It can often be difficult to get a disparate group of people to get along and truly pull in the same direction. The larger a business or organization you are dealing with, the more difficult this becomes.
Part of building a good team, or a network of smaller teams for larger companies is recognizing the best spot for your employees, finding the natural leaders within a group, and discerning the strengths and weaknesses of all your employees.
This will allow you to build a stronger organization, and it can help you make sure the employees themselves feel valued, and more importantly feel that they are an important part of the team. This will motivate employees to give their best efforts as well.
One of the biggest hurdles in making more cohesive teams is understanding how communication either works or does not work. People are not usually trying to be unproductive, but many times they may not have the clearest understanding of exactly what is expected of them, or where their actions fit into the overall efforts of the organization.
Developing clear lines of communication and making sure everyone understands exactly what is required of them is essential if you expect to get your employees to perform at their peak efficiency. The more complex the business is, the more important this becomes. For large projects with many moving parts, cohesive teams and good lines of communication may be the difference between the success and failure of a project.
Getting your workforce to its peak efficiency also has a few different components – the first is recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of the individuals within your organization, and from that determining where they fit best within the company.
The second is the day to day attitude of the company and the managers – many great companies have failed because of poor management, and a bad manager can negatively affect a large number of people, even those outside that manager’s own team.
The next step in realizing the workforces peak efficiency are special occasions, usually outside of the traditional work place. These can include group weekend getaways for employees and their families, company picnics or dinners and other parties and celebrations.
A trip to the local amusement park is always appreciated by families, and activities like these can also be opportunities to introduce team building and communication and cooperation exercises in a completely organic way.
For instance, a trip to the amusement park or to a nature park for a picnic can be a natural place to introduce games that can take place throughout the day – the scavenger hunt is perfect for this type of environment, and is a valuable game for building team cohesion, cooperation and communication.
This is because in scavenger hunts, especially those which are organized around small teams, can require planning and cooperation to achieve all the objectives. This takes place over several different stages and allows you to observe how your people operate in this environment.
Scavenger hunts can be used in a variety of ways, with goals tailored especially for your circumstances and are only pone of the many effective ways of building team trust and cooperation. The important part is to take the need to do this seriously – make your company the best it can be by making the people within it be the best they can be.
The author has been in and written about business, both retail and manufacturing, and has seen the value of Scavenger Hunts and other team building techniques.
The scavenger hunt is a great game for building cooperation and having a great time – it can work for large groups or small, and be tailored to your specific needs.
