Is Team Building A Waste Of Time?

Google “Why Is Team Building Important” and you’ll pull up a ton of proprietary sites listing “10 Reasons Why Team Building Works” and “What is Team Building and Why Does It Matter?” Click on the articles, and you’ll read a paragraph telling you it bonds teams, builds motivation, raises engagement, increases productivity, and “fixes” any other possible metric you could ever imagine. According to this Forbes article, it’s also the most important investment you can make in your team. They’re not wrong, but they’re also not right. At the end of the day, team building is just one of many steps in creating a cohesive team. A single day at a ropes course, or even in a virtual escape room, won’t drastically change how your team functions. What it can do is offer you the chance to pour your metaphorical foundation and start building your team from there.

So, Why Bother?

It’s common to wonder why it’s called “team building” if it’s happening with an established team. Part of that is because it’s just simpler to use a catch-all term, and part of it is because teams are made up of humans. And humans change. Often. Relationships shift and move as we do, and companies are more agile than ever, meaning teams must remain dynamic.

All of these factors mean that we need to consistently check in, reevaluate, and rebuild. You may have someone that just returned from mat leave that doesn’t know a new team member, a promotion may have shifted dynamics, or you may have more remote workers than before. No matter the reason, taking a team out for bowling or hitting the trails together gives everyone the chance to learn more about themselves and each other. The more consistently you’re tearing down walls and building up connections, the better your team is going to perform.

More than ever, companies are trying to add engagement and enrichment activities to increase productivity. That’s been a trend in recent years. After the pandemic, and the great resignation, more companies are trying to make work better for their own sake. Nobody wants an unhappy team, and nobody wants to work at a company where everyone is just going through the motions. While there are often collective groans when an event called “Team Building OOO” hits everyone’s calendars, almost anything that gets everyone out of the office and doing something new together can add opportunities to build engagement and enrichment. That’s why team building is so important. But there’s no need to schedule time to undo a human knot or take a bunch of people who thrive indoors on a forced outdoor adventure- poll your team to see what they want to do!

Prioritize Team Time

Putting aside the time and budget for team building may be one of the best things you can do. Asking teams for input what they want to do for a team building activity is the best thing you can do. At Quala, we’re all about making joint decisions and inviting comments from our team to build a better workplace, which is how we know it’s an effective way to work. We’re using this space to help companies across the globe work better. If there’s something you want us to write about or any comments you have for us, let us know in the comments, and we look forward to seeing you here again soon.