Why Bother With Team Building? ~ Sustainable-Sphere

Team building exercises can be beneficial for people of all ages, but for a number of different reasons. If you are planning a team building session or you are about to attend one, here are a few reasons why you should embrace the concept and give it your all.

Benefits of team building for young people

Children and young people learn a lot of vital skills from taking part in activities where they are encouraged to work with their peers to achieve a goal. Even exercises that seem like they just fun games can help children and young people to gain:

1. Increased self-esteem

2. Confidence in their own ideas and opinions

3. Cooperation and communication skills

4. Listening skills

5. Leadership qualities

6. Team working skills

Developing these kinds of skills can help children and young people in their studies, as well as when making friends and succeeding in other kinds of social situations. Team working activities can also instill some skills that will be very useful once they reach the workplace.

What can team building exercises do for adults?

Many businesses and organisations invest quite a bit of time and money in team building. Groups of colleagues are often sent to take part in team building sessions, days or even weekend-long events. The aims of these sessions include:

Helping employees to get to know each other.Building strong working relationships between colleagues.

Improving communication and cooperation between team members.

Identifying strengths and weaknesses within a particular team.

Working out ways the team can be more efficient and productive Giving staff a shared positive experience

Developing roles within the team and allowing everyone to find their niche.

Improving productivity, profitability and efficiency for the business as a whole.

So, as you can see, the skills young people learn whilst taking part in team building exercises at school or in extra-curricular activities are highly transferable. They will prove helpful in a number of different environments.

Examples of team building activities and exercises

There are many different things you can do to cement healthy working relationships between team members and achieve your objectives for the exercise, such as:

Problem solving games involving hypothetical situations - i.e. 'this container is full of toxic waste. As a team, using these materials, plan a way you can safely get it off the premises'.

Trust exercises - i.e. guiding a blind-folded teammate through an obstacle course or maze.

Sports or outdoor activities - i.e. orienteering or raft building.

Liam Doyle offers his opinion on the benefits of team building, Liam writes on behalf of Dream Car Hire Ltd.