3 Common Teambuilding Approaches—And Why They Don’t Work

Over the many years I’ve spent helping teams strengthen trust with their customers and co-workers, I’ve discovered that typical approaches to enhancing teamwork not only don’t work—they’re often counterproductive.

Here are three common approaches to strengthening teamwork, and why you should take a different approach.

1) Forced socializing. Employers often assume that staff will build stronger bonds by getting to know each other better socially, so once or twice a year, they host a company picnic or seasonal dinner. But while these events may be great for social butterflies, they’re agony for introverts. At a forced social event, many people tend to sit with workplace friends so they don’t have to work so hard at small talk. Meanwhile, shy staff will be wondering how soon they can leave without being rude.

If your real goal is to reward employees, ask everyone if they’d prefer to either enjoy a company-provided pizza lunch several times a year or attend one fancy sit-down dinner in December. I guarantee pizza will win.

2) Obstacle courses. A more novel approach to enhancing teamwork is to take staff off site for a teambuilding event such as an obstacle course, paintball battleground or fire walk. The theory is that since the event will force employees to make group decisions under pressure, staff will take away lessons in group dynamics and overcoming obstacles.

The reality is that often, those lessons are overshadowed by the shame and resentment your employees feel for lacking physical prowess or appearing overly timid. Unless your business actually requires your staff to walk on hot coals at their jobs, exercises like these will have no bearing on whether the sales department blames the service department when customers have a complaint.

3) Sensitivity training. Courses that train employees on how to be more inclusive and more aware of how their words and actions may inadvertently offend others are indeed worthwhile, particularly when your business has suffered incidents of workplace bullying or harassment. What these courses don’t do, however, is reach the core of why certain employees don’t understand that their co-workers are in fact their internal customers—and treat them as such.

Trying to enhance teamwork is like trying to fall asleep: You can’t, and shouldn’t, force it. Teamwork is the natural byproduct of creating a culture that is obsessed with delighting customers. Devoted customers and reduced translates into better returns for everyone—including employees.

Jeff Mowatt is a customer service strategist, Hall of Fame speaker and bestselling author.