Like the five fingers of your hand, people are different at the workplace and even at home. You may like to drink a cold coffee, for instance, while your better half prefers a hot coffee. But, you both unite as a team to run the family. In other words, a team is constituted involving two or more people for achieving a common goal. Team building activities would, therefore, mean a lot serving the common purpose and the goal of an individual/organisation.
Key areas of team building activities:
- Defining a purpose: Whether you are aiming to achieve a personal or professional thing with your team, you have to define a purpose of the same in an unambiguous way. Having said that, we mean why the people in the team should try to achieve that. It gives birth to an ambience of transparency and a sense of belonging.
- Setting a goal: You have to state the goal in clear words so that team members can connect to it easily and feel motivated. This, in turn, will motivate them and will push them for achieving the same. You won’t make much progress, for instance, unless you know your goal/destination. On the contrary, you can make many headways when you know the goal in advance.
- Selection of members: Not every person on this earth is equally capable of delivering a set of performances. Things like education, loyalty, dedication, and perseverance are the key to success in anyone’s life. So goes with a team. Therefore, selection of team members must be done carefully while setting the agenda for the team building activities.
- Assigning the duties and responsibilities: Activities meant for team building starts with assigning the duties and responsibilities among the team members. In other words, team building activities are like a democratic style of operation where every member’s contribution is important for the team’s success. Being the leader of a team, you must learn how to assign the duties and responsibilities among the team members based on their individual capabilities.
- Accountability: Every person in a team is equally important and plays a significant role. Having said that, we mean each member must be accountable for his/her share of duties and responsibilities. In the process, a team will outperform in its task.
- Active involvement: Active involvement of each team member is important for the team’s success. Unless every single person is committed to the purpose and goal of the activities, the team can never achieve a holistic success. Therefore, irrespective of the hierarchy in a team, members there must be actively involved with the day to day operation.
- Shared responsibility: A team’s success is largely influenced by the feeling of the shared responsibility. In other words, the team members must keep the team’s interest ahead of his/her own. This will create a harmony among them.
Many activities for team building such as Coin Logo, Picture Pieces Game and others have evolved over the years and across the geographies. Choose those activities for your team that best serve the team’s purpose.