WHY TEAM BUILDING MATTERS FOR YOUR COMPANY: THE TOP 6 REASONS

Believe it or not, a good team building event can boost your balance sheet by improving productivity.

• “Team building events are the most important investment you’ll make in your business.”
• “You really need to care about team building in your organization.”
• “Team building is indispensable in improving productivity and creating a healthy work environment.”...

And so on.

You’ve doubtless heard bold statements and assertions like these umpteen times in various journeys through the online world.

And thought “Here we go…another events venue/event hosting company, that knows nothing about the nature of my firm or our work, trying to get me to make a booking with them”.

Such sentiments aren't uncommon, and the frustration stemming from ineffective motivational events.

It probably doesn’t help that for a lot of folks, quotes like “let’s do some team building” conjures up visions of The Office.

As a top escape room in Chicago, and having hosted team events for some of our city’s best known corporations,

We know some of the common objections and misconceptions people have about team building.

Which is why, in this blog post, we’re going to be pulling back the curtains and revealing why team building matters  for your company and what some of its top benefits are.

Why team building is crucial for your business

A good team building and team bonding exercise is a well-planned event that draws people in to participate, and motivates them to give their best.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a small business or a Fortune 500 corporation, it doesn’t matter which industry you’re in, and it doesn't matter whether you’re an in-person workplace or a virtual workplace. In fact, there are numerous reasons why small businesses should go for team-building activities.

Team building allows your people to relax, to bond and empathize with one another, and to develop the drive to work hard to make the team succeed. In fact, there are several compelling reasons why individuals should actively participate in such events.

From your POV, here are the top 6 reasons why team building matters for your company:

• Getting to know one another better

• Understanding each other

• Inspiring everyone to give their best

• A friendly competition

• Sparking innovation

• The killer instinct

Getting to know one another better

Socializing and making friends is one of the best ways to improve productivity at work. It removes friction between team members and enables them to coordinate their efforts better at achieving results. Moreover, taking the team event off-site can further enhance the bonding experience.

Morale improves, and any issues associated with “the new normal” vanish.

And a good team building event will bring team members closer together.

In fact, this socializing aspect of escape rooms is a key reason why I got into this business.

Understanding each other

Getting the members of your team to know one another better is only the first step. It’s also better that they understand each other better.

In other words, that they know and appreciate what the strengths and weaknesses, and likes and dislikes of the others are.

This brings a much-needed sense of realism into team efforts, as all the team members have a good idea of what each of them can accomplish. The team can now function better as one cohesive unit.

In fact, this increased understanding is one of the key advantages, as revealed in our blog post on the good and bad of escape room team building.

Improving communication among team members

A side benefit of team members building bonds with and understanding one another is better communication among them.

You see, one of the biggest obstacles to clear communication is people not being on the same page as one another.

However, if they’re close to each other, and empathize among themselves, they’re a,lot likelier to be straightforward with each other - the essence of good communication.

Inspiring everyone to give their best

Everyone understands one another, fine. What’s next?

It’s to inspire every single person on the team to give their absolute best at whatever their assignment or task is.

When everyone is putting their best foot forward, it sets the tone for a positive work culture. You see, they all have something unique to contribute, individually.

If you can encourage them to perform at the best, the entire team will be able to produce the best results possible.

In fact, this ties in neatly with the next reason why team building matters.

Team building insight: Inspiring every person on the team to contribute their best is a top reason why escape rooms are awesome team building activities.

A friendly competition

Workplace tensions and a race to not work as a team but show off one’s own caliber are disastrous for team dynamics.

HOWEVER

A friendly competition and a healthy competitive spirit among team members to contribute for the team is always welcome and improves results.

And this is where a well-planned team building event can be highly effective.

Say you’re playing escape games for your team building event.

Now if as part of that exercise, the various individuals on the team tried to earn bragging rights over who contributed the most to a successful escape - this is a good example of friendly competition that can actually improve productivity instead of wearing the team down.

Sparking innovation

Yeah, the magic word - innovation. That’s another reason why you should host team building exercises for your firm, especially ones that have proven to boost productivity.

Here’s the deal: in a formal workplace environment, people tend to be a bit unconfident about proposing out of the box ideas that haven’t been proposed before. Or have been rejected before, but in another context.

Whether it’s the fear of earning the boss’ ire or teammates’ ridicule, people tend to just clam up.

The fun and relaxed environment of a team building exercise on the other hand makes people at ease, and helps them open up on unconventional and innovative ideas.

Especially when bragging rights (remember we talked about those) are at stake, 

And when there’s a big incentive involved, to come out on top. If you’re wondering about that incentive bit, I’ll get to that in a minute.

Once the usual diffidence to open up melts away, you’ll find your employees more eager to speak up and bring creative ideas to the table.

The killer instinct

We’ve talked about a wide variety of reasons why team building matters so much, but we haven’t broached the key reason yet: the killer instinct. Or, as I referred to it just now - the incentive to win.

A well-planned and organized team event will offer participants a big incentive to win.

For example, in escape room team building, it’s the chance to beat the clock and win the game.

It’s the shot at glory that builds the killer instinct in players, pushing them to spot opportunities that others can’t.

Now, what do you think that does to the team’s overall performance?

The fact that an escape room can be used for a SWOT analysis of your team is cherry on the cake!

A final word: what you should look for in a team building event

Now that you know why team building matters for your company, the question you would be asking yourself is: how do I organize a team building event?

What features should I look for in the exercise to know that it’ll actually prove beneficial for the team?

Here’s the short answer: a team building event should be fun, it should effortlessly draw people in to participate (instead of you forcing them to), and it should give them opportunities to exercise their creativity, logical thinking, and build the killer instinct.

Escape room team building

Now here is where I’m going to go out on a limb and say that escape room games fit the bill to a T, which makes them one of the most effective kinds of team building activities.

Why?

Well, an escape room involves players working together to accomplish a mission within a given time (60 minutes).

To win, they must coordinate efforts to spot clues, solve puzzles and find their way forward.

A themed backstory and narrative, plus special effects setting up the environment give it all the features you’re looking for.

And if you're ever considering gifting such an experience, we offer gift certificates that can be a unique present for any occasion.

Banner image by Merakist on Unsplash.