Team Building versus Team Working

Delivering an ROI on Team Building with Team Working  

As the economy sits on the edge of a double dip recession the only thing certain, is uncertainty. Businesses are finding they need to sustain and even improve productivity to survive. The focus on survival means that very little attention is paid to how teams are communicating and working together cohesively to ensure success.

One solution is "Team Working" rather than team building and we are not playing with semantics. A "Team Working Event" may mean that your team has a day out of the office, but the tangible results are invaluable.

Let's say you do find the funds to send your people off on their team building event. They have a great day out - rafting, racing go karts, playing putt putt, cliff climbing and getting to know one another. Everyone worked as a team and enjoyed the day out, but what happens back at the office?

That same team is back at their respective desks, facing individual tasks and deadlines, and generally performing in accordance with their own agendas. Now it's all work and no play!

So then, what is a Team Working Event? It is a hands on program where your people work on, and solve, the real business challenges that your organization is facing. When they return to the workplace they arrive not only working better as a team, but also with solutions to the business, process, organizational, production, and procedural problems that have been impeding your success and survival.

Team Working Events can also help you:

• Facilitate decision-making, strategies, criteria, requirements definition, action items
• Overcome stature that may be impeding success within your department or organization
• Save time, generate more ideas, build consensus within your group

Team Working means no more wasted dollars on team outings and activities that may not have lasting effects.  

What is one of the best advantages of a Team Working Event? They are designed based on your overall goals for the team and your defined outcomes or objectives.

The collective experience, wisdom, and ideas of any group significantly outweigh that of one individual. So if your team members are more concerned with their own work, chances are that your overall performance as a department or organization is faltering.