Team Building (a term that literally means “team construction”) is one of the most popular techniques in the business world, and for several decades it has become one of the most useful resources used. professionals of Human Resources and Organizational Psychology.
And beyond their appearance as simple leisure activities, they represent a fundamental element when it comes to establishing commitments and alliances that go beyond the specific performance of these sessions, and that help detect interpersonal and intergroup problems. To make it easier to understand the value of this type of activity, here we will give a review of several of the most used Team Building strategies in the business world
What is Team Building?
In short, Team Building is a technique used to promote the spirit of teamwork and collaborative work capabilities among the workers of any company or organization that needs to enhance these skills in its workforce.
Now, more than helping to develop technical skills directly related to each person’s job, Team Building is designed to reinforce soft skills linked to the area of social skills and communication with others , and its main objective is to strengthen the links between workers to create teamwork dynamics that feed back and maintain themselves; In addition, it also helps detect conflicts where they exist.
Thus, Team Building is mainly responsible for improving teamwork, but it also works on many other skills and abilities of workers, placing special emphasis on their ability to interact positively with each other. For this reason, it contributes to generating an adequate organizational climate, and does not place so much emphasis on learning technical knowledge directly applicable to the achievement of productivity goals (although, indirectly, Team Building has a positive impact on the performance of teams). job).
It is a very useful strategy that is currently widely used by companies of all types, from the most cutting-edge in the market to the most modest, and to do so it uses a relatively casual context in which activities are carried out that are apparently disconnected from what is normally done in the workplace, although always involve the need to coordinate with others, communicate appropriately, establish commitments, and strive for the common good
In addition to that, Team Building can also foster employee creativity, enhance motivation and emotional attachment to the company, promote positive bonds between coworkers, and help release accumulated stress.
Main Team Building Strategies
Being a recently created and constantly evolving resource, Team Building can be applied in various ways and in a manner adapted to the specific needs and characteristics of each company. Now, even if it takes the form of fun or even relatively improvised activities, they always involve training or Human Resources professionals who energize these activities in a way that places the focus on achieving the goals set by the team. the HR department.
That said, let’s see what the most used Team Building strategies are.
1. Escape Room
Escape Rooms are very fashionable activities around the world and are practiced both by people who want to have a good time and have fun and by companies that want to test the deductive abilities of their employees. However, In the context of Team Building, this activity is more than entertainment
This type of activity related to Team Building consists of a room from which you have to escape in a certain time thanks to solving various clues and tests of ingenuity. A group of people participates in these tests, which may be larger or smaller depending on the company’s criteria.
2. Team sports activities
There are many sports activities that can be carried out as Team Building strategies, and if they are energized in the appropriate way, they help to promote motivation, the feeling of belonging to the group and communication and leadership skills.
3. Organized role-playing games
There are a wide variety of games that can be played to improve the teamwork capabilities of employees, such as trust games, gymkhanas, team board games or classic role-playing and interpretation games s.
4. Cultural activities based on creativity
Cultural activities can also be very fun and entertaining for any team of workers in a company.
In these cases, artistic creation teams or deduction games can be carried out in cultural environments, such as the old towns of the city in which we live or other cities.
5. Technological activities
Technological activities test workers’ skills when it comes to relating to technology and competing with other colleagues. They have the disadvantage that they require a certain level of technical skills in a specific technological or engineering field.
In this section, the development, in teams, of robots, video games, or augmented reality resources is common, setting a time limit and establishing rules.
6. Gastronomic activities
Gastronomic activities are also an excellent way to share experiences with coworkers while having fun.
These types of activities consist of group wine tastings, blind dinners, cooking courses and even competitive team cooking days.
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