The HR department might have all the best intentions in a team-building secercise, but the results can be devastating for the team: work was not done on time, and people were demotivated.
Do you remember what it was like being a child, forced by your parents or teachers to play the piano or perform a dance in front of an audience? You feel helpless and embarrassed. You don’t enjoy it and you don’t see the point, but you can’t escape it. That’s not the experience you want anyone, especially your employees, to go through.
What’s interesting is that most businesses do get team building right. Here are some examples of things that work:
• Choose activities that are appropriate and enjoyable for your team.
• Make sure that the team workload is not affected. Do their work for them, if you have to.
• Don’t force it on people who don’t want to participate. Certain people are wired in different ways, and it’s not your job to change them. Let them be introverts, they’re still valuable to your business.
• Encourage off-work gatherings where people can get to know each other better: gym memberships, charity drives, etc. Again, the keyword here is: optional or volunteering.
• And the final advice: let people decide what they want to do. The best way is to just give your team a budget and let them pick and organize the desired unwinding. That’s going to be a great exercise in itself.
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