Effective & Engaging Ways to Build Teams That Thrive!
Because of the pandemic, most companies stopped their team building programs. It was not safe, and the future is uncertain. Unfortunately, team building is most important in times of crisis.
Tough times require tough teams. Companies must find ways to equip and inspire teams now. Teams must be guided on how to navigate the crisis and be equipped to prepare themselves for the new normal.
Virtual workshops, webinars, and online courses are easy, effective, and engaging ways to build teams.
Build Teams That Thrive
Strengthen Your Team Today to Get Ahead Tomorrow
Today’s workplace faces many problems. Many employees are disengaged; they are too busy coping with stress and deadlines that they don’t have time to plan for team building exercises that improve performance.
Too many things keep falling through the cracks.
One department head won’t cooperate with another. Managers find themselves spending a massive amount of time mediating subordinate disputes. Such symptoms often lead prudent managers to realize that it’s time to hold another team-building exercise.
Unfortunately, one-size-fits-all team-building packages can’t help you because team building isn’t an event or a series of activities.
It is the responsibility of team leaders to build teams every day. A team-building event cannot make organizational problems disappear.
Most team building programs that many of us have experienced can only provide away-from-work intramural experiences.
Well-planned and excellently-executed team building experiences can provide your team many benefits.
Thrive in the New Normal
We can reinvent our future. We choose to bounce forward and thrive. Instead of wishing the old normal comes back soon, let us learn from our experience.
Opportunities are visible.
Use technology to build teams the right way. Enroll your team in online courses, online coaching, and virtual workshops.
We offer you these opportunities. We want to help you grow your team stronger amidst the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Yes, we will still play games soon. We need physical games once in a while. But we’ll play games that help us collaborate, communicate, and win as one.
You can offer virtual workshops to your team members. But don’t just play silly games. Respect adult learners and play games like adults. Purposeful play is powerful.
What is virtual team building workshop?
Virtual team building workshops are team learning opportunities delivered online. It is unlike those game-oriented virtual team building you see almost everywhere.
The most significant difference is in the target outcomes.
In most virtual team building, the objective is to play online games and activities sold by team building vendors.
Virtual workshops aim to address critical team problems and equip teams so members can create new opportunities. The team-building consultant helps you find solutions.
It is important to be clear about what you want. If your main aim is to play online games, you don’t have to get a facilitator. You can search for online games and activities and assign someone to run the team building games for you.
Suppose you need someone who can guide you in identifying team problems and becoming more strategic in coming up with solutions. In that case, you need a professional team building facilitator.
Virtual Team Building Workshops
Workshop #1: Five Habits of Teams That Thrive
Our learning technology has changed, but the habits that make teams thrive remain. These team habits are more important today.
Help your teams thrive in good times and in bad times. Help leaders navigate in crisis and prepare them for the new normal. Teach members how to build teams that deliver results.
Workshop #2: Creativity Tools for Adaptive Teams
The Covid-19 crisis presents opportunities we have not seen before. Many companies folded. They did not survive, yet some companies are growing wildly successful.
In a team-building workshop, you can help members find opportunities to create new solutions. Let them discover mindsets and tools that can help them find seeds of possibilities in every adversity.
Workshop #3: Teamwork in the New Normal
We need to encourage malasakit at work. Work from home is not as elegant as we used to think. Employees feel frightened, left out, and discouraged. On the other hand, organizational leaders are frustrated by low productivity and show of “commitment.”
Team Building 2.0
If you are new to team building, here are some ideas that may help. You will be able to design team-building experiences beyond the so-called team building packages sold in the Philippines.
What is a team?
A team is a group of people who are mutually dependent on one another to achieve a common goal.
An effective team function well together.
Each team member must be able to achieve both personal and team goals to ensure commitment and accountability. Team members must develop mutual respect and keep open and honest communication.
And more importantly, there is synergy. Each team member can produce more when they work together than when they work separately and independently of each other.
What is team building?
Team building is what the individual member, team, and the organization do to help the team achieve its mission. It is never an effort of only one person. Any team member may initiate to build the team.
Employee teams have been credited for everything from preventing labor unrest, innovating products and services, attracting new customers, and saving companies billions.
But, while teams can be an effective strategy to help any organization, it is not easy. Putting high-performing individuals together doesn’t guarantee that productive work will happen.
Individual performers bring a unique set of values, beliefs, skills, and ambitions. These differences frequently clash.
Some employees are resistant to teams. Many individual performers lack the competence to work with others. So, you ought to be very careful.
Many managers view team building as an event to make employees happy.
Organizations all over the world invest billions in activities, games, and exercises. Many employees think team building is about exercises, games, and activities.
Team building isn’t just playing games. But many embrace this wrong belief. With no clear purpose, playing team-building games is often a wasted effort to build the team.
But what makes most teams fail is not ineffective team building. Most groups fail because of a lack of management support and team autonomy.
Wise managers embrace team building as a process.
These managers don’t just make people play games for the sake of playing games. They use games, exercises, and tools to achieve specific results. They do team building to build trust, strengthen communication, and improve work processes. They use team building to resolve conflict. They use team building to enhance creativity, innovation, and teamwork skills.
What is a team building facilitator?
Team building facilitators help team members understand their common objectives. They guide teams in planning how to achieve those objectives. In this sense, team building facilitators are “neutral” and do not take a particular position in the discussion.
Professional team building facilitators have a deep understanding of team dynamics and processes. They offer tools that teams can use to develop strategies and to execute plans.
Professional team building facilitators personalize experiences in enabling teams to achieve goals.
Excellent facilitators can help participants simplify complex problems.
Some facilitators are subject matter experts, trainers, and speakers too. However, when facilitating team-building exercises, the facilitator’s primary role is not to inject knowledge or develop new skills but to guide team members to solve their challenges.
Not everyone who offers team-building programs is a professional facilitator. Some are event organizers, game masters, and training vendors. You must get the right persons who can help you build your teams.
We are team building facilitators who work with organizations, both private and public, to develop high impact teams.
Some are experts in facilitating outdoor team building programs. They design and run competency-based programs that are fun-filled, goal-oriented, friendly, and safe. They enable small groups of twenty to corporate-wide sales rallies of 800 people.
Some facilitators are experts in facilitating executive retreats. We combine indoor and outdoor activities for executive retreats.
Companies usually have executive retreats for strategic planning, change management, culture building, creativity and innovation sessions, and team leadership.
How to Avoid Harmful Team Building Mistakes?
Most team building events in the Philippines waste time, money, energy, and opportunities. Many companies in the Philippines do team building the wrong way. Many team-building events are nothing but artificial and often meaningless competitions.
If you are here because you are looking for team building providers who can provide you packages of team building games and activities, you cannot find packages here. Please get the help of events organizers because they can help you.
But please stay some minutes more.
I will tell you why most team building initiatives in the Philippines do not work and what you can do instead.
Most competitive games don’t build teams.
Think about this.
Companies today want their employees to communicate better, cooperate and collaborate more, work well in teams, share best practices, respect each other, and achieve success together.
It is absolute nonsense to send employees on team building events to forget about work and compete against each other.
How can you make them collaborate at work when you make them play games that teach them to beat each other no matter what?
How can a team-building event where winners poke fun at losers — and where losers accused winners of cheating — or question facilitators’ neutrality?
Would you tolerate cheating/ blaming culture in your organization?
Of course, one can argue that in smaller teams, members learn how to strategize and find ways to win — against other teams.
But that’s precisely the problem. Infighting WILL NOT make all your small teams united under one company.
They’ll focus on games, not on goals. They’ll remember how they got cheated. They’ll remember how one of their team members made them lose. They’ll remember that teamwork wasn’t enough to win games because even losing teams had teamwork. They’ll forget the purpose of you paying facilitators so you can build teams.