Corporate team building exercises

I’m closing out a week of posts about what I as a NYC team building professional see wrong with my chosen professional niche, including the silly name and the fact that nobody gets excited at the prospect of doing group bonding. I’m a passionate defender of these activities, and a champion of creating positive shared experiences for groups of all sizes for producing happier, more productive workplaces.

Then again, what if I’m wrong?

What if all of the ambivalence and even hostility towards corporate team building exercises is well-founded? There’s certainly no arguing that many so-called “team building activities” are nothing more than glorified hobbies, and that the so-called experts who run them have no more credentials in the areas of staff training & development than the wooden logs they make their clients balance on. Most people – myself included – who have participated in these events walk away feeling no stronger bond to the workplace or to their colleagues than when they walked in, and for particularly bad experiences, they feel more angry and disengaged than ever before.

Are employee team building events pointless?

I would argue that when you have specific goals in mind for a team – be it to boost morale, integrate new staff, merge departments, or address a specific challenge – there is really nothing which compares to a positive shared experience for creating lasting memorable impact. If you are able to accomplish this through team building exercises, well then guess what – they’re not pointless, and to say otherwise is doing so with neither base nor merit.

There is no catchall description for what team building is, and by no means any “one size fits all” activity or event which is appropriate for every group or goal. However, when done carefully, thoughtfully and customized specifically for those in attendance around precise goals and objectives, team building exercises can be a highly effective and enjoyable means of imparting very real, very positive change in the workplace.