Corporate Team Building Mistakes to Avoid

Casual chats by the water cooler are great for creating bonds in the workplace, but they don’t exactly stimulate teamwork and productivity. If you want to improve your team’s cohesiveness and communication in the workplace, team building exercises are a good start. Many corporate environments use team building to stimulate employees and have them bond with each other.

However, it doesn’t always turn out all that great during team building exercises, especially if the organisers aren’t experienced with the process. To help you get started with the proper way to do it, we’ve compiled a list of common team building mistakes that you should avoid.

Not assessing your team correctly

When organising a team building activity, it’s important to first assess your team’s capabilities. Not doing so can lead to disastrous results, as the team may not be able to complete the task or may not be compatible with one another. This can ruin the team building process and damage relationships in the workplace.

You want to make your business a success? Assessing your team mates is an essential step for that goal. That’s why it’s crucial to take the time to understand your team’s strengths and weaknesses before organising any activities. Only by doing so can you ensure that everyone has a good time and that the teambuilding exercise actually helps improve teamwork in the office.

So, before you do anything else, take some time to assess your team and see what type of activity would be best suited for them.

Allowing cliques and in-groups

Many team-building exercises aim to break down the barriers that employees may have built up over time. Cliques and in-groups can prevent this from happening, as employees will naturally stick with those they are most comfortable with. This can lead to tension and conflict within the team, which will ultimately hamper productivity.

Furthermore, cliques and in-groups can actually prevent team members from getting to know each other on a more personal level. This is important for building trust and improving communication within the team. By sticking with their friends, employees are limiting their ability to form strong relationships with their colleagues.

Finally, if team-building exercises don’t include everyone within the group, it can create a feeling of exclusion. This can damage morale and make it difficult for people to work together in the future. If you want to get the most out of your team-building exercises, be sure to avoid cliques and in-groups as much as possible.

Not having clear goals

When organising a teambuilding activity, it is important to have clear goals in mind. This will help to ensure that the activity is productive and beneficial for the team. Without clear goals, employees may not be sure what they are supposed to be doing and may end up wasting their time.

Furthermore, if the team building exercise is not properly planned, it can actually do more harm than good. Employees may become frustrated if they don’t understand the objectives of the activity or if they are not working together as a team.

This is why it is important to take the time to plan out your team building exercises properly. Set clear goals for the activity and make sure everyone understands what is expected of them. This will help to ensure that the team building exercise is a success and that everyone has a good time.

Ignoring team members’ suggestions

The great thing about team building exercises is that they improve the cohesiveness of the whole team, including those that organised them. An exercise of this sort should be considered a two-way street for learning. The employees can and should try to contribute to the team building itself, and you should take their ideas into account. Has a team member returned to the office after a long break? They might have some fresh ideas to spice things up.

If you only bark orders at employees and expect them to follow along blindly, there will be some resentment towards the team building exercises. Remember that you’re trying to create an open and cooperative forum, so take team member ideas and suggestions seriously.

Not having multiple yearly events

Team building is more effective when done frequently. Not all lines of work allow you to have incredibly frequent exercises, but a balance can always be made. Make sure you don’t neglect your team building event schedule, as you want to remain consistent.

Obviously, scheduling meetings and events and sticking to them consistently is easier said than done. What happens when you have team members that travel a lot during their work? In these situations, it helps to have a firm grasp of online event management. If you can set up virtual meetings and team building events from a distance, you’re going to find it easier to stick to a schedule.

The technical aspect of online events can be tricky. Team leaders that aren’t particularly tech-savvy or don’t know which platform to use might benefit from expert help. Setting up an online event with the help of Veritas Events organisers a lot easier than doing so on your own. Not to mention, you don’t have to prepare software and materials for events if a third party handles it.

Scolding team members openly

Critique is a useful tool for a leader in any position. Whether you’re setting up team building activities or running a swimming group, you need to be able to give constructive criticism to team members. However, there are some things to keep in mind before you do.

Criticising employees is a necessary part of the process, but you shouldn’t make a spectacle of it. There are many different ways to get your ideas and criticisms across, and the last thing you want to do is create resentment in the workplace. Make sure that you give out your constructive criticism one-on-one if it’s possible. This way, a team member might strive to improve without dealing with the awkwardness of being scolded in front of colleagues.

Conclusion

There are countless reasons to set up team building events, no matter which industry you work in. A good team building exercise can help boost morale and productivity for quite a while. Cooperation is essential to any corporate setting, and you want to make sure you have as much of it as possible in the workplace. Consider what we’ve mentioned and try to avoid making the same mistakes.