Teambuilding Activity- Don't take it Lightly

For the last few decades, the impact of Teambuilding events is diluted, as it has become a mere fun event. If any of these activities are done as part of team building exercise, it is not what it should be intended to for, e.g., Movie Time, Bowling, Karaoke. If you have seen events involving the entire organization (100+ participants) are also not useful unless it is a deliberate intervention to achieve a specific objective. Teambuilding needs to be customized for different teams especially when they work very closely be it under the same manager or across groups, function/department. For Team to perform better - Every individual must feel motivated to achieve his level best. Never impose things on anyone; instead, the individuals must take the initiative on their own. They should come forward and accept the challenge and be part of the team. Every Teambuilding activity need to have a clear outcome in terms of 1. Aligning Goals, 2. Reducing Ambiguity (promoting trust) 3. Building effective working relationship and 4. Finding solutions to Team's problems.

Tuckman model of group development was first proposed by Bruce Tuckman in 1965 - Every team will be placed in any of the boxes below. The teambuilding should be customized according to the Team's maturity level.

Forming Stage:

Where 1 or more new members join the Team. Here the focus is to uncover similar interest, attitude, and taste and inspire to work for a common objective. Promote small talks, discussions, talk about hobbies, interests, places of visit, etc. to uncover details which will help to find the commonalities. Also in this stage, the teambuilding events should be around "Understanding each other" and "Aligning Goals."

Storming Stage:

In this stage, team members will be arguing, pointing fingers, blaming each other and slowing down the team performance. Most disagreements, arguments, lack of ownership, lack of visibility comes from "poor org design," "poor org structure," "poor R&R," and most importantly "lack of trust" and "lack of understanding." The correct interventions with the objective of "Reducing team members' role ambiguity" and "promoting trust" will make the team sail through this stage in a shorter time.

Norming Stage:

At this stage, team members reasonably know each other, have developed some sense of friendship and relationship at work and settling down with their day to day activities. At this stage, the operating modus is still on an individual basis, team members will be more inclined to prove themselves rather than working towards proving the team. At this juncture, the teambuilding should be focused on Building effective working relationships. It is essential to move the focus, energy, and activities from individual to the team level.

Performing Stage:

This is the stage every leader, the organization strives for. By this time, they are motivated and knowledgeable. The team members are now competent, autonomous and able to handle the decision-making process without supervision. Even the most high-performing teams will revert to earlier stages in certain circumstances. Many long-standing teams go through these cycles many times as they react to changing conditions. For example, a change in leadership may cause the unit to revert to storming as the new people challenge the existing norms and dynamics of the team. This stage, team members are required to think and collaborate and focus on finding solutions to team problems, where everyone is taking some part to solve the team's problems. Even though each member may be having an individual R&R, there is a need to identify a team/organization problem and have these talented individuals to play a role, in some organizations, it is called "Organization Citizenship."

Teambuilding exercise is a vital element for a team's performance. It should be done with diligent diagnostic and at regular intervals to keep moving the needle.