Meetings are under scrutiny for their general inefficiency and high opportunity costs, notably lost productivity. Employees who feel meetings are usually a waste of time most likely fail to fully accept and embrace the information that is presented at low-energy and unengaging meetings. Managers and meeting facilitators can make different efforts to boost morale during meetings and improve the experience, yet employees will only get out of meetings what they put in.

One incredibly effective way to drive meeting material home for employees and improve the meeting experience for better long-lasting results is incorporating team building exercises at each significant meeting.

What Is Considered Team Building?

According to Berkeley, team building is “an ongoing process that helps a work group evolve into a cohesive unit.” Team building develops teams’ trust, cohesion, collaboration, the work environment, and much more. Team building can be facilitated through activities, events, exercises, games, and icebreakers that challenge team members to work together and strive toward shared goals.

The core of team building 

World-renowned keynote speaker and author Robyn Benincasa believes team building at its core is all about creating a synergetic, goal-oriented team.

Building a team that works toward a well-defined goal not only together but for each other creates an atmosphere of trust, collaboration, and purpose that can withstand all kinds of obstacles. Viewing your team as a support system that gives when they can and takes when in need of help can eliminate egos and boost performance. With a solidified perspective, team members can face challenges with flexibility and reframe them as opportunities rather than obstacles.

Team building belongs in corporate settings

Innovation and proper communication flourish in teams who trust each other to work together. Incorporating team building sessions into meetings gives employees a break from their typical day-to-day obligations. These sessions give team members opportunities to get to know each other on a more casual level and work together in a lax and creative manner.

Time dedicated to team building can be maximized by further establishing your business’ missions and values which, again, helps your team keep the ultimate goals in mind when working together.

High-impact activities further our learning

Team building activities pair so well with meetings because of the physical nature of high-impact bonding exercises. When team members participate in activities that involve some physical activity or movement such as gestures, meeting material is better understood, recalled, and remembered. By gesturing and moving, we better comprehend and remember spoken content and abstract ideas.

GettaMeeting’s meeting modules include three team building activities at different energy levels. Low-involvement activities are perfect for sit-down meetings with limited time. Mid-level energy exercises help your team get their creative juices flowing with some movement and collaboration. High-energy activities encourage team members to move around and compete to win suggested prizes that are compatible with the meeting material.

The Return on Investing in Team Building

Knowing the high time and resource costs of meetings, it’s important to keep in mind the benefits that make team building worth it. Investing in team building brings more benefits than we can discuss here, but here are a handful of major benefits and results we experience when we invest in our teams:

• Faster performance, quicker results. Team productivity increases due to participation in low-stakes activities and breaks in regular routines. When productivity is increased as we invest in more team-building activities over time, we produce results faster due to more effective performance.
• Better information retention. Participating in activities and exercises during meetings helps us better retain and use the information we learn. This means we spend less time giving and receiving reminders and guidance. Teams who hold review and/or retro meetings might find that their meetings end earlier and that their insights are more succinct.
• Higher morale and employee satisfaction and, therefore, lower turnover rate. We create a safer work environment when we build trust and better communication skills during these sessions. Employees also feel more motivated and eager to contribute to the organization’s shared mission, making their work feel more valuable.
• Problem-solving within teams. Team building allows for better problem-solving within cohorts and a decrease in unnecessary work for managers. When peers can collaborate to find a solution before taking the issue to management, managers can then invest that saved time into manners that need attention or even reinvest that time into team building.
• Innovation. When we become better team members and get excited to collaborate and innovate, we produce more creative and inspired ideas. This can be a huge asset for organizations in highly competitive or dense industries - your team can stay ahead of the curve.
• More adaptability/flexibility. Improving team dynamics leads to more positive attitudes toward obstacles. Teams learn to view obstacles as opportunities for growth.

Long-Term Team Building: How to Facilitate and Measure Results

Many managers are hesitant to begin team building sessions because of uncertainty. Will our efforts pay off or be wasted? Starting successful team-building initiatives requires a thoughtful process. To recognize the power and impact of our efforts, we can follow the following steps to customize our team-building opportunities to fit our team, our goals, and our organization’s needs:

1. Define: determine your goals and how you will measure them. What outcomes do you expect and strive for? Through team-building, do you intend to improve something or eliminate a negative workplace attribute?
2. Collect: gather all of the data from your team-building activities by utilizing project or team management tools, feedback, and/or observation.
3. Compare: analyze the relevant data that relate and give context to your goals. Compare the data to what you knew before your activities as well as industry standards.
4. Share: communicate your findings with your team, other leadership, and customers: whoever would benefit from knowing your newfound knowledge. 
5. Pivot: from the conversations with stakeholders and analysis of the data, determine what can be improved for the next round of team building to make it more impactful. Find ways to maximize your potential without investing more time and resources.
6. Repeat: host your new and improved team building session!

Final Thoughts

If you feel your meetings are lacking or your team is not in sync, it’s time to invest in team building or revamp your current team building efforts. Remember, any time and resources properly invested in your team and the relationships therein will produce results that boost your business in the long run. Working toward a positive work environment now will only grow with time as your team, well… builds.🙂

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Looking for team building activities for your team? GettaMeeting provides ready-made meetings with team building activities and thought-provoking questions included. Head here to browse the many modules ready to be downloaded for any event or meeting.

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