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If you have ever planned any team building activity, you would know how it can improve communication and productivity among the employees. It’s important for all leaders to understand team building importance.
Contrary to popular belief, team building benefits are not limited to recharging the team in terms of productivity. Try and host a fun team-bonding exercise and you will see it also helps infuse positive vibes among team members as well as towards the managers and the organization. This is a huge team-building benefit. Even a small initiative can go a long way and show different team-building benefits.
These days the management is mostly concerned about keeping clients happy and getting the work done and often forgets about the most valued asset–employees.
Seminars on ‘how to communicate’ or ‘how to boost productivity’ have long been labeled as boring. Such habits are understandably important but can be cultivated by not just organizing seminars and talks but also through appropriate games that can break the ice. Such activities can lead to team-building benefits.
Let’s understand the importance of team building and the significant advantages of team building.
Importance Of Team-Building Activities
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Works as an ice-breaker
Would you share information or feel comfortable working with a person you know nothing about? Maybe not. It’s natural to feel uncomfortable working with strangers for the first time.
In such situations, usually, just a formal introduction is not enough to break the ice between colleagues. But a five-minute team building activity can work wonders. Through them, team members can get to know each other better, making them comfortable with each other and facilitate collaboration.
But how should a manager or leader participate in such activities? Should the manager just monitor the activities or understand and practice them as well? Participation in such activities can help managers understand the team building importance and help your team view you as a co-worker and not just as a boss. This can go a long way in boosting a team’s morale.
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Facilitates better communication
Activities of any kind encourage team members to discuss issues with each other. Thus, people will be naturally open to communicate not only with their team members but even the management.
An organization where employees can communicate freely with the management is usually high on trust, transparency and productivity.
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Motivates employees
Irrespective of the job, people do get demotivated sometimes, whether it is due to the change in the team leader or non-recognition of your own work or others. Missed deadlines and half-hearted work should be treated as cues by managers that the team needs some kind of motivation.
Team building activities can come handy at such junctures. That is why leaders must understand the importance of team-building activities.
To grasp the importance of team-building fully, you must also know how team building activities actually affect employees.
Benefits Of Team-Building Activities
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Better conflict resolution
Let’s say your team members have worked with each other previously. So, you are not bothered about breaking the ice.
But what happens when a crisis arises? Under pressure, conflicts are bound to arise. Such conflicts can reflect a lack of trust and communication among employees. Trust-inducing benefits of team-building activities can help prevent such a situation.
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Reveals hidden skills
Host a team-bonding activity next time and watch employees reveal their hidden skills which they may not have time for when they are pursuing tight deadlines and dealing with the daily workload.
It’s only in a relaxed environment that they may show their hidden skills. That’s one of the major benefits of team building activities–knowing another side of your employees.
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Connect remote teams
A lot of offices are letting their employees work from home after the recent lockdown. Managing and collaborating remotely with your team can have a fair share of problems. So how do you make sure your team is motivated and productive? Team building activities can play a big role in this.
During the lockdown, most managers realized the importance of team building activities and the advantages of team building. As a result, the employees and management have been motivated and able to collaborate even while working remotely.
Team-Building Importance And Benefits: The Bottom Line
Now that you know the team-building importance and benefits, the one question that remains is: ‘How to choose team-bonding exercises?’
Choosing the right activities can actually get your team members to participate instead of trying to slip off the nearest exit.
The Social Styles Model that is part of Harappa Education’s Managing Teamwork course can help you understand the advantages of team-building activities. The Social Styles model talks about the four common work styles of teams and knowing what work style your team follows will certainly help you in choosing the right team-building activities.
Join Harappa’s Managing Teamwork course today to learn more about team-building and its benefits.
Explore topics such as Difference between Leadership and Management, Team Building, Team Building Activities, How to Build Trust in a Team & Contingency Planning from our Harappa Diaries section and build trust-rich relationships.
