Employee Team Building Exercise - a Worthy Organizational Goal to Pursue

Employee team building is an organizational goal. Every employer aims at having a dream team but in real life few succeed. If you are an employer working with good teams, teams that are successful, teams you are proud of, you are indeed in a select club. Good teams understand the organizational expectations and are clear about their goals and objectives. The organization understands the importance of good team and is ready with the support the teams may require in terms of time and resource allocation etc. Top management must constantly be in the loop.Employee team building process requires that expectations from the teams should be clearly conveyed to each of the team member. Each team member is deemed responsible for achieving the team goals. There should be high level of commitment and understanding among the teammates. Each one is assigned their individual roles but each one together is held responsible if the target is missed and goals remain unachieved. There should be absolute clarity in the designation of roles and there should not be any overlapping of authority. Everyone wins together and loses together. In a team, it is not about individual aspirations, it is all about individual aspirations woven into organizational aspirations.Is it really worth putting one's effort into building teams? Practically there is plenty of scope for things to go wrong and they do. A consistent and focused approach by all the team members to stay committed to the team efforts is needed to keep it all together and in ship-shape. Employee team building exercises needs frank discussions and open communication. On paper it all looks simple but when one executes the plan, it is normally seen that problems that lead to complications generally stem from lack of proper communication. Trust is a very essential ingredient in keeping team-mates together. Team building exercises can help develop trust and encourage bonding. All interpersonal issues should be resolved at the earliest. All concerns should be readily addressed.Are the efforts of the teams coordinated by a central leadership to ensure that they achieve the goals? Do the teams you manage have freedom to fail and thus learn? Do you encourage new ideas? Do you need a horizontal structure of teams to accomplish your goals or the vertical structure with layers of hierarchies suit your purpose. Can you stomach setbacks and failures encountered by your team with grace? Have your teams been given the framework of time and allocated resources to work within? What is the accepted level of risk taking capacity in the organization? Do you have the right reward system that acknowledges not just team efforts but also individual contribution? All these questions need to be answered honestly. Effective employee team building process involves all these dimensions and more.Employee Team building process thus is exhaustive and never-ending. It has its teething trouble phase and angst ridden growing up years, but if you eventually succeed in building teams, the pay off will be worth the pain.