Catherine in Montara writes, “My company encourages quarterly team building activities, but leaves the decision on what to do up to each group. My boss is a sports fanatic and always chooses competitive activities like flag football, obstacle course racing and dodge ball. A few of us are not athletic so these types of activities both make us uncomfortable and subject us to ridicule when we under perform. Help.”
Studies show that the practice of team building activities is a good one, helping to foster camaraderie and strengthen relationships between coworkers. However, any purported team building activity that makes some workers feel uncomfortable and ridiculed isn’t a successful team building effort. First, explain the situation to your boss. As someone who really enjoys sports she or he may just assume everyone else feels the same and may be genuinely surprised to hear differently. Second, encourage your boos to get feedback from the entire team. Chances are that any number of different coworkers will vote for a new activity for reasons of their own. Third, come up with alternative team building activities. Your boss may continually select sports activities in part because the alternatives are unclear. Forth, if you can’t get you boss off the “sports” theme, look for alternative activities besides game participation. Perhaps you can create a rally group, act as referee or help with coaching. Fifth, take the issue to your human resources department. It is likely that the HR department is a strong corporate supporter of team building and is invested in assuring that the activities are a success. HR will help in all aspects of improving the situation. And as always, when everyone at work is feeling respected, it’s all good!
email your workplace issues to joelle@hrchaeology.com
Comments
Cathrine,
Often people mistake a group activity for team building. Team building can be fun but should also help develope group dynamics. It is very important to evaluate your team and choose a team building program based on your team's current situation, goals, objectives and desired outcomes. I would suggest visiting www.teambuildinginc.com. This site contains a variety of team building programs. Once you speak to a team building consultant from that site, they will help you determine the best program for you.
Good luck.
When a team building activity disregards or ignores some of the team members, it not only isn't team building, it segregates the team into us and them. This type of team building event actually destroys teamwork.
i think unsuccessful team is the contrast of successful team
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