Team Building Trends – What’s Ahead for 2013
As companies formulate their plans for 2013, the good news is that team building is re-appearing on the corporate agenda. (In some cases, team building initiatives were placed in a holding pattern after the Wall Street meltdown in September, 2008.) What lies ahead? Savvy CEOs realize that team building can be a powerful arrow in their quiver as they attempt to hit key corporate targets and corporate objectives.
Team Building Benefits
Some of the benefits of expertly facilitated team building include:
- Communicating changes in strategic direction, rolling out new initiatives and winning team support.
- Brainstorming ideas for new products, services, target markets, and sources of revenue.
- An opportunity to bring the team together and generate solutions to business challenges.
- Breaking down silos and promoting cross-functional teamwork.
- Removing bottlenecks.
- Resolving conflicts.
Team Building Trends to be Embraced
To realize these benefits, companies should examine the following team building trends and consider incorporating them into their plans for 2013.
- 1. Team building with business-related projects tied to achieving specific business objectives.
Examples: Visexecutaries: Seizing Opportunities in Our Shifting Corporate Landscape - 2. Facilitated, on-site team building to address live issues during business meetings
Examples: Executive Consulting and Facilitation, 7 Steps to High Performance Teams - 3. Team Building That Gives Back to the Community.
Example: Team Building with Toys - 4. Reality TV inspired themes to boost the “fun factor” and bridge team building to the real world of business
Examples: Restaurant Inc., Survivor Inspired Team Building, Visexecutaries: Seizing Opportunities in Our Shifting Corporate Landscape
5. Team Building Incorporating Outdoor Activities to Inspire Out of the Box Thinking
- Example: Survivor Inspired Team Building
6. Technology driven team building to challenge technical teams.
- Examples: The Quest for Black Gold, Exercises with social media clues, iPads, Foursquare check-ins
Team Building Trends That Need to Be Reversed
Unfortunately, not all team building trends have been positive. Companies need to take immediate steps to reverse the following trends that have been undermining the effectiveness of team building in recent years.
- 7. Using recreational events or extreme activities as a substitute for real team building.
- 8. Squeezing team building into tighter and tighter timeframes.
- 9. Delegating the responsibility for planning team building initiatives to inexperienced team members.
- 10. Cutting short the amount of time allocated to debriefing and business application exercises.
By eliminating negative trends and focusing on trends that use innovative approaches to address bottom line issues, companies can get a lot more bang for their team building buck in 2013.
Visit Executive Oasis International Website
Now that you have sampled our innovative team building approaches through this blog, we hope that you will keep Executive Oasis International in mind the next time your company requires team building, an executive retreat or on-site consulting to boost the effectiveness of your teams.
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