When it comes to achieving team goals, it sure helps if there’s team chemistry to begin with. But if your team is new, or is taking on a project together for the first time, team chemistry doesn’t happen instantly.
The optimal way to get your teams engaged is to take them out of the office before the project even begins. That’s right. Even if you simply go outdoors on company grounds, or the roof of the parking garage, taking a break from work sets minds free and people naturally engage with one another.
Don’t confuse this kind of gathering to the ones you see at the sandwich shop. You know, when a manager strolls in with 12 staff and starts pushing all the lunch tables together. What you have in that case is several, divided pods of people chatting over turkey on rye. What we’re talking about is getting every team member to engage with every team member in a fun, productive way, outside the office.
Keys to Effective Team Building
There are many ways to build trusting relationships among staff, using interactive games or investing time together to serve the local community. Motivating team members to trust and rely on each other is easier through experiential learning, and more effective if the activities are fun. In the workplace, when teams mesh and everyone has a clear understanding of the project and strategy, it’s time for managers to step aside and let the team roll. This is also the time to take advice from General Patton, who famously said:
“Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” ~ General George Patton
Clear communication from the top gives every work unit a firm foundation to perform. Knowing when to set the team free to work on its own is critical. If communication is poor and teams are off track from the get-go, you just paved the way for a dysfunctional team experience that can have lasting negative effects on the team and your leadership.
Companies who strive for a transparent and collaborative culture create trusting relationships among their staff and are far more likely to produce effective teams. When trust is inherent in the workplace, managing becomes much easier and teamwork flourishes.
Venture Up, on a never-ending mission to create fun games to increase employee engagement and teamwork, has just introduced the first in a line of portable games to inspire teamwork. Nobody has to leave the premises when they take on the challenge to Escape the Case.
Escape The Case
As Venture Up marks its 35th year in business, a new line of on-site Escape Games are bringing teams together like never before. The event combines mystery, intrigue and all-inclusive fun and requires team members to “think inside the box.” Solutions to some of the more difficult challenges are made simple by shifting one’s perspective. Escape the Case is the ideal event to illustrate how new ways of thinking can mean looking inside ourselves. In this escape game, rather than trying to break out of a room, teams are instead attempting to break into a series of mysterious briefcases in order to solve the ultimate challenge.
Through unexpected twists, turns, and events, Escape the Case takes you on a wild journey that will test your teams’ problem-solving skills and perseverance.
Escape the Case and other motivational team building activities are offered in metro areas nationwide. Please call 888-305-1065 for more information.