Stop Wasting Your Time With Team Building Events
[SUMMARY]:
Team building events can be a double-edged sword, especially in remote or hybrid work environments. While building strong cultures is important, these events can overload teams with commitments that aren't necessarily work-related or shift focus away from core business requirements. Time is the most valuable asset that teams have, and throwing another event on the calendar can overstretch them. Virtual quizzes, game shows, and happy hours may be great for some people, but others may attend just to avoid ruffling feathers, leading to disengagement. Instead of trying to clone an office experience, organizations should take into consideration what's uniquely important to each person and create space within a normal day for them to build better connection and engagement. Employees should be able to self-select into groups they're comfortable with, and the key is to have that baked in as open time in the schedule where they can choose to participate or not without any judgment or expectation. A bespoke approach that meets every individual where they are is better than a cookie-cutter approach that force-fits people into things they might not be comfortable doing. Rather than shoehorning social activities into the calendar, organizations should focus on communicating what's important, flexibility, and wellness. Empowering managers and engaging employees will build an elite organization.
Timestamp
0:00:00 Introduction to team building events and their perception by employees
0:00:26 Need for building strong cultures in remote and hybrid environments
0:01:17 Time constraints and considerations when planning social events
0:02:09 Importance of creating open time for employees to build connections
0:03:00 Bespoke approach to meet individual needs
0:03:31 Focus on communicating what's important, flexibility, and wellness
Transcript
The Case Against Social/Team Building Events
Dr. Jim: [:Building strong cultures is a critical imperative for a lot of leaders, and this is especially the case for busy HR teams in remote and hybrid environments. There may be a reflexive need to create team building events to. Offer that collaboration and that connection.
am with a lot of commitments [:And or you could be putting something on the calendar that shifts focus away from the core requirements of the business. Ultimately, you need to look at the question of time. That's the most valuable asset that we have, and. Teams, have a lot of constraints and priorities that they have to juggle.
So throwing another event on the calendar is probably something that's gonna overstretch your team beyond what it is already. So you have to look at the time constraints and considerations when you're thinking about doing social events.
ey aren't ruffling feathers, [:So they're going through the motions where that time might be better off spent doing something else from their perspective.
Instead of trying to clone an office experience, maybe the approach should be.
Taking into consideration what's uniquely important to each person and creating the space within a normal day for them to do that, to build better connection and engagement within the environment. And they can self-select into groups that they're familiar with, if they want to make it a team building event or a solo event.
verybody's work situation is [:And the key thing to consider for busy HR leaders and leaders of small to midsize organizations is that a bespoke approach that meets every individual where they are to the extent that you can, is better than a cookie cutter approach. That force fits people into things that they might not be comfortable doing.
So rather than shoehorning social activities into the calendar, Focus on communicating what's important. Focus on flexibility, focus on wellness, and that's gonna build a more engaged workforce. Part of that journey includes, Not trying to force collaboration or force events on the people that are in the organization. The formula for building an elite team is really simple.
Empower your [:
