The Bells and whistles of team development

In teams, after reorganizations or other major changes, the sense of “we” is often lost, and communication suffers.

In “corona times” and increasingly virtual collaboration with teams distributed across different locations or home offices, collaboration has not become easier either. Some employees have never even seen each other in “real life.”

Managers are now required to work with their teams. Often, they consider take only the “hard facts”. Team actions that are fun are often not taken seriously.

But how can you trust someone you only know from work as a colleague? Someone with whom you have never laughed? How to value someone fully if their strengths are not visible? How to foster their potential in the best possible way?

Even more importantly, how to reveal one’s own weaknesses or faults if one does not trust oneself?

So, the “bells and whistles” of team tasks have method, justification and are essential for a constructive atmosphere with top results.

If you are planning a team workshop, take your time and think about how to multiply the hard facts with human factors.

Get support from an experienced facilitator. Maybe you have an internal HR or People & Culture department in your company. They´d probably be happy to provide professional support! Take advantage of their expertise. A well-conducted workshop is gold for team performance. Creating meaning and profitability can rarely be separated.

There is another decisive benefit for you: You don’t have to wear different hats all the time – as facilitator, leader and representative of your own interests. Instead, you can concentrate fully on your team and the content. And you also save resources. To professionally prepare a top workshop with team actions, you need to invest a few days of concentrated work.

In addition, an external facilitator offers impulses from outside and broadens your perspective, as well as that of your team.

If you´re sitting in the bottle, you can’t read the label. It is only via the questions from outside that you as a team can see what is written on the label.