Why team building activities aren't just about having a jolly

In a time of heightened competition and economic uncertainty, how can an organisation justify the expenditure of a whole day of the team’s work time, not to mention the cost of a team building away day itself? 

It’s a legitimate question. 

Workplace jollies are all good and if there’s the cash sloshing around to pay for them, why not ay!

But when times are precarious, shouldn’t resources be reserved for the really important stuff?  

Here are a few reasons why team building activities and away days aren’t just a jolly - why they can be made of the really important stuff. 

Team Building days fosters effective communication

Exercises that generate conversations and an exploration of ideas promotes open communication in the team, horizontally, across departments and vertically too. 

With good communication, ideas can flow between interns and management as much as they can within teams. Diversity of opinion, different perspectives and richness of feedback, it all drives up quality and deepens work relationships.

Team Building can be motivating

Good team building is like a shot of energy and nutrients straight into the heart of the team. 

Creating activities with the explicit purpose of making a space for the expression of team members thoughts and questions, sends the message that their thoughts and questions are valued, and that as individuals they are valuable.

Feeling like you are an important part of a bigger whole is motivating. And a motivated team is better placed to take on change and challenge head on.

Team Building breeds creativity

Taking people away for a day of team building presents a break from the norm. Time spent away from the usual work setting, experiencing new things, alters the parameters of thinking and expression. 

It creates space for unlikely connections to be made and for fresh ideas and insights to emerge; key ingredients of improvement and growth. The creativity of your team cannot be unleashed without the room for new thinking and refreshed relationships that an away day makes. Problem-solving skills get sharpened up

Very much linked to creativity, a lot of team building activities are focused around some sort of challenge or problem that needs solving. 

This gives the whole team a chance to bring their collective strengths to bear on a time-bound task gets them thinking as a whole, in a solution-focused, strategic way and lets them practice applying their abilities in a joined up way. 

Done well, a team building day will leave the team feeling strong and trusting in one another’s abilities and ready to take on whatever real-world problems the organisation may have in store. This is more important than it sounds because the mindset with which we approach a challenge can really determine the outcomes. 

The right team building activities primes the mindset of the team to believe that they can do it. 

Whatever it is.

So far from being a jolly, team building activities are serious business. The more pressing challenges your organisation faces, the more serious the need to strengthen the team. To motivate them, to get the communication flowing between them and to reaffirm their ability to creatively tackle problems together.  

When was the last time your whole team got together in this way? Looking for ideas? Read our blog - 3 ideas for team building away days in Bristol.