November 20, 2009
How
Every employer should want to boost morale, improve communication between staff members and in the end increase productivity, so why don’t more organisations send their staff to team development events?
Maybe it’s because some of these events can suffer from the fact they evoke bad connotations – many connected to the humorous events depicted on TV shows?
Certainly, the wisdom of David Brent from TV’s “The Office” have forced middle management to look in the mirror and wonder if that’s who they reflect.
Amongst Brent’s many, now famous, quotes the one that best summarises his thinking about working as a team reads: “There may be no ‘I’ in team, but there’s a ‘ME’ if you look hard enough”.
If you watched the show, you may remember the excellent instalment in which a team development expert visited the Wernam Hogg offices. Brent quickly took control, and transformed the meeting into essentially a celebration of himself, including an interpretation of his seminal 1980s pop ballad “Free Love on the Freelove Freeway” on the guitar.
Yet, team development events in real life are never like the cringeworthy and destructive nightmare depicted in The Office.
Many companies across the country now offer business organisations the opportunity to take their staff out of the office and away on a team building day.
Team building allows employees to learn and develop the tools and skills necessary to push business growth plus sustain development and improvement.
And in spite of worldwide economies being in the midst of a recession, staff development remains crucial to the growth of a business. Actually, it is even more important, as when the recession stops there will certainly be chances for the best-managed businesses to take advantage of the developing marketplace.
Team development can take many different forms, from in-house teaching to getting out into the wilderness and taking part in adventure courses, high ropes trails and personal challenges – which will be sure to inspire and be memorable for staff members.
All these activities are fashioned to encourage staff – regardless of age or background – to work as part of a team for the common aim of your company, and they all contribute to the common long-term goals of your business.
That’s why team development events are crucial to the growth of any business. Just don’t follow the example of David Brent, whose hiring policy was straightforward: “Avoid employing unlucky people – throw half of the pile of CVs in the bin without reading them”.
Filed at 5:26 pm under Adventures, Self Improvement Center, Your Business
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