I love my job and coworkers. Most people can’t say that, I think. For me, each day is an adventure with this group of individuals that know the perfect balance of business and pleasure. Our work environment is generally laid back with the occasional bout of deadline-meeting stress that comes with the marketing industry. Though we have our moments of disagreements, we’re a highly productive, capable and dedicated bunch. So, how do we make it work?
Our CEO believes that the key to a happy worker is to make them feel valued and comfortable in their work environment. ‘Resistance Fridays’ is one way we do this. Almost every Friday afternoon, we partake in team building exercises to get our mind off of the busy work week; we play ‘The Resistance‘. Ultimately, our goal is to inspire confidence, individually and as a whole.
Team games often present situations that could benefit the quality of work in a business environment, and they:
- Serve as an icebreaker. Socializing via board games is a great way to introduce new members to the team.
- Provide reassurance. The more peers interacting outside of work, the more comfortable they become with each other.
- Increase productivity. Team members give constructive criticisms or rewards more freely, thereby improving work flow.
- Inspire confidence. Every member should enjoy their job. They should feel confident when making suggestions, valued when stating new ideas and comfortable when working with peers.
Forming an Effective Team
Team building exercises really work and they should be nothing like those group meetings from The Office that Michael Scott subjected everyone to. Small business developments to large companies benefit from team building strategies. When it comes to accomplishing objectives and completing tasks, team effort is generally more effective than individual effort. There’s no question about it. And, a team that functions based on each member’s strengths and weaknesses works more efficiently and effectively. Finding these traits in each member is the challenge. Collectively, a team should demonstrate the following to harness an environment for success:
- Innovation
- Competitiveness
- Functionality
- Creativity
A combination of brainstorming sessions, organizational meetings and playing team-based games like ‘The Resistance’ works for maintaining our in-house group morale, though this may not work for you. Check out these methods for team building if you’re looking for new tactics to lead and grow your team: Stages of Team Formation by Psychologist Bruce Tuckman or The Genetic Structure of High Performance Teams by startup CEO Ronald Brown. Every workplace will vary on the steps needed to create the ideal team, but the processes described by Tuckman and Brown represent good guidelines to start with.
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