As an employer, team building should be a top priority for 2019. Turnover is as time consuming as it is expensive, and it’s hard to attract talent when your staff are leaving your business or exuding their dissatisfaction. So, what’s the key ingredient to staff staying and being open to teamwork training? Engagement. An engaged team is an efficient team, and engagement can strengthen through the right team building activities and opportunities.
Trust building activities
There is a reason everyone knows and has done trust activities before. But don’t worry, they have developed a lot since falling back onto your peers with your eyes closed. The right team building activities encourage camaraderie within your team, and gives your colleagues a chance to talk about their lives and what those driving factors are that get them out of bed each morning. Set up a calendar plan of team building activities throughout the year, and vary them so you capture the interests of all your team’s demographics. Look for activities that prompt them to interact as a collective.
Encourage a problem solving attitude
When it comes to teamwork training, you want both sides of the table to be asking questions and exploring new concepts. Team training should be a discussion with problem solving at the centre. If a team doesn’t mesh well as a group, the training process may be dry and potentially won’t sink in like you want it to. Team building activities are all about productive problem solving, whether it is an escape room or riddles. When you start problem solving activities outside of work you will foster that attitude, and you will see it in practice in your own office.
Rotate the teacher
Who says it should be you taking the floor and leading the training? In a thriving office each person in the team is an expert at something, so draw them out and have your training led by different individuals on different days. Teamwork training should be just that, and you will find that your team are more likely to sponge up those insights if they are coming from their peers. It’s also a great leadership competency, especially if your business structure cannot offer too many options for colleagues to lead and manage in their roles.
Bring the outside in
When you think about high school and higher education, those classes that you remember most are always ones that are led by industry experts or people that you really resonate with. Why not take a look at the businesses in your local area, and find out who is excelling at an area that your team and business could benefit from. Not only does this take the pressure off you planning a training session, it also keeps things fresh for your team and gives them an outside input that they may not have considered. Watch how your team discuss the talk afterwards and find ways to integrate these learnings into their roles, as a team.
Not enough businesses are committed to team building activities and the betterment of their work environment through teamwork training. Be the change you want to see, and make 2019 the year that you tackle team morale and upskilling. After each new initiative you implement, gauge feedback from your team and find out if you are on the right track. You can’t improve what you are doing if you are not tailoring the curriculum to your team.
