What Is Team Building?

Team Building: What Is It?

It's obvious to say Team Building translates as "building a team", just as it's equally obvious that we all believe a united, cohesive team will perform much better than one that isn't. Let's try to break down the concept of team building to clear up any doubts.

Generally, Team Building refers to all the specific team-building activities companies or other organisations run to boost team spirit and cooperation among their members. They're usually days designed around the client's specific needs, held at a set venue and location, which is why they're usually run as a corporate event. These corporate events are usually held at venues away from the office, in order to break down participants' usual structure, get them to forget their work role, and let them relate to their colleagues naturally.

These are participatory activities — participants are invited to work as a team and overcome different challenges, puzzles, games or dynamics. To do so, they'll need a good, highly proactive attitude, communicating, organising, and being as creative as possible — the reward will be a great boost of self-esteem, confidence, and the sense of belonging that makes teamwork so rewarding.

The success of team building days is based on the idea that when a group of people, usually members of the same team or organisation, overcome a shared challenge, with all its added difficulties, they come out stronger and much more united than they were before. Not only will they get to know each other better, which is already an important step forward, but experiencing well-earned success, after a period of uncertainty, tension and even fear, helps them feel much closer to one another, more united, more capable of overcoming any problem that arises from that point on.

And through Team Building activities, you can observe aspects of participants that couldn't otherwise be discovered — how they react under pressure, how they interact with each other, how they solve problems that come up during the activity, how they communicate, or how they're able to take on leadership or hand it over to someone else.

Ultimately, a Team Building day is highly productive and often marks the turning point for a team to take off. At Kaizen Coaching and Team Building we have an extensive catalogue of activities suited to your needs.