Planning Team Building Around Outcomes

Have you ever been tasked with coming up with a great team building idea for your team?  You search the Internet for intriguing ideas.  As you sort through your options, you keep asking yourself “Will my team enjoy this?”  But is that really the right question to be asking?  Is your only goal “enjoyment?”

Team building is a powerful tool that is often underutilized. It happens to be one of the best ways to combine fun with results.  But to make this work, you have to have a goal beyond just having fun. What will your team get out of it? How do you want them to improve? How will you see a return on your investment?

These are all important questions to ask when planning a team building initiative. To help you get there, here are 5 questions to ask to help define your team building outcomes:

• Alignment: Does the team need to pull together more to work toward common goals?
• Assimilation: Are there new members in the team or possibly a change in leadership?
• Experience: Does the team need a common experience that everyone feels part of?
• Development: Does the team, or individuals on the team, need to develop new skills?
• Collaboration: Does trust, communication, and coordination need to improve?

What Does Success Look Like?

Recently, a department within one of our Biotech clients was repositioned within their organization.  Suddenly, their roles and responsibilities, reporting structure, and general expectations all changed.  This was a great example of “assimilation” where new relationships and rules of engagement needed to be defined.  Using team building activities, we helped this group re-define and test their operational plan without risking actual customers.  They were operational sooner with fewer mistakes than expected.

If you need guidance for your next team building effort, Learning Technologies Inc. has you covered! We facilitate and deliver team building in Raleigh, New York, Naples and beyond. Contact us today, and let’s make your team great.