How Not to Build a Team

The words “team building” fill some with a great rush of enthusiasm.

It is a moment when those you work with for so many hours each week, week after week, sometimes year after year, sit down together – or jump up together – and learn so much more about each other. The thing is though that sometimes the things you find out are much more than anyone present ever wanted to know – ever!

You see for some the words “team building” simply fills them with dread. They feel it is a forced social dimension to the often already difficult relations that exist in many a work place. These anti-team building individuals know all they need – and want – to know about their fellow workers and would prefer to leave it at that!

And, yet, the truth is that the team you build will reflect not just the company you are building but also determine – to some extent at least – its chances of success.  Build a dysfunctional team and, well, expect the inevitable. Or, if I may, to put it perhaps less eloquently – rubbish in, rubbish out.

So how do you really build a team? Or do you “build a team”? Or do teams build themselves? Or more specifically do “team building events” help or hinder this process?

I knew someone who used to get a cramp in his stomach every time there was a teambuilding event. It wasn’t that he didn’t like his fellow workers. He was as liked by them as they liked him. He just didn’t see the need to go down the bowling alley, to the bar, or to the pizza house with them. He preferred to work and then rest – away from work. The idea of socialising with his work colleagues didn’t make sense to him, at the very least it was an extension of work hours nothing less – thus the cramps.

How did he resolve this dilemma?

Well he grinned and bore it. And, then he left. Yes, that’s right – not so much that he left because of the team building events but just let’s say it didn’t help to retain his services. In fact, it had the opposite effect to that which it intended to bring about. The more the team bonded the more my friend felt dislodged from the company. It made him feel increasingly as an outsider. In the end, it made him so less loyal to the point that he accepted another job.

This is interesting. Because it touches on themes I’ve written about already. And it largely revolves around personality types at work and how to melt them into a unit or the opposite happens. That said, if team building is such a waste of time for some teams you may ask so what? Well, it is costing the business money if nothing else. And if such activities are dismantling the team then it is not just wasting money but also all a self-defeating exercise too.

It is worth noting that in my friend’s case these company dinners were optional. But no employee had ever skipped one. Why? Not because they were such great fun – they weren’t, he tells me. But they were never missed for one simple reason: fear of those who did not appear being labelled as “not a team player.”  In today’s corporate culture every one has to be a “team player.” There is no room for any other type of player or so it seems.

Well even a cursory glance at great football teams show that there were always great team players and great individual players. Great teams needed the anonymous yet talented functional players alongside the bravura performance of a George Best or Johan Cruyff. Great teams were often built around great players who were not “team players” in the traditional sense.

So maybe we need to be a bit more realistic about the whole idea of a “team.”

Let’s be honest, most of us can think of a whole host of things we’d rather do than go to a corporate event. We’ve all dragged our feet to such events or even made excuses as to why we cannot attend. And it is not even the misguided idea that “as long as the majority enjoy themselves” then it is okay. If you’re planning an outing for your 10-person team, and 8 of them are looking forward to it, that’s great, right?

But a majority vote always means that there is a minority not in favour. If you find that your team consistently has a vocal – or silent – minority opposed to these events then, believe me, you have a problem. Your team is consistently building up into a pro and contra. It an opposition – as I said often silent – that will not simply stop going to team building events, but will instead, eventually, just like my friend, stop showing up at work – permanently.

Here’s a tip on how to build a team and how to host a teambuilding event.

Let the team determine the events. Then, the team owns the event. In this case, majority voting goes out and consensus building comes in. Think about it the majority vote approach can be out of alignment with the real spirit of team events and possibly your company values.

So you need to listen to your employees about the whole team-building approach. We will always face challenges fostering inclusive team building, whether it’s noticing the same handful of people often initiate such things or those who find it much harder time attending evening and weekend events.

It’s to be expected — there’s no perfect approach to encouraging team members to take advantage of opportunities to deepen their relationships with one another.

Still, you will have come a long way when the first employee has the courage to speak up.

The next time you hold a teambuilding event, pay attention to those who don’t attend, and replace the urge to shame them with an open ear instead. Think about how to continue improving your team event program so that everyone who wants to can participate, and everyone who doesn’t can choose not to.

Building great company culture requires an understanding of who is in your team. Without that, no matter how exciting the event proposed, if it doesn’t help you as manager to understand who you have on your team then you have wasted your time and money.