How often do we really spend time pulling our team together, building it and making it a cohesive unit? Don’t we often just start working, hoping for the best and silently moaning that we got this one person on the team we don’t gel with?
All to often our bosses will force us to jump into a project and start working instantly. However if we spend even 1 hr in building the team together, getting to know each other can make a world of a difference.
It is on us – the Project Manager or Team Leader – to build the team. Team building is not an annual event paid by the company, where some outsider comes in to do some exercises that supposedly build the team. Team Building is actually your and my responsibility as a Manager, Team Leader or Project Manager.
What you do depends on the situation, the time & money available and the people on the team. You need to be sensitive to who is on your team and what cultural background they come from. If you have people from very conservative backgrounds, then swimming events might not be suitable. If you have sedentary people who are not used to exercise, climbing Mt Kenya might not be a good idea.
General doing something productive together can be a great team building. However it does not need to be sport. You could decide to visit a children home and donate there as a team. Or raise funds together for a worthy cause. Bake sales and such still can do the trick. You could go to a colleagues house, who is in dire need and help them. For example we once went to a colleague and helped him clean out his house and few possessions left, after a house fire. The opportunities are endless, but the team needs to decide together what they do. Anyone against the idea need to be given space to voice their concerns.
Still all this is well and good, but what to do if your boss gives you a hastily thrown together team and tells you to be on site tomorrow. There is not time for team building in the traditional way. Here you need to get creative. Don’t wait for the big budget approvals etc. Do something quickly. The most important thing is that you sit together as a team and spend time to get to know each other. Things I have done successfully:
- Sit together at lunchtime and tell each other about our family, our hobbies etc
- Have a drink after work together, where we get to know each other socially
- Have a short round after the project brief, where we talk about our professional back ground (if we don’t know it – and you’d be surprised how little we know about our colleagues), our thoughts about the project, our values etc. Create an environment, where everyone can contribute and every opinion is accepted. Those who laugh at others or criticize what someone says need to be chastised gently but publicly to ensure all know their opinion counts. And you need to ensure everyone has said something
- If you have a budget, then you can have a social gathering, where food or drink is provided
- Have a more formal sitting, where each can introduce themselves, talk about their experience, special skills and values and you help them align the values with the company values.
- Celebrate things together. If a team member has an exam, celebrate, when he passed it. Celebrate birthdays, weddings, babies born and any other achievement the team thinks are important. Even if the company has their own way of doing it, still have your team celebration. It will make a difference to the team. A cake with the name and the accomplishment on it, does wonders to a person’s self esteem. Don’t fear to have 2 cakes if there is a reason. I once celebrated the last meeting before Christmas with a Christmassy cake and had a special cake the same meeting for one of the team who had graduated a few days before. We happily ate 2 cakes, the graduate felt proud and honored and had cake left over to take home to celebrate with his family again.
- When there are tight timelines and people have to work overtime to finish a project, I usually show up on site at one time with a cake, or a lunch for all to celebrate for 30 minutes or so. Your team will go back to work reenergized. Team Members for a very sensitive client project where a data center was being moved to a new location and our integrated team of over 20 people worked 48 hours non-stop, still talk about the project. I was not directly involved, but knew the project manager, who was reporting to me, was having an exam himself in the middle of the project. I want to know how this kind of work is done and how it is progressing. So I showed up on site with a home-baked cake and a coupled of bottles of soda and plastic cups. We had a great time together, the teams relaxed briefly, I got a tour of the new data center. The team went back to work re-energized and the clients IT Manager was deeply impressed that a “big boss” can show up on a project site on a Saturday afternoon.
- Start every team meeting with a round of success. Let every team member report what he has done since the last team meeting that he is most proud of. Then congratulate them on the successes. This is not the time to criticize. Should there be something that needs to be corrected, do so later, one on one.
- Have a whatsapp group for the team, where successes are shared
- Take photos of the team at work and show them during the next team meeting
- Have a good laugh together
- Go watch a movie together
You see the opportunities are endless and it does not need a lot of formal organizing or costly official events to build a team. It takes a leader who is interested in his or her team, wants to genuinely know them, cares about them and wants to see them grow. You need to be willing to share as well and become one of the team, not the boss man or boss woman, who directs from above. Be the first to share.
See what other teams have done and take ideas from there.
So get going, get creative and build your team your way.