Overview
Team building refers to the process within a
workplace of building a team. This allows the employees to work together
as part of a team and improve their performance as a whole. Team
building fosters a feeling of a shared goal and camaraderie in the
workplace that boosts individual performance as it improves overall
performance.
How it Works
The purpose is to find out what is holding people back and remove those obstacles and encourage each member of the team individually and the group as a whole. Performance management is a large part of team building because it lets management look at each individual's performance and see how that is affecting the whole so that changes can be made.Team building is not always effective because it is often done incorrectly and managers do not really understand the principles behind it. If the employees in a department are to be evaluated as part of a team, for instance, it is not enough to give each team member an evaluation individually and then have a group meeting to discuss performance on the whole. The process must be followed through, with managers monitoring progress, rewarding and making corrections where necessary, and evaluating again to make more changes.
If goals and expectations are not made clear in the beginning, then team building will be ineffective because each member would not have a "group" goal to work toward and will still be working mostly toward their own objective. This may improve individual performance, but it also might bring down the performance of an entire group with poor communication and inability to delegate tasks within a group.
Benefits
The benefits of good team building are that each member will know exactly where he or she fits in the hierarchy. With the best team building, members understand the chain of command, but do not feel less than or inferior to any other team member because each person's value to the team has been clearly stated, both privately and to the group as a whole.Team building can let each person's best qualities and skills benefit the group, while the weak points can be worked on in a more trusting, nurturing environment where everyone wants to see everyone else succeed for the good of the group.
Costs
Team building is often seen as a major expense, but it doesn't have to be. Although giving an entire department a day trip to Disneyland or an afternoon at the golf course is a wonderful social activity and a way for coworkers to enjoy time spent together, it has very little value as far as team building.Team building should be a structured process for the most part, done by simply defining the goals of a group, monitoring the group, and correcting or rewarding, then adjusting to redefine goals if necessary. It is more about each employees understanding of what is expected and feeling appreciated individually and as part of the group than any gifts or time spent together away from the company.