There is more to successful and sustainable team building than going “off-site” and working together to overcome obstacle courses and other activities.
OCC differentiates between team building, and “team recreation”. Getting dirty together in the veld is usually fun, but the investment in time and money really becomes sustainable when team building and the maintenance of teams is built into the management fabric of a company.
When OCC designs an event, it has clear goals in mind. These goals are reached through joint scoping as well as structured support before and after the event is rolled out.
This approach is for managers who understand and value workplace teams and see them as a whole system made up of parts, each of which can affect the qualities and behaviour of the other parts. The quality of the work of a team is the product of the interaction between the parts. Stated differently, it is a product of how the parts fit together.
The rationale for long-term team-building is to ensure the correct fit of the different components.
Goals of building teams
The overall aims are to
- Improve how the team work together in alignment to the company vision and objectives.
- Help teams become aware of team dynamics.
- Develop a sense of group accountability leading to increased productivity.
- Capture diverse creativity and skills to the benefit of the group task.
- Improve communication as well as attend to conflict areas amongst team members.
- Provide security for members in a time of organizational change, whilst simultaneously.
- Provide support for the change process.