Are you with it?
I WORK for one of those organisations that swear by teamwork, team spirit, team bonding, and team everything else. All the forced camaraderie becomes so claustrophobic sometimes, that a loner like me yearns to steal quietly away. But most managements swear by the `healing properties' of teams. For them team spirit is the panacea to every illness faced by the organisation. But many forget that it is one elusive spirit to capture... it is not enough to cart off your team to a lush, distant locale and play a few icebreakers to instil in them a sense of bonding that you hope lasts long enough to see them back in their seats on Monday morning.
These are times when we are fascinated by individual brilliance and accomplishments. So, if you really want to build teams that last and thrive you have to show them how it benefits them <110>personally.<111> Keeping the individual goals in mind while building strong and abiding teams is no easy task.
Working in teams can be fun provided you are with the people you like and when you feel that it is good to have the support of others. If you are a loner however, and are trying hard to fit in, it can prove to be a difficult, if not impossible task. But as teams are here to stay you might as well start thinking of yourself as being part of one too. That's the first step towards team bonding. However it doesn't end there. Most people forget that team building must be an ongoing activity. It is not enough to have an offsite activity or event planned every week, month, quarter or half yearly.
And this is where most corporate houses go wrong.
Whither Trust?
In their eagerness to get teams `started off', many organisations forget the fundamental rule of workplace integration. Team building activities will have more impact only if the organisation can make the good feelings last. For instance an outbound activity that is planned and executed well immediately enthuses the participants and boosts their morale. Employees get to know each other, a sense of easy camaraderie is developed and people generally feel good about themselves. For at least a couple of weeks, the only topic of conversation during lunch and coffee breaks (or whenever possible) is of the shared common experience. So far, so good. However when there is no follow up or any attempts to integrate the experience in the workplace or capitalise on it, the entire experience at best remains a short-term morale booster.
The fallout
Yes, team-building activities can have a few downsides too. The management runs the risk of making its employees sceptical, if after an exhilarating team-building event, it decides to reward, as standard practice, individual effort - defeating the very purpose of a team bonding exercise by driving a wedge of competition between members of a team. Managements can be sure that their employees will then spend their team-bonding time disparaging the programme than engaging themselves in any productive work. And once despondency and cynicism sets in, all the fun and joy of working evaporates with startling rapidity.If team-building initiatives are not followed by meaningful activity at the workplace it will not address the problem for which they were held in the first place. And the star performers whom you were hoping to retain will leave sooner rather than later. The credibility of such exercises will be questioned and they will be deemed a waste of time and effort. In fact it does not make sense to have team building events if they do not have an underlying business purpose to them. With organisations still downsizing and cutting costs and employees multitasking like confused ants drunk on fermented honey, team building just for HR window-dressing has lost all meaning and worse - all sanctity.
Success Story
Team building activities will be effective and successful if the management takes care to incorporate them in the overall organisational philosophy and structure. Employees will then automatically start believing in the importance of a shared purpose, shared vision and a shared mission. This system will enable people to grow both personally and professionally and also contribute to making the organisation stronger.Team building events and activities can provide a strong sense of direction and belonging to the employees, provided they are expertly planned, executed and created within the organisational context. Managements can create the right culture by doing a few things right. However the question remains: are they willing to?
Padma
padma.hyd@cnkonline.com
Padma
padma.hyd@cnkonline.com
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