Why team-building exercises won’t make your staff more productive by Aytekin Tank
Common sense tells us that happy, collaborative teams are productive teams.
Research backs it up, too.
But when leaders or managers utter the words “team-building,” most people want to run for the nearest exit. Visions of cheesy bonding exercises and trust-building games can induce a collective bout of nausea.
Twelve years after launching JotForm, I’ve learned to take a different approach.
Instead of worrying about how to optimize our teams, I want to nurture them.
What do they need in order to thrive?
How can we help them to grow?
In essence, I think of our multi-functional teams as living, breathing beings.
Yes, they are a collection of diverse and talented individuals. But at their best, they also operate like a single body. And just like plants, animals and people, teams have several basic needs.
Some team-building exercises can be useful but they won’t make your team more productive unless you nurture these five basics:
Michael Sauers is the Director of Logan Library in Logan, UT. Prior to this he was one of the founding staff and Technology Manager for Do Space in Omaha, NE. After earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany's School of Information Science and Policy Michael spent his first 20 years as a librarian training other librarians in technology along with time as a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, a technology consultant, and a bookseller. He has written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and has published 14 books ranging from library technology, blogging, Web design, and an index to a popular horror magazine. In his spare time, he blogs at TravelinLibrarian.info, runs The Collector's Guide to Dean Koontz website at CollectingKoontz.com, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
Unless otherwise stated, all opinions are my own and are not to be considered those of the City of Logan, UT.
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