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Team Building Retreats
Case Study
An article written by Dr. Gene Benter (who has no connection with Sandstone)
Executive Summary
This case study revolves around the concept of team building that
was illustrated in Case 2 incident. Questions number 1 and 2 provides
positive outlook about team building. Team building based on this
context increases teamwork and productivity. The combining together of
people from diverse skills and capabilities build a strong synergy that
makes their job fulfilling and satisfying. Questions number 3 and 4 are
discussions concerning the development of physically inactive employees
and their low performance have negative impact on the company. It also
discussed maintaining close contacts of employees in the absence of
direct contact with one another.
Introduction
Question No. 1
Question No. 2
Question No. 3
Question No. 4
Conclusion
References
Introduction
The term team building usually leads to the concept of choices,
growth, and combined stimulus of individuals to work as one body in
order to achieve the organizational goals. Several activities and group
dynamics of team building are lined up in order for employees or the
management to pursue the corporate goals through rigorous trainings,
such as group self-assessment and group-dynamic games. Mostly, the
activities inn team building revolves around the theory and practice of
organizational development.
Team building is a continuous process of working together not
simply as a workforce but as group of individuals with varying traits
and competencies forming together as a powerful strategy to achieve the
goals of the company. The compositions of diverse individuals in a team
but possessing the common aspiration of the company developed a synergy
that catalizes the unity of the group.
An organization is already a team but it be broken down to small
unit so that job performance may not be hampered due to job confusion
and too general tasks assignments. Building small teams clarifies each
person role and contribution to the achievement of the organization
goal. In order to strengthen the reach of the group, their camaraderie
should be given priority to remove the barriers that hinder their
progress as group.
Hence, team working retreats are conducted to build the gap that
separates the members of the team from one another. Usually, team
building sessions commence with knowing oneself, being oneself, and
becoming the best of oneself. Once this is done, the next level is
given in order to know the feedbacks from other members of the group.
Finally, the exercise evolves to deeper knowledge and understanding of
each other in the group. Activities and reflections are intertwined so
that the group begins to develop excitement to work with each other.
Once the individuals can happily engage with each other to solve a
particular problem, the team is born.
Question No. 1
Do you believe that team building activities increase productivity? Why
or why not? What other factors might be responsible for increase in
profitability following a corporate retreat?
Team building increases the productivity. According to Riyad,
“Organizational behavior integrates individual process, group process
and organization processes and further these are intergraded to
psychology, social science, sociology and other facts. So a team in an
organization reacts with all these factors that is why success of an
organization always rely on teams. As a result of these we can see
teams are formed in organizations to solve management problems as well
as to be successful organizations in foreseeable future.”
(wiki.answers.com)
Why team building helps more productivity?
Team recognized to be useful to achieve the organization goal. In
the team we can found there are different people who have different
characters, behavior and skills. This mixing of people makes them to be
synergy to achieve the goal.
* Multi resources: When we use multi resources and skills help us to increase the productivity.
* In make decision: if we depend on one person to take decision we put
our self in big risk. But when depend on team there will be
desiccations and Cooperation between the members to decrease the risk.
In addition, this can help member to improve their skills during the
time.
* Communication: this cooperation between members (special between the
manager and member) and communicate in informal way can make positive
felling between them. That help if in the future any problem happens
the member will feel comfortable if they want to desiccation this
problem with the manager. Also, this makes good relationship happens
between organization’ employee which make good effect like increase the
productivity.
* Work focusing: in team organization each team has own task. They
should consider on it. That helps to make more and quality product. For
example: IT company.
Question No. 2.
What are some other ways beside those described here to build effective
teams and increase teamwork among company employee? How might these
alternatives be better or worse than corporate retreats?
There are many ways to improve team work in company. Each kind of team
has special way to improve it. But there are common ways. There we will
talk some of them and describe how they work.
* Clear Expectations: the leader of that team has to have clear idea
about expectations for the team’s performance and what expect from the
team to do. What they should to do to lead this team and care about
finance satiation and time. Each team member has to understand why this
team appears? What they should to do to achieve specific goal. And what
is every member task.
* Context: each member should understand why they participate in this
team. They have to know the team purpose, strategy, goals, principles,
vision and values. In addition team work should achieve them.
* Commitment: Do team members want to participate on the team. Do team
member fell the team mission is important. Do they fell they give
useful and important service to the company and their future? In
addition do they expect they will receive thanks and gratitude from the
company?
* Team Norms or Relationship Guidelines: team norms are the rules or
guidelines which organize the action between team members or any one
dell with them outside the team. These rules usually sit in the first
team meeting. In addition, these rules can be change or add later if
there is any needing.
* Using of team norms such as guiding team member behavior and the use of team member interactions.
Question No. 3
What should companies do about employees who lack athletic talent but
are still pressured to participate in physical activities with their
colleagues? How might poor performance by those with low athletic
ability affect their status within the organization?
There are many benefits of physical activities participation
especially if it was with teammates. With so many participating in
physical activities, either in companies or agency-sponsored programs,
it is important to examine the possible benefits of this involvement.
The benefits and detriments of physical activities participation have
been a topic of debate within the research and policy literature;
however, numerous benefits have been identified. For instance,
Seefeldt, Ewing, and Walk (1992) have identified the following possible
benefits associated with competition:
* Learning physical skills. Athletes learn both fundamental motor
skills (e.g., running, jumping and hopping) and sport-specific skills
(e.g., how to putt a golf ball or shoot a jump shot in basketball) that
allow them to stay active.
* Appreciation of fitness. Two of the motives for participation
identified by children is “to get exercise” and “stay in shape” (Ewing
& Seefeldt; 1989); participating in sports offers this benefit.
* Sense of belonging. Another strong motive of participation is social
interaction. Sports can provide peer interaction through both teammates
and healthy competition (see Weiss & Stuntz, 2004 for a review of
the literature).
* Acquiring sport skills for leisure. Learning the fundamental motor
skills through sport can aid in skill development, but can also be
transferred to other sports and leisure activities, promoting increased
participation and involvement.
In a review of current trends and literature in youth sport, Malina
and Cumming (2003) outlined other possible benefits of participation:
* Growth and maturation effects
* Regular physical activity leading to increased fitness
* Self-concept or self-worth effects
* Social competence
* Moral development
So, physical activities are very useful for employees even if they
did not have athletic talent. In addition, physical activities with
colleagues Strengthen community and enhance cooperation among them. It
also let them know each other closely. The companies should keep
encourage their employees to participate these activities even with
lack athletic talent.
Poor performance by those with low athletic ability does not affect
their status within the organization that much because of their strong
relationship. They will help each other to go over it and encourage
them to do their best and have high performance. So, low performance
is not that big deal. It will make employees help each other and work
together to succeed at job. If all employees have high performance in
physical activities, every one is going to care about him/her self. And
that will create competition among them rather than work together.
Question No. 4
How might you increase teamwork when team members are not often in
direct contact with one another? Can you think of any "electronic"
team-building exercise?
Generally, more frequent communication is productive, but this
should be relative to what is sufficient or necessary for the task.
Direct communication happens when people talk to one another rather
than relaying information through someone else (e.g., the leader). Open
communication means that people feel very comfortable sharing
information with one another.
Virtual team recommendations:
* Communication is one of the real challenges for virtual teams, and
one of the ways virtual teams are most different from face to face
teams. Virtual team leaders (and members) must make a conscious effort
to keep communication flowing, particularly if teams are geographically
dispersed.
* With a little creativity, even informal communication is possible in
virtual teams - at IBM, employees have informal communication in a
virtual space even when they are not in the same geographic location.
* The guideline about direct communication might need to be tweaked in
virtual teams. Though virtual team members should communicate directly,
they might need to keep others informed about the communication. Too
often, this ends up taking the form of annoying cc’s in email; we
discourage that and recommend the use of a discussion board or a
blogging tool to not only communicate directly with others but to also
keep others informed.
* Virtual teams must also think about how to optimize the amount of
time spent on the task with the amount of time spent capturing and
documenting information, and that balance point is very different than
in a face to face group.
This is an example for electronic team-building exercise. It is US Patent 5762503 - System for use as a team building exercise.
1. A system for management training a team having a plurality of members,
2. A system having a plurality of monitors and associated sensors disposed within a space,
3. Each of the monitors and associated sensors defining a monitor
region wherein a respective sensor is triggered in response to the
presence of at least one team member in the monitor region 4. Further
defining a plurality of safe areas remote from all of the monitor
regions in which no sensor is triggered, each of the monitors and
associated sensors including a transmitter that generates a signal in
response to triggering of the respective sensor,
5. The signals being representative of status information, the system
comprising: an obstacle course that is negotiated by the members of the
team, the course being formed from an arrangement of the predefined
monitor regions and configured within the space so that the safe areas
wherein no sensor is triggered extend contiguously along the obstacle
course remote from all of the monitor regions
6. Allowing the members of the team to negotiate the course without
triggering the sensors by remaining within the contiguous safe areas; a
control engine coupled to each transmitter so as to receive the signals
from the plurality of monitors and associated sensors in real time, the
control engine including means for tabulating the status information;
7. A scoreboard, operatively connected to the control engine, for
displaying the results of the tabulation in real time to the team
negotiating the obstacle course; and at least one warning device,
operatively connected to the control engine, for providing at least one
of auditory and visual feedback information to the team negotiating the
obstacle course, wherein the control engine only activates the at least
one warning device while at least one team member is within a monitor
region so as to assist the team in locating and thereby remaining
within the safe areas while negotiating the obstacle course.
1. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one warning device
comprises an indicator light disposed along the obstacle course, the
light being activated by the control engine only while at least one
team member is within a monitor region.
2. The system of claim 2 wherein the at least one warning device
further comprises an audio system disposed in proximity to the obstacle
course for reproducing a plurality of sounds and each of two or more
monitors is associated with a different sound, whereby the control
engine only activates the audio system while at least one team member
is within a respective monitor region by directing the audio system to
reproduce the sound with which the respective monitor is associated.
3. The system of claim 3 wherein the scoreboard comprises a counter and
the control engine adjusts the counter in response to the triggering of
a sensor corresponding to the presence of a team member in a respective
monitor region.
4. The system of claim 4 further comprising at least one challenge
station disposed along the obstacle course, the at least one challenge
station configured to present a task that may be performed by at least
one team member and to generate challenge station signals in response
to an input by the at least one team member, the control engine coupled
to the at least one challenge station and including means for
tabulating the challenge station signals.
6. The system of claim 5 further comprising at least one
electro-mechanical hazard operatively disposed along the obstacle
course, the at least one electro-mechanical hazard operatively coupled
to the control engine and configured to modify the course conditions as
commanded by the control engine.
7. The system of claim 6 wherein the control engine includes a main
processor for use in tabulating the status information in accordance
with a predetermined scoring equation and a memory associated with the
main processor for use in storing the tabulation results.
Conclusion
We have seen the many advantages of team building in developing the
organization’s productivity. It only takes initiative on the part of
the organization’s management to keep the group moving on to the right
direction. Proper training and well defined objectives are the key
elements in keeping the team going. Sometimes the path toward perfect
performance might be tedious and not so easy but it is always a matter
of constant and consistent encouragement that individuals in a team
find encouragement.
Working as a team needs expertise. Each person in the team should
supplement and compliment each other. Due to individual differences one
or two members of the team may be slower than the rest, but the spirit
of camaraderie among them will serve as the strength of the entire
group. Team members are not competitors rather they are allied forces
with each other. The goal might seem impossible to achieve however, the
purpose of the team is to make the impossible, possible.
Teamwork communication is an essential trait among members of the
team. Communication builds stronger ties and the bonds are knitted
tightly. Barriers of communication oftentimes cause misinterpretation
that is why; each team member should realize the value of keeping an
open mind and a listening heart. Obstacles are never hard for a team
who work with one mind and body. Success is inevitable and can be
achieved successively once a team has embraced the spirit of teamwork.
Team building activities such as mountain climbing, cooking
contest, and fire walks are ineffective exercises to develop team work
because what is at stake in these activities is survival and not
camaraderie. Team building should not induce pain or physical suffering
simply because they can strengthen the commitment of each member of the
team. Torture is never accepted as a moral act even among animals.
Giving rigorous and difficult exercises for team building only
discourage participants to commit themselves to the firm.
It is good to remember that people join the workforce to earn a living and not to subject themselves to pain and hardships.
References
Bart Icles, A Great Way To Increase Productivity Is Through Team Building, http://www.artipot.com/articles/308600/a-great-way-to-increase-productivity-is-through-team-building.htm , March 19, 2009
Clive Morgan, Why Team Building Activities are So Important?, April 2,2009
Riyad, Why team work is important on an organization, http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_team_work_is_important_on_an_organisation ,June3, 2008
Susan M. Heathfield, Twelve Tips for Team Building: How to Build Successful Work Teams, http://humanresources.about.com/od/involvementteams/a/twelve_tip_team.htm
Susan M. Heathfield, How to Build Powerfully Successful Work Teams, http://humanresources.about.com/od/involvementteams/a/team_one_stop.htm
Teambuildingbuzz.com ,Why is Team Building Important for my Company Staff?, http://www.teambuildingbuzz.com/why-is-team-building-important-for-my-company-staff.htm , December 21, 2008
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