Please Stop Doing This to Grown-Adults

“I don't know why they do this to adults. I was at a school that made us do three days of "bonding". How about three days of working collaboratively or doing something actually productive?” (Someone from the internet expressing his/her feeling about team building)

You have likely been dragged into team-building activities if you work for medium or large companies. The activity will probably be a silly game, a wishy-washy attempt to solve problems and conflicts or bring people who cannot stand each other together.

Once, I was LOCKED UP (not joking) for two days straight with 20+ people sitting in a semi-circle trying to figure out...? I still don't know why we were there. Oh, hold on, I know! The trainer was the best friend of our CHRO and he made a fortune going around in our hotels locking up people. Anybody I talked to just asked, "What the hell was this about?"

Good intention? Yes! How does the execution sound to you? Horrible! Most team-building activities do nothing. The best-case scenario is that people have fun, and the time is ticking. The worst case is that people hate every moment and get bitter about it. What is the solution?

Organise useful team-building sessions! Yes, there are useful team-building activities that facilitate the development of self-awareness about skills, strengths & personality traits.

Once individuals understand themselves, they learn how to communicate their value to the team. They understand what their needs are to produce high performance and be motivated. How they solve problems, and how they build relationships. How they influence others, how they think, and get things done.

Isn’t this information more useful for a team than any of the silly games?

At The Strengths Company, we conduct CliftonStrengths-based team buildings, often combined with personality assessment (Big 5), that helps executives and team members answer all those questions and communicate them to their teams, families, and friends. The Strengths & Personality assessment combination gives a very clear picture of the individual’s genetic capabilities without all the platitudes of what they could be.

Instead, we deal with and leverage what they actually have. It is a very pragmatic approach to self & team development. You see people’s eyes open up when they realise, “I am a very agreeable person, maybe that is why my ideas are never being heard”, or “My Strengths are distancing me from others, but I need that space to think, and I am ok with that”.

Feedback about Strengths-Based Team Building:

• "Getting the approval to be me was very liberating. I was able to communicate my needs, and for the first time, I felt that I have been heard at work."
• "Finally, I was not considered as a competency framework but as an individual with a unique talent that can be useful for the team. I was allowed to be ME!"
• "Personally, understanding my own strengths and those of my team has helped to make sense of some of the behaviours from my team members and myself and caused me to make adjustments to some of the ways I interact with my team."
• "This workshop helped me understand team differences, what makes each person unique, and what we have in common."

If you want to be serious about building a strong team where there is psychological safety about differences, let us know.