Building effective teams is on the to-do list of nearly every manager I know and an effective team can be more productive than an average team. One of the tools often offered to managers to enhance their team performances is off-site team building exercises. The sort of exercises I’m talking about are those that are supposed to enhance your trust, communication, problem solving etc. by attempting team based physical or mental challenges. But do they work?
Well my opinion is a decisive, yes and no. I think that there is value for newly formed teams or teams with new members, but not because the exercises are effective at changing the long term behaviour of members or that they uncover previously undiscovered personality traits. I think the value comes from the participants spending time together outside the work environment completing a focussed task. In short I think the value is in the fact that they get to know each other away from the pressures and preconceptions of the office environment. They get to know the person not the position or role they play at work. This has the potential to break down barriers and to speed up the relationship building process and this can result in a team that is more tolerant of each other and communicates better.
In saying that the value is not in the exercise, I do think the nature of the exercise is important in that it establishes the environment for the team to communicate. A session of paint ball does not foster open communication.
I’m not alone sitting up on the fence though, a quick scan of articles on the internet shows that are just as many people fiercely in favour of team building exercises as there are against.
So how do you effect change to an established team that is not operating effectively? Well I think the answer is, the old fashioned ways, careful selection of team members including consideration of their personality types (e.g. using Myer Briggs Type Indicators), establishment of clear roles and goals, public celebration of team success and private counselling when things don’t go as planned.
There have been hundreds of slogans used to motivate and recognise the value of teams by many notable people over hundreds of years but I think at the end of the day what counts is hard work and a common determination to succeed.
