Advantages of team building

Team building is very important if you wish to extract the best out of your workforce.

What is team building?

Team building is an ongoing process that helps a workgroup become a cohesive unit. The team members not only share expectations for accomplishing group tasks but also trust and support one another and respect one another’s individual differences.

Why is team building important?

- It improves leadership skills. In a busy office environment, it can be difficult for employees to find time to develop new skills and managers often do not have time to discover what additional skills employees possess. During team-building activities, each member has a chance to take charge and develop leadership skills.

- It improves morale. When employees succeed in team building activities, they become more confident, which boosts their morale. Commitment to team building activities demonstrates that the employer is willing to invest in their success. Morale is often also improved when employees gain trust in their colleagues and feel confident that their work as a team will be recognised and appreciated.

- It encourages creativity. Team building activities place employees in an unusual environment where they are given out-of-the-ordinary tasks to perform. This often gives permission for employees to be more creative and to use their imagination to accomplish the tasks set before them. These creative problem-solving skills transfer back to the workplace once the activities are completed.

- It improves processes and procedures. Team building activities often allow employees to identify ways of improving processes, policies or procedures that have inhibited productivity. As everyone starts with an equal level of knowledge about the given task, people must draw on and create team process skills to complete the task successfully.

- It improves organisational productivity. As employees learn to work together more effectively, they are able to work more efficiently. Less time is spent correcting errors and work can be divided according to the different abilities of the team members, reducing repetitive or overlapping work.

- It identifies strengths and weaknesses. Individual team members are naturally suited to certain roles. For example, some people are best at focusing on the team’s objectives and delegating work, while others are most effective at checking finished work for errors. Team building allows each member of the team to develop and focus on what he or she is best at so that everyone can best contribute as an individual while still performing together.

- It improves problem solving. Team building activities can give employees structured ways of solving problems together while making each aware of the resources that each team member brings to the workplace.

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