Teambuilding: is it really necessary?

There are truths that we love to hide. The annual budget for team cohesion activities is one of the taboos of many companies, but it is always present year after year, even though the results of team-building activities are difficult to measure. Could this kind of corporate event be a lure? A fad? A waste of time and money?

Team building: a potentially dangerous exercise for the company

Team-building activities: some love them, others do not. Some feel comfortable in a team, while others consider the exercises completely useless or even insulting. For the latter, the time spent solving puzzles, climbing trees, and getting dirty does not necessarily equate to more effective teamwork.

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Kate Mercer, co-founder of Leaders Lab, is among those who do not hold back when it comes to expressing their opinions on team building. For her, the term evokes “a horrible vision of people kneeling on the ground playing drums in a conference room or building Lego towers trying to beat a time record against another team.”

The question to ask is: does team building really work? The American author of A Buzz in the Building: How to Build and Lead a Brilliant Organization claims that it does not, for four main reasons:

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-The gap between activities conducted in companies and those carried out in the context of team building is too significant. Of course, it is possible to draw parallels and highlight useful learning points. However, this analysis must be correct and effective to ensure that individuals reintegrate the learning into their work.

-Shame, felt by many people, regardless of their personality traits, in certain activities practiced during team-building sessions. In fact, it is not uncommon to see some people embarrassed, fearing shame or even humiliation during these events. The fundamental mistake is to say, moreover, that everything will quickly return to normal… For some employees, team-building activities only widen the gap between them, their colleagues, and their employer.

-The risk of favoritism, marked by the fact of forcing employees to participate in supposedly fun activities, some may feel obliged to submit to team-building activities to perform better.

-Confusion between teamwork and socialization, due to the nature of the activities offered during team building. Forcing employees to interact with people they would prefer to see as mere colleagues can generate hostility rather than solidarity, increase tension within teams, and make it difficult for many.

Is it really necessary to build teams?

Like hazing for students, team building can take on incalculable proportions, especially if it is poorly managed and poorly planned. When team building takes the form of a meaningless competition among colleagues, things can quickly spiral out of control. The irony is that companies have only one desire: for their employees to cooperate more, work actively in teams, and share their knowledge while striving to succeed together and achieve a single common goal. – Why? – Why force them to compete in competitive events?

Generally speaking, the common denominator for team-building activities is the human resources department. Far from the teams for which they organize activities, HR nevertheless insists on the absolute necessity of implementing good teamwork practices, for the good of all and especially for the good of the company. Although the motivations regarding human resources are noble in themselves, they sometimes lead to negative outcomes. To avoid this, it would be wise to consider certain elements before organizing a team-building event, such as:

— Choose activities that each team member enjoys

— Ensure that participants’ workload is not affected

— Do not force anyone to participate

Furthermore, there are many other ways as effective as team building and less costly to foster cooperation among group members. Work-free meetings are an excellent example. They can be carried out, for instance, through gym memberships, charitable activities in which the company invites everyone to participate if they wish, etc. Moreover, as popular as it is, team building does not solve all the relational problems of a company. In some cases, these problems simply stem from management, and instead of wanting to heal the wounds, it is better to address strategic issues that cause dysfunctions in the team…