Why Team Building Weekends Fail (And How to Make Yours Succeed)
Somewhere in the world this afternoon, a group of office mates are strapping on safety equipment and preparing to scale the side of a cliff together. In another city, another group of mates is engaged in a retreat designed to foster their sense of teamwork. Late at night in yet another town, six men who usually compete in the office are cooperating on building a robot. What do they all have in common?
The phrase is team building, and it has come to represent a way of doing business that takes into account the strengths and weaknesses of each member of a workgroup. The basic concept of team building weekends is to bring a group of coworkers together and, by subjecting them to various hardships, events and activities, cement them into a team that supports each other and works together toward a common goal.
The only problem with that scenario is that all too often, it doesn’t work. Once the group is back at the office, they fall back into the old ways of working and the team building weekend is no more than a fond memory. The problem is not in the concept of team building, but in the notion...