INTHEBLACK May 2022 - Magazine - Page 58
F E AT U R E
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months afterwards,” says Pollack.
The participants reported feeling more comfortable
talking to each other and talking more often, with the
most common change being from “not in the last month”
to “once a week”.
Genuine team building activities have important
benefits that are not limited to improving problematic
relationships and breaking down silos, says Talan Miller,
founder and managing director
of Sabre Corporate Development.
“It equips people with the language and tools to take
back to work to develop better working relationships,
solve real-world problems and minimise the impact of
individual weaknesses,”
he says.
Why then do so many of us perceive team building
activities as cringe-worthy?
The University of Sydney study has confirmed what
many of us may have already suspected – a significant
number of employees regard team building exercises as
the “bane of their workplace existence”.
“Many people do not want to be forced into having
fun or making friends, especially not on top of their busy
jobs or in stressful, dysfunctional environments, where
team building is typically called for,” says Pollack.
Examples of cringe-worthy exercises being foisted on
reluctant staff abound, from massage circles and “trust
falls” to off-key karaoke performances or high-intensity
rope courses.
58 ITB May 2022
CREATING CONNECTIONS
Some employees resent their company’s team building
efforts, considering it an intrusion. Many look at it as
a waste of time and money, and coaching psychologist
Amelia Twiss agrees. Ironically, she says, poorly
executed team building can serve to demotivate some
employees, particularly those who are more taskfocused or introverted.
Twiss says that, while paying attention to the
quality of relationships in the workplace is important,
organisations would be better off investing in
improved team design and removing obstructions
for staff in doing their work.
“Great relationships at work are a byproduct of
teams that are working well together and achieving
their goals,” she says.
“Perhaps it is time for a shift in language. Rather
than calling an activity ‘team building’ – when it is
not about the way the team works together and more
about creating connections between people – we could
refer to these activities as ‘community building’.”
SUBSTANCE OVER STYLE
The ambivalence around team building is nothing new.
Miller says that when he founded his company some
30 years ago, some exercises he heard of “smacked more
of cultish practice than actual team development”.
“Believe it or not, fire walking over hot coals was a
bit of a thing in the late 1990s, until a company that