All employers want to improve morale, improve communication between staff members and ultimately increase productivity, so why don’t all organisations send their staff to take part in team development events?
Is it because some of these courses can suffer because they conjure up negative thoughts – many connected to the humorous events shown on television?
Certainly, the wisdom of David Brent from TV’s “The Office” have forced middle management personnel to look in the mirror and wonder if that’s who they resemble.
Among Brent’s many, now well-known, quotes the one that best shows his thinking about working as a team reads: “There may be no ‘I’ in team, but there’s a ‘ME’ if you look hard enough”.
If you watched the show, you may remember the excellent show in which a team development expert visited the Wernam Hogg offices. Brent quickly took control, and changed the course into basically a celebration of him, including an interpretation of his seminal 1980s pop ballad “Free Love on the Freelove Freeway” on acoustic guitar.
Yet, in real life team development events are nothing like the cringeworthy and destructive nightmare depicted in the programme.
Many companies across the UK now offer business organisations the chance to take their staff out of the office and away on a team building day.
Team building allows employees to learn and develop the tools and skills necessary to drive business growth and sustain improvement and development.
And despite the worldwide recession, staff development remains important to the growth of a business. In fact, it’s even more important, as when the recession ends there will certainly be chances for the best-run businesses to take advantage of the developing marketplace.
Team development can take many different forms, from in-house teaching to getting out into the wilderness and undertaking adventure courses, high ropes trails and personal challenges – which will be sure to inspire and be memorable for staff members.
All these activities are fashioned to encourage staff – regardless of age and background – to work as part of a team for the common good of your company, and they all contribute to the common long-term goals of your business.
So team development events are essential to the growth of any business. Just don’t copy David Brent, whose policy for hiring new staff was straightforward: “Avoid employing unlucky people – throw half of the pile of CVs in the bin without reading them”.