5 Reasons Why Team Building Events are a Waste of Time
In the knowledge and digital era, a company will succeed in the market place if it puts emphasis on team building rather than individual brilliance. Whether it is information technology, biotechnology, media, manufacturing or services industry, most enterprises create teams within to make work productive and achieve targets. Great care is taken at the time of recruitment to ensure that employees are team players with leadership qualities especially for managerial positions.
Yet teams keep changing and new teams are evolved within. Organizations and enterprises sometimes spend a lot of time and money on training them to work as a team. Theoretically, it sounds good but most often it is a waste of time.
Here are 5 reasons why team building events become futile
1. They Only Improve Communications
You may spend a lot of money and effort, hire a place indoors or outdoors, hire a reputed trainer, go to mountains, resorts or houseboats but the result may not be encouraging because however good the trainer is, the team spirit can’t be created all of a sudden. Most often they end up just breaking the ice and improving communication between employees, but that doesn’t make a good team.
2. Team Building Becomes a Competitive Exercise
Most team building activities end up as a competitive exercise resulting in comparisons and rewards. In such cases, some of the employees may fee small if the focus is on winning and feeling good. Some of them may feel embarrassed, less sociable to speak out on such occasions fearing ridicule.
Most of the people who attend the sessions may find it difficult to put whatever is learned in practice when they go back to the office.
3. Fun Activities Don’t Yield Results
Many employers think conducting adrenaline experiences such as speed boating, bungee jumping, trust exercises, eating crickets, holding lingerie parties will foster team spirit. However, these fun time activities may create friendships, standing face to face holding mirror actions- repeating the action of others, moving left, right or forward.
Many people may dislike such forced training and may see it as an embarrassment to participate in it.
4. Feeling of Inadequacy
A day or a few days earmarked for team building may give the impression to employees that they are not good at team building. Most team building sessions are done outdoors and involve a lot of physical activities in which those who are more inclined towards indoor activities may feel inadequate and quite awkward.
5. Mismatch Between Organization’s Goals and Targets
Many employees may find that conducting fun and adventure events create a mismatch between the organizations goals and objectives. At the end of the day, what you want is team members working together for a common objective or vision of the company. Why bring employees with different tastes and attitudes to a common platform to foster team spirit!?
Team building should be seen as a continuous activity and not as a one off exercise involving some fun, adventure and indoor meetings. Good teams are formed when there is a good leadership, each member is aware of the objectives of a project or task and works together for the success of the team. Unless each team member thinks in terms of ‘we’ instead of ‘I’, any one-off exercise may prove to be futile.
