Sometimes team-building activities seem pointless, but they do not need to feel this way. If you approach them strategically, team building activities can improve a team’s productivity and efficiency. Here’s 5 tips to strengthen your team building activities.

Tip # 1 - Understand what it means to build a team.

There’s more to this than hiring a skilled worker with an agreeable personality. Team relationships take thought, effort, communication, and compromise.

Conflict and frustration occur when the values important to one team member differ than those of another team member. For example, one team member may value deadlines and getting work done in a timely fashion, while another team member may value quality over speed and prefers to take more time to get work done right. When these differences aren’t acknowledged and addressed conflict is sure to ensue.

The purpose of team building is to get the members on a team to work well together. Team building teaches team members about one another, so their differences serve as a basis for collaboration and innovation instead of conflict and frustration.

An informal structure of a team building event allows team members to let their guard down and get to know their co-workers, but more structured activities will get you closer to your goal of improved collaboration.

But how do you know what activities are best for your team?

Tip # 2 - Take note of who the members are on the team.

Engage them in a task that brings out their individual work preferences, habits, values, and strengths.  While you can invest in a professionally organized game in which behaviors are observed, you don’t need elaborate set ups to see your team in action.

You could have them create a fun informational poster about their team, discuss what superpower would be most beneficial to their job, plan a 10-minute tour of the workplace, or collectively role play a response to an upset customer. It is important that the activity is not their actual work. Using work itself for team building is like treating a performance for practice. It’s not conducive to getting to know other team members since the focus is on getting the work done and doing it well.

Tip #3 – Give purpose to team building activities.

When team members are engaged in a team building task, pay attention to the behavior of each person. What differences are at play? Has someone tried to do all the work themselves? Has anyone assumed the role of time tracker? Is someone delegating? Is anyone raising objections to what is being proposed or to what’s being done?

When the team building task is completed, you will have seen the behaviors of each team member. Now it’s time to ask each team member why they did what they did. Ask them what they learned about one another. Ask them to discuss how their differences could be beneficial or harmful to their work as a team.

After this discussion team members will get to know one another better and it may be time to discuss how they can use what they’ve learned to better understand and work with one another. It may be time to make some changes based on what you heard.

For example, if you noticed someone monitoring the team’s progress, this person may have under utilized project management skills. Perhaps they’d be good at keeping the team on track with various projects. You may have noticed someone who used creative thinking and problem solving skills you had no idea existed because their job duties don’t require those skills. Consider how those skills could be used with the team. What workflows would make the most sense given everyone’s strengths and weaknesses? What conflicts exist on the team and what ways they could be resolved?

Tip #4 - The best team building doesn’t come from on high.

 If you’re trying to force collaboration, you’ll get pushbacks and likely cause the team to function more poorly. If you want your team building to work put the team in charge of it. Let them plan their team building activities and decide how best to incorporate what they’ve learned.  Give them the freedom to be creative and build up one another. Trust them and encourage them to trust one another. Team building must be a team effort.

Tip #5 - Assess the success of your team building initiatives.

Before, during, and after team building activities, you should be recording and analyzing metrics pertaining to team efficiency and productivity. Did the team meet its goals? What are the KPI’s that make sense for your team? Production, morale, and retention are good metrics to examine. Was the team able to get more work done in less time? Keep an eye on the numbers, account for other variables, and be willing to try new team building activities or rethink your team building strategies.

Remember, you are not just building any team, but the team you have. Your goal is to help the people on this team understand one another better. Begin by starting with what you already know about your team and brainstorm activities that will require their collaboration, communication, and compromise.