Would you ask the contractor who renovated your kitchen to mow your lawn? If they agree to do it, they’ll charge you a fortune!

Would you ask the person who mows your lawn to renovate your kitchen? They might be able to pull it off and it may very well save you tons of money initially.

In the long run are you confident in the value you are receiving for your investment?

We’ve been receiving many team building inquiries that start with: “My boss says we need something, but we have a very limited budget.”

They’re not kidding! We recently received a request for a group of 50 people with a $100 budget…that’s $2/person!!! Some feel they’re breaking the bank at $12/person while others fall off their chairs when they are quoted $50/person.

After a few more minutes of discussion, I tend to find out that they are part of the social committee.

TREND: Social committees are increasingly being tasked with finding activities that promote key team performance elements such as engagement, communication, problem solving, collaboration, accountability, trust, breaking down silos, and continuous improvement.

Traditionally, people in the social committee volunteer to organize activities because they believe in the importance of having fun with colleagues to help build better bonds.

It seems natural to task them with the important mission of finding a program that will help to promote corporate culture and increase team cohesion.

Unfortunately, the skills, knowledge, and experience required to offer these team building programs are very different than the lower cost team bonding activities social committees tend to organize.

The people looking for the programs need more guidance. They must understand the desired outcomes and the value that their boss places on the requested activity.

TRICK: Without proper guidance and context, many people have been convinced that doing something together as a team will help make them a better team… “Just do it!”

TRUTH: “Doing” is not the same as “accomplishing”. When one does something for the sake of doing, they are often thinking “I could be doing something else!” The last thing one wants when hosting a corporate activity is for people to wish they were somewhere else because they don’t recognize the value attached to the activity.

INSIGHTS:

·      If your company culture is solid, employees are motivated and engaged, the team dynamics are positive, and you are satisfied with performance results, then you can certainly afford the luxury of doing something inexpensive just for fun to simply help keep the positive momentum going. Have at it social committee! (And yes…I meant to write “afford the luxury of inexpensive”.) 😊

·      If your team lacks cohesion, they need an activity where they will be able to learn by accomplishing something together.

The person or people tasked with finding a supplier should be familiar with basic learning and development theory AND fully aware of the needs of the company.

Bosses, supervisor, managers, etc. must take the time to properly brief them.

·      Be prepared to pay more for team building programs. They require experienced and professional facilitators to ensure the key messages and learning outcomes are in-line with your company’s needs.

·      OPTIONAL. Attendance can be optional for fun and social team bonding activities.

·      MANDATORY. Attendance must be mandatory for team building activities. There are very few professional athletes who are permitted to miss practice or team meetings, why should any of your team members at work be given such an exception?

·      RELEVANT. If you are making attendance mandatory, make it relevant to the needs of the organization or else employees will be resentful of being required to participate.

It all starts with establishing clear goals and objectives that can be shared with potential suppliers so that they can recommend appropriate and meaningful solutions to help you build a better team.

EXAMPLES of team building and team bonding activities

Below is a video that captures an event that helps to transform a regular corporate summer BBQ team bonding event into a purposeful team building event by providing participants with the opportunity to practice key elements required for better team cohesion.

The photos below are from an HT Rally in Quebec City. The HT Rally is a good example of a team bonding activity because the sole purpose of the event is to have fun while reconnecting with colleagues. The friendly competition also gives a little boost in motivation.

Read the original article on LinkedIn here.