing their employees on excursions that sent the wrong message.
‘Outdoor team building started life as a way of developing individual skills and assessing individual resilience, which is a mistake in itself,’ he explains. ‘You had a lot of people – very often ex-military types – who ran outdoor programmes that were more endurance tests than anything else. Generally speaking, these have fallen into disrepute, because there is no great correlation between the capacity to do these things, and the ability to do your job well.’
So, testing employees’ endurance is no longer seen as conducive to team building, but what is the right approach to take when organising a day out for your staff? James Sexton is the man behind James Sexton Entertainment, an event management company that has organised a wide variety of team building exercises for a range of organisations. In contrast with the old-style endurance-testing exercises mentioned above, Sexton feels that a sense of fun is now the most important factor in staff excursions. Indeed, his description of the most popular team-building event organised by his company is a far cry from the rain-sodden assault course so dreaded by many workers.
‘The Giant Game and Quiz Show is probably our most popular team building event,’ Sexton explains. ‘We split the group into different-sized teams and, during a full day or a half day, there are quiz rounds, but there are also giant games. Employees play each other in games like Giant Jenga or Giant Connect 4, and they get points if they win a particular game. People like to have a challenge, and to test their brain, but an aspect of good fun is important as well.’
However, one obstacle for employers is that individual staff members will have different definitions of what constitutes ‘fun’. There is a danger, when organising team building events, to concentrate on the same activities time and again – paintball being the most obvious example. This is something that James Sexton has acknowledged, and his organisation takes care to think up a wide range of concepts for team building exercises, to ensure that their clients can cater for differing tastes within their workforce. A cursory glance at the list of activities on offer from Sexton’s organisation emphasises this: treasure hunts, archery and short filmmaking are all available, among many other possibilities.
Having this range of activities is particularly important, as team-building excursions can still be regarded with cynicism in some quarters. Sexton acknowledges that he sometimes encounters scepticism from his clients’ staff members, but feels that this obstacle can be quickly overcome. ‘Initially, I think some people are sceptical,’ he admits. ‘But then they see what we do, and we relax them into it. They enjoy it, and learn valuable things from it.’
Objectives of Outdoor Team Building Exercises
There is one particularly enduring question, when the subject of ‘staff excursions’ arises: is the purpose of such a day out merely to aid morale and camaraderie, or should the teamwork involved in a ‘fun’ activity be used as a test model for future office co-operation? The answer is probably a mixture of both, though Michael McDonnell believes that team building exercises are at best when they have been tailored to a group’s specific needs;
‘I think the first major requirement for an organisation that is planning to bring people off-site, to do an activity, is to have clearly defined objectives in mind,’ he explains. ‘There could be a number of objectives: it might be to get people working in a more team-oriented approach, or it might be to change the culture of an organisation. Then, you would define a set of activities to meet that objective.’
However, while ‘fun’ activities are a hugely important element in team building, there are a number of other facets to the process. Staff days out represent just a small percentage of the time employees will spend together, so managers must take steps to ensure that the camaraderie built during such events is sustained and nurtured in the long term.
Classroom-based Team Building
There are now a number of classroom-based courses on the subject of team building; the Communications and Management Institute (CMI), for instance, offers one entitled ‘Motivating and Managing Teams’. Philip McMahon, the Institute’s Head of Training, believes that the guidance on offer in such a course can be invaluable in the building of a team;
‘The most common obstacle to building an effective team is a lack of understanding of what motivates different types of people,’ he states. ‘We focus on helping managers and team members understand each others’ behaviour profiles. The days when there was an individual approach to increasing productivity are over; people working in teams nowadays are getting a greater sense of belonging, purpose and support.’
McMahon is also a keen supporter of indoor and outdoor team excursions, and feels that the popularity of courses like his own is linked to the expanding range of possibilities in this area. ‘The level of demand (for classroom courses in team building) has increased with the number of outdoor team building companies being set up,’ he explains. ‘We work with these companies to give the client a mixture of outdoor team events and traditional training.’
So, while it is important to maximise the amount of fun employees are having, it is also necessary to make sure that all staff members feel included within the merriment. The paradox of team building activities may be that, while the majority could enjoy a certain excursion, those who did not have fun may feel further alienated from their colleagues. A sense of variety must be adopted, to solve this conundrum.
