August means the start of the new school year is upon us. In some schools classes have begun. In other schools, teachers have headed in for pre-service and prepping for the new year. The new school year also means team building activities for teachers and students. These activities are designed to examine and enhance the interactions and relationships with a specific community. The desired benefit of this is increased productivity as well as a better experience at work or school. Unfortunately, most team building experiences suck.
Just hearing ‘team building’ many adults will groan, sigh, and start crafting excuses to miss work for that day. Students may not mind missing some academic time but roll their eyes at the facilitators and the activities. As someone who spent years leading team building experiences, I don’t blame people. I throw up in my mouth a little every time I type ‘team building.’ I prefer never to use the term. So many people have had to endure debilitating team building experiences that when their supervisor tells them about the upcoming experience, employees have a negative Pavlovian response? Facilitators have failed their clients and supervisors have failed their employees.
The other day, I read a column discussing the failure of and damage done by workplace team building. The article described poorly conceived and facilitated experiences that did more harm than good. It doesn’t have to be this way. Experiential activities can be fun and effective ways to build relationships and reshape the social dynamics of a community. Team building can make groups more successful and productive.
Sometimes the best that can be said at the end of a team building experience is, “well, that wasn’t a complete waste of time.” As it is generally enacted at work or in class, team building pays misguided lip service to altering community dynamics and more successful individuals. Effective community interventions are not some mysterious formula. If leaders really want to make individuals and groups more successful they need to commit to some simple steps.
When team building works it does so for several reasons.
Relationships - A focus on relationships can be subtle or quite explicit. If you want to build relationships go slow and commit to a long process. If you want to change things one day won’t undo or reshape relationship patterns established over weeks, months, or years. Also, a focus on relationships does not mean you’re requiring everyone to be friends or be nice. Sometimes the cult of niceness is just as toxic as bullying.
Don’t Force It - Nobody likes forced fun. Pushing prescribed outcomes or forcing connections on people is problematic. Plant the seeds and nourish their development. Explore the process and give people a reason to buy in. Let it happen. Then again, sometimes you have to weed the garden. If someone is going to be a tool about the process, etc. address it and explore that as well.
Make Connections - What does this have to do with work/school? That is in the back of most participants’ mind. Provide the connection. Be explicit. Make it tangible. If you don’t, buy in and engagement will lag. Also, keep it real. Authenticity means a lot to people.
Shared Vision - Teams should share in establishing the purpose and designing the goals. Build support from the ground up. See #1 -3.
If you have to plan a team building experience for your group, the best place to start is GRABBS (see Island of Healing, 1988). This stands for:
- Goals
- Readiness
- Affect
- Behavior
- Body
- Stage
GRABBS allows you, as the planner or facilitator, to gauge where the group is as a community and what they can handle as individuals and as a group. Matching the most appropriate activities goes a long way to an experience having a positive and lasting impact on a community.
The first really successful corporate team building I lead was notable more for what I didn’t do than for what I did do. I designed an evening of rock climbing for software developers and managers from different departments who were getting reading to work together on a new project. I wanted to keep it simple - climbing instruction, catered meal, and an open bar. When the participants arrived the skepticism and reluctance of several people threatened to overtake the group. My welcome message included some blunt assurances. There would be no hugging and no singing Kumbayah. All they had to do was help folks who needed a hand and get to know their new project people. After that my team and I just taught climbing, monitored safety, chatted people up, and provided activities for those who wanted something extra. Folks mingled and laughed. Some chose a more adventurous evening. Some took advantage of the open bar and others took photos. Folks left happy.
If jaded software developers can make the most of team building why have these experiences failed so many people? Team building doesn’t have to suck. If you find yourself building team at work or school, I wish you well.