Just about everybody says they work well as part of a team in interviews, or that they’re a good team player, because they think it’s what potential employers want to hear. The thing is, those employers might be onto something. There is evidence to suggest that teamwork results in improved problem-solving, smarter risk-taking, more creativity, and fewer mistakes. 

However, managers must keep their teams motivated and make sure that everybody feels included and committed to their shared goal. This is no easy task. Not all teams gel easily, and an impassioned speech at 9:15 am on a Tuesday is more likely to come off as irritating than inspiring. Luckily, there are team building activities to turn to. 

This article will explore what’s good about team building and why it really works to motivate teams.

It makes people more collaborative 

A good amount of psychological research in the late 20th century was dedicated to figuring out how people get others to do things for them. There’s a few different ways, like using reciprocity or authority. But you can also just get people to like you. 

As a manager, if you can get your team to like each other, they’re a lot more likely to work well together and help each other out. Team building activities have been shown to be very good at doing this, if only because it helps employees get to know one another more in a more casual and social environment. 

It improves morale

Doing something different and fun can cause a morale boost that lasts much longer than the duration of your activities. That’s why corporate team building companies have been very popular. Just one day or even a few hours of doing something exciting and out of the ordinary can help people to work harder once they get back to their normal routine. 

Use it to identify leaders

As you advance in your career, you will eventually need someone to replace you as leader of your team. If there’s no clear choice in the office, for example if your employees all do similar tasks each day and haven’t really had the chance to demonstrate leadership qualities, then team building activities might be just what you need to see the natural leaders emerge. 

When you present your team with new problems, you can see who people turn to and who is able to come up with solutions. 

It helps departments collaborate

People are naturally inclined to belong to some kind of group or team. If your company is large enough to have several different departments, then the staff will likely see their department as the team they belong to, not the entire company. Each person is thinking about what’s best for their department and not the whole enterprise.

You can use team building to help departments get to know each other more, and to expand the size of their perceived in-group. 

Conclusion

The benefits of team building might not be as direct as cutting costs or marketing, but at the end of the day they can still impact the bottom line. The better the decisions people make and the more efficiently they work together to get things done will result in more profits over time.