From Process: Team Building /On Boarding to Increase Unity and Productivity
Team building activittes often remind us of games and retreats. It does not have to be that way. They can be direct and practical ways of making a new recruit become part of the team and be a much better worker.
We can review other past old inane team building activities:
Skip ahead to the activities using the links below!
- Team building activities to break the ice
- Creative team building activities
- Problem solving team building activities
- Ongoing team building activities
- Competitive team building activities
- Longer, more involved team building activities
Or read on to find out more about the concept of team building…
Here is the real deal....Team building should be an on going process to get the employees be engaged and motivated
100 Team Building Activities
100 Team Building Activities
What is team building?
The secret to team building is that it’s not always a set of activities or team games. It’s a process.
According to the University of California:
Team building is an ongoing process that helps a work group evolve into a cohesive unit. The team members not only share expectations for accomplishing group tasks, but trust and support one another and respect one another’s individual differences.
The problem with the way most companies do it is that they view it as an activity. Today we’re going to do team building. Afterwards, our team will be built and we can increase output by 11%! Wrong…
Team building is:
- Regularly recurring, not just a one-time fix
- Made up of work, leisure, collaboration, problem solving and projects
- Anything from a retreat to a small work picnic — or not an ‘event’ at all
From that, you can see it’s much more than just a few silly games. Let’s look at how three companies approach it.
Team building case study #1: Buffer
For a masterclass in team building done right, you don’t have to look far. Buffer’s Open blog documents a lot of the internal processes the company goes through to strengthen its culture, processes and brand. Let’s look at an example:
In 2015, Buffer spent over $111k on getting the whole team together every 5 months to strengthen team bonds and get to know new faces. Since Buffer — like Process Street — is fully remote, it’s important that the idea of a team isn’t an abstract one and all members realize that they’re actually working alongside real people, not just usernames on Slack.
As well as big every-five-month meet-ups, Buffer has also started having smaller local hangouts so no one feels disconnected for too long.
On the topic of why they spend so much money on team building retreats, Buffer CEO Joel Gascoine says:
“[…] there’s something magical that happens when you meet in person. In a retreat setting it’s even more powerful. We have casual meals together and do activities on off days. We can learn about what makes each other tick and what our true passions are.”
Team building case study #2: Zapier
An open channel for communication is vital for team building. Without a place to chill out and loosen up, there’s not going to be any situation in which natural interaction can occur.
Like us, and thousands of other companies, Zapier uses Slack’s #general channel as its remote water cooler. Employees post gifs, memes, and generally mess about in a free environment.
As well as that, they take a similar approach to in-person meetings as Buffer. CEO Wade Foster says:
“[…] some things are just better done in person. For instance, it’s hard to have a casual conversation with a teammate over Google Hangout about their kids, shoot the breeze about some random idea you’ve had improving a secondary process in the company or sit down and talk about company values. All those things tend to naturally happen in person, while they don’t happen in a remote team, unless you force it.”
To spark conversation that would normally have to be forced, Zapier has run five retreats so far in California, Washington, Colorado, Alabama and Utah.
Team building case study #3: Google
Moving away from the startup world to get some enterprise examples, it turns out that humans are humans no matter what size company they work in. Google found the most important way to improve team relationships was to encourage the open sharing of feelings.
Shawn Stratton reports:
“The Google research found that people don’t want to have to put on a ‘work face’ when they arrived at their desk each morning, that is to have complete separation of work and home life. It turns out we want people to ask how they are feeling and have a safe environment to share our feelings no matter how messy or sad or excited we are feeling, without fear of reprisal. Leaders need to allow for the creation of an emotional safety net to develop within their teams. One way to create this environment is to carve out time for people to actually share their feelings and not just updates on the latest reports or budget numbers.”
The way Google implemented this strategy was, unsurprisingly, by developing software. The software allowed members do a 10-minute pulse check on the following 5 elements:
- Psychological safety: Team members feel safe to take risks and be vulnerable in front of each other
- Dependability: Team members get things done on time and meet Google’s high bar for excellence
- Structure & clarity: Team members have clear roles, planes, and goals
- Meaning: Work is personally important to team members
- Impact: Team members think their work matters and creates change
Then, they’d have a live in-person chat to talk about the test results and be provided with resources to help teams improve across these 5 areas. Over 3,000 Googlers have used the tool, and reported that having framework to talk about their issues openly was the most impactful part of the experience, as well as reporting a 6% lift in psychological safety and a 10% life in structure and clarity.
The positive effects of team building on your company
Team building helps an isolated group of people come together, combine their skills, and become more than the sum of their parts. Without a strong team, there can be bitterness, unresolved disputes, low productivity and unwillingness to communicate.
Here’s how it helps:
Communication becomes effortless
Whether it’s in person or remotely, communication is vital to the survival of a company. Just look at how insanely popular Slack has gotten, and email beforehand. Some of the most popular tools in business are there to facilitate communication, and that’s for one good reason: without communication, nothing can be managed, reported, brainstormed, tracked, or improved.
Even though it’s mandatory for teams to communicate, it’s a lot more efficient and motivating if teams don’t feel uncomfortable talking to each other. As I looked at earlier, Zapier keeps group Slack channels as an open forum for gifs, memes and silliness alongside general chit-chat.
Onboarding happens quickly
Onboarding — the process of getting new hires integrated and ready to work as fast as possible — is something you can’t really afford to mess up.
According to Christine Marino in 7 Need-to-Know Facts About Employee Onboarding:
- Onboarding programs can increase retention by 25% and improve employee performance by 11%.
- Employees who participate in a structured onboarding program are 69% more likely to stay with an organization for 3 years.
- It takes 8-12 months for new hires to be as proficient as their tenured colleagues.
- 15% of employees said the lack of an effective onboarding program aided in their decision to quit.
And why does this have anything to do with team building? Well, a big part of onboarding is a focus on company culture and connecting with your co-workers. Just look at Google’s five-point Just in Time onboarding checklist, for example. Three of the five points are directly related to culture and integration:
- Having a discussion about roles and responsibilities
- Matching the new hire with a peer buddy
- Helping the new hire build a social network
- Setting up employee onboarding check-ins once a month for the new hire’s first six months
- Encouraging open dialogue
Google’s checklist improved onboarding by 25%!
Motivation comes naturally
Motivated employees engage better with their work, increasing their productivity by 43%, says Hay Group. A major goal in team building is motivation, because it makes employees feel closer with their work and responsible for doing a good job with their colleagues.
Since team building breaks down the boundaries between leader and team, members will also be more motivated to speak out when they have an idea — something Google calls Psychological Safety.
How to make team building into a process
Team building isn’t quite as tangible as sales, leads, or revenue, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be executed repeatedly and tracked — it just means it might be more difficult to do effectively if you don’t think about it as a process.
Team building needs to be both a series of initiatives (like Buffer’s and Zapier’s regular retreats) and something baked into your current processes, such as employee onboarding.
Where it all starts: Employee onboarding
Employee onboarding will make up a new employee’s first impression of your company, so it’s the ideal place to set standards. Warm welcomes, meet-ups in casual settings (bars, restaurants), and assigning a buddy are all good practices to help the new hire fit in later on down the road and get off to a good start.
