Building effective teams is a major challenge every organization faces today around the globe. In the book – Team Renaissance: The Art, Science, and Politics of Great Teams, Mr. Richard E. Spoon mentions that today companies are in a super rush to complete their projects. Due to this, they just hire some people, push them in a group together and build pressure without first finalizing their goals and responsibilities. This group then works without proper direction and that causes conflicts and stress within the team. Follow these recommendations and tips to Build an Effective Team.
How to Build Teamwork in the Workplace?
Tip 1: Proper direction and guidance are necessary to build stronger teams.
You won’t always get the right mix of people as your team, but in fact, as a leader, you need to blend your team so that they collectively deliver excellent performance. However, to do this you need to weave the feeling of empathy within your team. This increases the trust factor and simultaneously enhances their performance. Therefore, to build an effective team there has to be a good synergy between the members.
Tip 2: Build trust to build an operative team.
However, building trust within the team is a big challenge. For this you need to take the following steps in a prolonged process:
- Reward and appreciate team success.
- Distribute responsibilities evenly. This gives direction and helps you resolve conflicts.
- As a leader, one has to avoid pointing mistakes, but rather help your employees improve.
Tip 3: Conduct fun and memorable team building activities that will create bonding and team collaboration.
Conducting team building activities at least once in a month is a must. They help your team members learn – how every member of a team is important, how problems are solved together efficiently and why working in isolation is not a good idea. Follow below tips to Build an Effective Team.
Below are some examples of exciting and popular team building activities that will help you To Build an Effective Team
1. Game of Possibilities
Rules: It is an awesome 5-minute game that increases collaboration among the team members. Give any random, but meaningful object to one person in a team (Anyone can volunteer for this role). This person has to act and demonstrate the use of the object so his team can guess – what it is. The demonstrator is not allowed to speak. One has to act and share cues with the team members.
Duration: 5 minutes
Number of members: One or multiple small groups
Equipment Required: Any meaningful object
This activity triggers creativity and inspires individuals to think innovatively.
2. Photo Scavenger Hunt
Rules: Divide your team into small groups. As a leader, make a list of fun tasks in the form of quizzes and share it with the groups. The tasks listed can be the same for all the groups, but the sequence given to each team has to be different. As a team, each group has to first solve the quizzes and then click pictures in an appropriate sequence. Task Example – I have four legs. I’m very smart and I like to play. I like to smell things. I can wag my tail. – Click a group picture with me.
Duration: 1 hour
Number of members: Divide your team into small groups
Equipment Required: Pen / Pencil and Paper
This is a great team-building effective team in the workplace that motivates team members to gel up with each other. The quizzes help members to think out of the box and work collectively.
3. The Mine Field
Rules: It’s an outdoor activity and an ideal place for this is an open parking lot or a park. To initiate this game you need to pair up the participants. In the pair, blindfold one participant. Create a specific route with the help of stones or cones. The blindfolded participant has to walk through this route and the other guy has to guide him. To make it more difficult, you can make the path more zig zag.
Duration: 30 minutes
Number of members: Divide your team into the pairs
Equipment Required: Stones or cones – to create the path and a cloth for blindfolding the participants.
These are the tips to Build an Effective Team that helps you build trust, develop communication and imparts the quality of effective listening.
Inference
Team building activities and effective team-building strategies initiatives are necessary because they help enhance performance and relationships within the team. However, building effective teams in the workplace is a strong commitment from the manager and as well as the team members.
