“…but hey, Marc, (pause to ensure I understand the seriousness of the next statement) …it has to be FUN!”

• Words spoken by most clients just after confirming their desire to work with us.

Trend: The desire to infuse fun into company activities, training initiatives, and corporate culture has increased steadily since my first team-building event back in 1998.

Trap: Fun is often seen as a one-size-fits-all solution to help increase employee morale, communication, engagement, and trust.

Statements such as “Teams that play together, stay together!” often limit the potential impact of an activity by implying that all you need is fun, and the rest will work itself out.

Truth: Fun is multi-dimensional and should be considered an investment on the same level as any other corporate initiative.

Budget or what looks “cool” should not be the only deciding factors on the type of fun you invest in – desired outcomes should be the primary driver.

In this article we will be exploring Transformational Fun, which we define as:

Enjoyable experiences strategically selected to achieve important and sustainable alignment towards better team performance.

TOP 3 CORPORATE INITIATIVES:  Team Building, Team Bonding & Team Development

Transformational Fun taps into the three most popular corporate initiatives which are used to improve communication, employee morale, engagement, and trust. This leads to higher productivity, sustainable growth, an ability to adapt to change, and ultimately more business health.

Let’s deconstruct this diagram

Team Bonding (Informal Fun) activities are meant to simply bring coworkers together to do something lighthearted and enjoyable. There are no learning objectives or key messages to share so there is no need for a facilitator to deliver and debrief the experience. Most companies lean on their social committee to organize team bonding events.

Bowling, go-karting, games night, softball tournament, and the company BBQ are all examples of team bonding activities. They are, unfortunately, often mislabeled as team building.

Team Building (Serious Fun) activities are more structured and purposeful. Participants are given the opportunity to explore and practice the components required to be a stronger team. Professionally facilitated challenges will ensure that the learning objectives and key messages are brought to the surface while ensuring a high level of energy and participant engagement throughout the event.  

Team Development (FUNdamentals) activities are on-boarding, training, and continuous improvement initiatives, often spearheaded by the Human Resources departments. 

Through team development, employees become aware of the needs of the organization, its mission, vision and values, and their roles and responsibilities within. 

Furthermore, team development provides employees with the skills, knowledge, and experience required to effectively contribute to their own personal growth and the company’s success.   

Now let’s rebuild the diagram using the corporate BBQ as an example to tie it all together.

Team Development + Team Bonding = Relevant Fun 

If your company is going to invest in a fun activity such as a BBQ, at the very least, it should be relevant. If, for example, Diversity and Inclusion is a corporate value, then take advantage of this lighthearted event to do something that will encourage everyone to attend. Icebreakers and taking the time to celebrate milestones are great ways to add a little more relevance to the event.

Team Building + Team Bonding = Insightful Fun

Fun becomes insightful when colleagues accomplish something as a team rather than simply doing something as a group. The “Aha!” moments throughout the experience lead to a deeper understanding of how their team can work more effectively together.

Check out this video that transforms an informal company BBQ into an insightful team-building challenge: https://youtu.be/2a2iMwlPNzw

Team Building + Team Development = Actionable Fun

Fun becomes actionable when it is related to the real needs of the company. Managers have used the same BBQ Challenge as above to explore and identify gaps in their team’s alignment. Through proper frontloading of the activity’s purpose and a well-structured debrief, teams can turn what would simply be insights into actionable items that need immediate attention and follow-up.

Final thoughts

Fun is memorable. When learning is fun, learning becomes more accessible and engaging.

When fun is RELEVANT, INSIGHTFUL, and ACTIONABLE it will change the way your team learns, grows, and profits from their time spent together.

Read the original article on LinkedIn here.