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The Benefits of a Team Building Event or Away Days

Guest post by: Michael Miles

Article Overview: As a provider of team building events I am often asked questions about the benefits of a team building event. I have made a note of the most frequent questions and have answered them in this article; I hope you find it useful.

The Benefits of a Team Building Event or Away Days

What are the benefits of a Team Building Event?
In the workplace you are so busy doing what you do, perhaps fire fighting or barely keeping the work down to a manageable level. You don not have time to learn about other people, you don't have time to find out what skills they have, it may be that you could do what you do normally, better; you could do your job more effectively if you had certain input from other people or maybe if you even swap roles within the team.

Team building allows time out to specifically develop team skills, team building with opportunities to demonstrate and develop new skills. Getting the team together to go ten pin bowling, kart racing etc is team building, but team building by chance. A team building event with a specific purpose or outcome has more benefits to individuals, the team and the company.

What long-term benefits are there to good team dynamics and will improvements be apparent?
The cost of recruiting and training new staff is an expensive and time consuming business. Good team dynamics means a contented workforce who will stay loyal to the company.
Success breeds success – An effective team means committed team members who won’t want to let the team down – this leads to increased productivity and increased profit. Corporations must move on and change with the times to remain competitive, and the management of change is not one of the easiest tasks. But successful team members have a positive attitude toward change and are willing to accept and allow change to occur as needed in order to accomplish desired results.

Effective teams have a well-defined purpose or vision of what the team will accomplish. It is a very powerful force for the team leader and members. Goals are aligned with the team purpose, and team members are empowered to accomplish the goals. This process leads to a high level of team productivity and achievement of the corporate strategy. If you look at an efficient company you will find effective teams working there.

Is team building beneficial just to high level management or would you recommend it to all levels within a company?

In larger companies teams tend to exist at three levels within organisations. They are:
Strategic Teams - Directors
• Who decide the strategy for the company
• Develop key policies and appoint people to the top jobs.

Management Teams - Managers
• They take the broad objectives and policies set by the strategic team and translate them into action programs
• Their task is control and co-ordinate.

Work Teams - Workers
• Their task is to get the job done.

So each team has a different set of tasks and requires specialist team-building tactics for their task. It is essential that team building takes place at all levels and all teams should be working in the same direction i.e. towards achieving the corporate strategy.
What can team building do for a Small to Medium business?

Small to medium size business’s do not have the luxury of the 3 team levels. Their Strategic team and Management team are often one team and the Work Teams are the second level.

With a smaller work force to choose from, team members often have to perform more than one function. Therefore selecting the team and developing it are just as important, if not more so for small to medium size companies.

Companies often look for the ‘best person for the job’ no matter what the task to be undertaken. They seek out the person who is the best qualified, with the most talent and best track record. But individual star players don’t always achieve the best results, and teams of star players can prove a disaster if they don’t blend together as a team. Simply picking ‘the best’ does not in itself guarantee success.

That’s where an understanding of Dr Meredith Belbin Team Roles is helpful. Finding and fitting together the right people to create an effective working team is one of the most difficult challenges we face. Everyone must be able to make the best contribution as an individual whilst still performing together. Also, smaller companies do not have the expertise such as a training department to organise the training needs of the team.

A team building event allows for a person who specialises in team building to help the company develop their team. A team building event also provides the opportunity for a team to focus on how they perform as individuals and as a team in the safe environment away from the pressures of the workplace.

What companies would your recommend team building to?

If a company is starting up or expanding they all will benefit from an understanding of the Belbin team roles; Belbin is particularly useful when recruiting new team players. Those companies who’s directors or managers have not been on a recent teambuilding event will benefit and I am sure they will want their staff to attend.

Companies already working with efficient teams will still benefit. The business world is very competitive and companies have to continually look at ways of improving themselves. I am always mindful that “you don’t know what you don’t know”. This is another area where companies benefit by someone outside the company looking at the teams and their development.

We provide teambuilding events that give team members the opportunity to discover more about themselves and their team and to focus on the corporate strategy. Teambuilding does not have to be that expensive and as Ben Franklin stated “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”
How can a company work out whether they need to improve their interpersonal relationships or not?
Feedback from customers, both internal and external, should include a measure for interpersonal relationships. An appraisal system and exit interviews (that is interviews with staff members who are leaving the company) should also pick up the signs. However, if a company has effective teams, the feedback will come quickly from the members who will be constantly seeking ways to develop areas for individuals and the team.

Can corporate away day’s assist with other issues such as stress management?

We have fun teambuilding days which are great for helping to release some of the symptoms of stress, but if delegates are going back to the same working conditions that caused the stress the symptoms will return.

This is why it is important to identify the causes and deal with those. We find that by bringing staff away from the workplace and creating a comfortable environment, people are more prepared to discuss their concerns. Suitable changes can then be made in the workplace.
What other issues can they assist with?

One day I will count the number of issues that we include in our teambuilding events, but there are so many activities that cater for the different needs of our clients.

It is vital that the organizer of a team building event has a clear idea of what they want to achieve from the event and after the event check to see if this has been achieved. As a provider of team building events we gain much satisfaction when clients come back to us to organise another team event for them – this means that we have both gained from the event.

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Article Tags: Away Days, Benefits of Team Building, Team Building Event



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