How a team building exercise, activity or game
at a corporate team building event
can improve teamwork.
 

As a leading supplier of effective team building activities in the UK we frequently answer questions on corporate training. This site is dedicated to answering those questions and providing information to companies and organisations considering an indoor our outdoor teambuilding activity and business games. So let us start by answering the question:

What is the purpose of teambuilding activities?

A teambuilding activity is an enjoyable and effective event to assist the process of team building.

An effective teambuilding activities enable participants to learn by practical experience rather than theory; learning about themselves and others.

People learn more through doing than listening, which is why so much team building and development training is activity-based. The adage “I hear I forget, I see I remember, I do I understand” is particularly relevant when it comes to teamwork.

Teambuilding means different things to different people. As a general guide it can be describe it as: “A process which allows a team to work effectively together and create a healthy climate that encourages and values the contributions of team members.” It also ensures maximum use of all members' resources to achieve the team's shared purpose.

In the book Task-Oriented Team Development (McGraw-Hill 1977) Rubin, Plovnick and Fry define four key variables in the team development process:

• Goals. Individuals must understand and accept the goals of the group.
  
  
• Roles. Team members must know what others want and expect from them. Ambiguity in role expectations produces stress and hampers performance.
  
  
• Procedures. All members must know how to get work done together (e.g., making decisions, solving problems, managing time and conflict).
  
  
• Relationships. Put simply, people who like and respect one another usually work together more effectively than people who do not.

An effective teambuilding event will help you clarify these key variables and is easily adaptable to virtually any organisation. Learning should be fun, interesting and challenging. The focus on learning should be through success rather than failure. The process of teamwork does not have to a specific teambuilding event, it should be a continuing process in the workplace.

We can provide your company with questionnaires to establish your training course needs. For example, Belbin's Interplace Program is used to establish the nine roles described in Belbin's book "Team Roles at Work" (Butterworth Heinemann 1993). The answers to the questionnaire are computed by a software programme which produces a wide range of printed reports and provide a useful tool for teamwork.

Elite Training is licensed by Belbin Associates to provide you with:

• The Self-Perception Inventory - How the individual sees him or herself in team-role terminology;
• Job Requirements - How the Line Manager (or individuals with direct responsibility) sees a job;
• Job Observations - How those who know the job well see the job.

To see why other companies choose us for their team building and for examples of costs, availability, course trainers, etc., please visit our >> Home Page

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