Team building refers to activities intended to increase cooperation and communication within a workgroup. The idea is that through group activities, role-playing games and debates, team members would get to know one another better, learning how to discover one’s own hidden skills as well as their teammates’ and developing greater mutual trust—ultimately, learning how to improve the effectiveness with which they work together.
However, the 2020 pandemic made it necessary to alter and adjust team building methods.
The many limitations introduced by the authorities in order to contain the disease forced us to change our concept of teamwork and led us to explore new ways to get connected and work together.
Having been forced to maintain physical distances, we became experts at knocking down virtual barriers and preserve concord and bonding. Video calls replaced office meetings, enabling us to interact and share ideas. We were able to realize how important it is to support one another and foster mutual trust, creating virtual rooms where, together, we could celebrate our successes and overcome obstacles.
This new kind of team building made us more resilient and more creative—in short, a stronger team.
Circumstances might change, but our determination to work together will not. Whether before a projector screen or in some wide-open space, the guiding principle underlying team building remains the same: what was a collection of individuals is replaced by a cohesive group, whose members mesh well and are ready and willing to overcome any challenge they may have to face, including a pandemic.
Opportunities and goals
Setting up a team building event in the open air – for example, spending a day taking a walk in the woods, sailing, or participating in an orienteering course – may be a perfect opportunity for team members to connect with one another, improve in-house communications and reinforce interdepartmental cooperation as they share a one-of-a-kind experience involving concentration and diligence outside the workplace, leading to new emotions and sensations.
During the event all participants will be able to work together with a shared goal; for example, they may be asked to jog along a path or to overcome a hurdle. Because of this, people taking part in the event will establish stronger relationships with one another, and they will also enhance their skills in terms of leadership, stress management, creativity and problem solving.
Alternatively, role-playing games provide an opportunity to spend some time together in a playful yet creative manner. As the name suggests, team members will play different roles while the team as a whole will be expected to fulfil a common goal. It is also assumed that they will achieve this by evolving better communicative, cooperative and problem-solving skills, as team play clearly calls for their development, and of course organizational and planning skills, problem-solving qualities and so on may turn out to be very important when carrying out a number of diverse business tasks.
Group work
Among the various entertaining games that might be selected for this purpose are treasure hunts and escape rooms. In a typical treasure hunt, one has to find one or more objects, often following clues; in escape rooms one has to solve puzzles or accomplish some tasks, usually within a limited time, in order to be able to leave the room (and possibly progress to the next room, if there is more than one room). In both cases the point is that participants have to work together and share ideas to succeed. The real goal, of course, is to establish strong relationships, increasing mutual trust and group identity.
A creative workshop can be an excellent choice for team building, stimulating cooperation and imagination within the group. Experiences like a cooking course or a painting workshop lead people to investigate their own creativeness and join forces to develop innovative ideas—possibly an opportunity to create something new, such as a product or a presentation, or maybe to leverage one’s artistic and creative skills to solve a problem.
In this kind of workshop all team members are supposed, and indeed expected, to express themselves freely and yet as a group, trying to overcome all sorts of barriers. Thus a creative workshop may turn to out to be a unique opportunity to increase team cohesion, leading to a more positive work environment.
Wouldn’t you like your team to operate as a closely knit group of people who can really work together well? Then call us — we shall organize a team building event specifically designed to meet your company’s requirements!