Not Another Ice Breaker! Team Building with a Purpose.
"We just don't work as a team!" Janet, a group manager for a
large insurance company, was complaining to Larry, her human
resources consultant. "Everyone just seems to do their own
thing, they don't share information, don't try to help each
other, and don't seem to care about anyone else's problems. What
we need is a team building offsite!" Janet and Larry decided to
put together a two-day offsite for the team at a resort about
two hours away from work. Janet wanted immediate focus on the
problem so Larry worked double-time to put together the event to
be held later in the month. Larry put together an agenda full of
trust-building exercises, ice-breakers, and brainstorming
sessions on how the team could work better together.
On the first day of the offsite only about half of Janet's team
had shown up; the other half were working on a hot project that
needed to be completed later in the week. The remaining team
members politely participated in the team building exercises,
but didn't seem very interested in the activities as they felt
too "squishy." Because Janet wanted to focus the offsite on team
building, there was no clearly stated business purpose for the
event. The brainstorming sessions were good, but no tangible
actions were taken down for the team to follow up on. In short,
the offsite was met with a resounding thud from the team and was
a dismal failure.
To some, this may be a gross exaggeration; but to others, this
closely resembles an offsite they attended or were responsible
for planning. Offsites are a very effective means to getting the
team focused on solving a business problem, defining a strategy,
or creating a revolutionary way of doing things. A very key
by-product of offsites, though, is the team-building that occurs
while addressing business issue at hand. Done well, an offsite
not only puts great minds together to address a business issue
but it also builds better teams that work more effectively
together and get more things done. Done poorly, an offsite will
be viewed as a huge waste of time and will poorly reflect on you
as a leader.
How can you ensure your offsites are successful at building
teams and getting things done at the same time? Consider the
following simple tips:
Have a clear purpose for the offsite - Define some clear
business reason for having the offsite. Consider things such as
developing strategic goals for the upcoming fiscal year, account
planning for strategic customers, or generating solution
alternatives for a key business problem. If you make the goal of
the offsite "Team Building" then your team is likely to look at
the offsite as a waste of time that will have no real business
benefit. Do your team building under the guise of solving a
problem or defining the future.
Balance work with play - All work and the offsite becomes too
fatiguing. All play and it becomes a boondoggle. Balance your
agenda with a combination of work sessions with some fun
team-building events sprinkled in. Make sure the "play" events
you define are something everyone can participate in and go
beyond the overused catch-me-as-I-fall-backwards event. Better
still, ask the team what types of things they'd like to do
during playtime.
Provide plenty of time for networking - Give ample time during
the day and evening for the team to have snacks, enjoy
beverages, and just talk about whatever strikes them. Team
building starts with building relationships, and building
relationships starts with getting to know each other. Allow for
networking time to be free and unscripted and let the team enjoy
some casual conversation with each other.
Don't hold the offsite during a crunch period - When you do hold
your offsite, you don't want your team members to be checking
email every five minutes or constantly leaving to make important
calls. Do your best to hold an offsite during a "slow" time in
your business. As with most businesses, there will probably
never be an optimal time to hold an offsite but do your best to
avoid times when team members are already burning the midnight
oil.
Make it an overnight event - Some of the best offsites I've held
were those where the team ate dinner together, enjoyed a couple
of drinks, and stayed up late discussing major business problems
or brainstorming on a radically new strategy. These late night
sessions were valuable in that team members put their heads
together to address some problem or opportunity. More
importantly, team members built relationships which provided an
outstanding foundation for strong teams.
Don't make the team work overtime to "make up" the time spent at
the offsite - If you're going to have an offsite, allow the team
to move some of their other commitments out a few days so they
don't feel the pressure of needing to get their work done while
at the offsite. The last thing you want is your team thinking
about working late because of wasted time at a dumb offsite.
Relax some of the deliverables and let the team focus on the
offsite, not on what work isn't getting done.
Put together a follow-up plan to continue the work from the
offsite - One of the most frustrating things I've experienced
with offsites was the lack of a follow-up plan to implement some
of the great ideas which came out of the offsite. Put together
an actionable follow-up plan with tasks, dates, and owners and
you'll keep the excitement going out of the offsite and will get
some of the great ideas implemented. Neglect putting together a
follow-up plan and you'll have an offsite that the team sees as
a waste of time.
Offsites can be a very effective means of getting things done
and building outstanding teams at the same time. Just make sure
to follow these simple steps and you'll better ensure your next
offsite is a huge success.