If you ever get lucky enough to be hiring people, make sure you’re hiring people that not only you can teach, but make sure you’re hiring people who are also going to teach you things.
Jeff Bezos, global business tycoon and Amazon CEO
Like Bezos, every leader has their ideal version of how their dream team should be. Some look for technical chops, some believe soft skills have more weight, some prioritize formal education, some look for candidates who are easy to work with, while some prefer people who question the status quo—the parameters are subjective.
Once you find the right person(s) for your organization, you must go the extra mile to help them assimilate into your team and retain them for the long haul. This is where the team-building process begins.
What Is Team Building?
Team building is an essential part of a company’s success. It refers to creating a cohesive group where individuals work together toward shared goals.
Its main purpose is to improve team performance, boost morale, and promote a positive working environment. When you focus on team-building strategies, you:
- Facilitate communication and collaboration in the workplace
- Enhance problem-solving and decision-making skills
- Build trust and mutual respect among team members
- Clarify roles and responsibilities
- Harbor a sense of belongingness
Creating a successful team heavily depends on the hiring system, the internal team culture, the leadership, and the team management process. But guess what? There’s a fun side to the strategy—team-building exercises.
From simple icebreakers to more complex problem-solving tasks, team-building activities can be of different types:
- Icebreakers to help team members get acquainted (and comfortable) with each other. For example, playing Two Truths and a Lie or Human Bingo
- Trust exercises to build confidence, trust, and camaraderie among team members. Activities such as Human Knot or Trust Fall are of this kind
- Problem-solving challenges that require team members to act as a unit. For example, Escape Room challenges or Scavenger Hunt
- Creative activities to break the monotony of everyday schedules and let the creative juices flow. For example, organizing art workshops or cooking classes
- Communication exercises to improve verbal and non-verbal communication skills. Some popular examples would be Back-to-Back Drawing or Blindfold challenge
Depending on your work setup (hybrid, remote, or on-site), you can arrange for indoor, outdoor, or virtual versions of fun team-building activities.
Also read: How to Effectively Set Team Goals: Examples and Strategies
Benefits of Team Building
As a manager, team lead, or HR professional, you can create a lasting impact on your work culture by arranging team-building activities.
Here are some of their benefits:
- Strengthen relationships: Team building activities help your team members connect on a personal level, making them more comfortable working together
- Facilitate better communication: Practice in informal settings improves how team members exchange ideas and feedback at work
- Develop problem-solving abilities: Working through challenges together hones your team’s skills for handling complex issues at work
- Promote empathy: A team-building event (Role Reversal, for instance) helps participants see things from others’ perspectives, leading to a better understanding of each other
- Enhance team unity: Shared experiences build a strong bond among teammates, making it easier to collaborate on projects and resolve conflicts respectfully
How to Build an Effective Team
Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating a team that sticks together through thick and thin:
1. Align your team with a clear purpose
According to a McKinsey study , the majority (82%) of employees feel that having a purpose is important, and 72% feel that purpose should receive more weightage than profits.
Here’s a roadmap to connect your team’s performance with the broader organizational goals:
- Define vision and goals: Articulate the team’s vision and goals and communicate them regularly. For example, you can start your monthly team meetings with a reminder of the organization’s mission and why you do what you do
- Set SMART goals: Create Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound goals that align with the team’s mission
- Link tasks to mission: Show how individual tasks and projects contribute to the broader mission or goal
A project and goal management tool like ClickUp can be a great resource here. Besides keeping your tasks organized, it establishes a clear relationship between individual efforts and project outcomes. The tool helps employees visualize how their work contributes to the grand scheme.
Let’s understand this with an example.
Assume you run a SaaS company, and your mission is to increase brand awareness and drive engagement through high-quality content. Your SMART goal can be to increase organic traffic to the blog by 20% in the next six months.
Now, you can use ClickUp Goals to break down the goal into smaller targets, such as keyword research, competitor analysis, creating content briefs, writing blogs, editing, publishing, and distributing them across social channels. Add assignees for the targets. All assignees can track their progress with a visual indicator.
Set goals, break them down into targets, and allow employees to stay on top of their progress with ClickUp Goals
2. Select the right people
Consider these three factors to choose the right set of people for your team:
Skills and expertise
Clearly define the technical or professional skills that are non-negotiables in a potential team member. Then, evaluate candidates based on those criteria.
For example, if you need a graphic designer, you’d ideally look for someone with a strong portfolio, proficiency in design software, and a good understanding of branding and aesthetics.
Attitude and temperament
Skills can be acquired, but attitude and temperament are often inherent traits. Look for individuals who are collaborative, open to feedback, and adaptable. These qualities ensure that your team members work well together, handle criticism constructively, and adjust to changes or unexpected challenges.
During the hiring process, you can ask behavioral questions to assess these traits. For instance, you can ask a candidate how they’ve handled specific situations, such as: ‘Tell me about a time when you worked with a team member who was not contributing effectively. How did you handle the situation, and what was the outcome?’
Culture fit
Analyze how well a candidate’s values, beliefs, and behaviors align with your team culture . This is important because culture fit can have a massive impact on job satisfaction, performance, and overall team cohesion.
For example, if your company emphasizes innovation and continuous improvement, you’ll want team members who are curious, proactive, and comfortable with change.
Diversity
Diversity in skills, backgrounds, and perspectives is the marker of a well-rounded team. A diverse team brings different viewpoints and experiences, promotes creativity of thought, and offers out-of-the-box solutions to critical problems.
To create a true melting pot,include individuals from different demographics, cultures, educational backgrounds, and professional experiences.
3. Offer a collaborative space
A strong team’s foundation is how effectively the team members exchange ideas, resolve conflicts, and combine their efforts to create something meaningful.
As a manager, you must offer a collaborative workspace that unifies cross-functional teams. It’s especially helpful for hybrid and remote teams where physical distance might create a disconnect.
ClickUp’s built-in features for real-time collaboration, async communication , feedback sharing, and centralizing vital project information bridge potential communication gaps and help build a winning team.
Here’s how your team can use ClickUp’s collaborative features:
- Work with team members in real-time, share/receive feedback async using comments, assign action items, turn texts into trackable tasks, and create a centralized information hub (to store project roadmaps, company wikis, and knowledge bases) with ClickUp Docs
Work with teammates on both synchronous or asynchronous modes with ClickUp Docs
- Skip unnecessary calls and long-winding comment threads that only create more confusion. Create a short screen recording using ClickUp Clips
Collaborate on ideas using ClickUp Whiteboards’ virtual canvas
- Organize ideas and tasks in a non-linear format, visualize relationships between concepts, decompose projects into individual tasks and subtasks, and create hierarchical structures with ClickUp Mind Maps In addition to these tools, you can access ClickUp’s vast library of free templates. You can customize the premade frameworks to simplify communication and team management:
ClickUp’s Team Communication and Meeting Matrix Template
Organize your meeting schedules, goals, and communication channels in a unified platform with ClickUp’s Team Communication and Meeting Matrix Template
Stay on track with who’s responsible for which tasks, set up communication channels (such as virtual meetings, email, or Whiteboard collaboration), schedule meetings, and outline meeting goals with ClickUp’s Team Communication and Meeting Matrix Template. It helps you:
- Optimize how team members share information among themselves
- Establish standard procedures for regular check-ins
- Prioritize essential tasks by setting communication goals
This is helpful for medium-to-large teams, where it’s challenging to monitor multiple communication channels, stakeholders, and competing priorities from a single touchpoint.
ClickUp’s Team Management Plan Template
Get a detailed overview of all the tasks and operations in your workflow with ClickUp’s Team Management Plan Template
Designed for cross-functional teams, ClickUp’s Team Management Plan Template helps you track ongoing tasks across departments and check their real-time progress.
Here’s how you can make the most of this framework:
- Assign tasks to team members
- Set time estimates for each task, assign due dates, and mark priorities
- Maintain a record of overall team performance, achievements, current concerns, and progress on commitments
- Get clarity on potential roadblocks and address them at once
Bonus: 25 Mind-Blowing Mind Map Examples for 2024
4. Address challenges quickly
Every team faces challenges at some point, but how you handle them can make all the difference. Create a work environment where team members feel comfortable addressing issues and obstacles. Encourage open communication so you can address problems before they escalate.
For example, if a team member is struggling with overlapping responsibilities, you can allocate additional resources. This way, you can take some tasks off their plate and stay on track with deadlines.
When conflicts or issues do arise, set up a straightforward process for resolving them. This could be as simple as being able to raise concerns via direct feedback to the manager/team lead or regular check-ins (daily/weekly standups) to discuss roadblocks.
5. Look after your employees’ wellbeing
You want to build a cohesive team that’s resilient and motivated to take on any challenge.
To give them that strength, you must prioritize each team member’s well-being:
- Encourage regular breaks to prevent burnout and health issues
- Offer adequate paid leaves to encourage rest and recharge
- Give access to support programs such as counseling services, wellness programs, or mindfulness training and help them take care of their mental health
- Set realistic expectations and allow flexible work schedules (whenever possible) to promote a healthy work-life balance
Best Practices for Team Building
Here are some of the ways that you can contribute to efficient team building:
1. Recognize efforts and achievements
According to SurveyMonkey, 82% of employees consider recognition an important part of happiness at work. Acknowledging hard work increases morale, motivates team members, improves retention rates, and strengthens your team.
Here’s how you can implement this practice in your workplace:
- Celebrate milestones: It could be as simple as a shout-out during meetings, cash bonuses, or a grand party for reaching a project milestone
- Recognition programs: Establish programs such as ‘Employee of the Month’ or ‘Team Player Awards’ to recognize exceptional efforts formally. Use employee recognition toolsto streamline the process of identifying and appreciating team members
For example, known for stellar customer service, Zappos, the Amazon subsidiary, has mastered peer-to-peer recognition . As part of the Zollar program, Zappos team members earn play money by volunteering, which they can use to purchase items from the Zollar Store.
2. Create a sense of belongingness BetterUp’s research found that workplace belonging leads to a 56% increase in job performance and reduces turnover risk by 50%.
So, when team members feel they are an important part of the organization and that their contributions matter, they feel happier, more committed to their roles, and less likely to leave.
Here are some tips to create a close-knit community at your workplace:
- Inclusive culture: Create an inclusive environment—organize team-building activities such as group workshops, team lunches, or even a short trip and encourage everyone to participate
- Onboarding process: Design an onboarding process that helps new hires integrate smoothly and feel welcomed. For example, you can assign a mentor or buddy to ease them into the workplace and role during their first few weeks
- Open communication: Set up transparent communication strategies , companies with strong learning cultures experience higher retention (57%) than companies with moderate learning cultures (27%).
Here’s how you can create a strong L&D practice:
- Create a development plan: Help team members set personal development goals and the skills/resources they need to attain them
- Offer training and education: Host internal workshops on relevant topics and also encourage team members to take up external courses or certifications. Allocate time for professional development during billable hours to incentivize learning
Also read: 10 Team Building Apps & Software for Remote Teams in 2024
Examples of Popular Team-Building Activities for Work
Let’s dive into some creative corporate team-building activities to help your teammates get well-acquainted with each other and make work fun!
1. Virtual Escape Room
Objectives: Improve team collaboration , problem-solving, and communication skills among team members.
Setup: Use an online platform that offers virtual escape rooms (e.g., The Escape Game) or create a personalized room using interactive media creation platforms (e.g., ThingLink).
How to play:
1. Group participants (ideally 4-6 members per team)
2. Introduce the scenario or theme of the virtual escape room (e.g., solving a mystery or escaping a haunted house)
3. Provide access to the virtual room or share the documents containing clues, puzzles, and challenges
4. Team members have to work together to solve puzzles, find hidden clues, and complete tasks within a specified time limit (usually 30-60 minutes)
5. Encourage them to communicate effectively, assign roles (such as note-taker and puzzle solver), and collaborate to progress through the challenges
6. Organize discussions and debrief after the game to discuss strategies, group dynamics, and individual contributions
2. Two Truths and a Lie
Objectives: Build rapport, encourage conversations among team members, break the ice, and improve employee engagement.
Setup: Gather all participants in a virtual meeting room or physical space and ask each participant to think of two truths and one lie about themselves.
How to play:
1. Explain the rules—each participant takes turns sharing their three statements (in any order)
2. After each member shares the three statements, the rest of the team discusses and guesses which statement is the lie
3. Once everyone has guessed, the participant reveals the lie and shares the truth behind each statement.
4. Rotate turns until all participants have shared
3. Scavenger Hunt
Objective: Promote teamwork, problem-solving, and creativity.
Setup:
- Prepare a list of items or tasks for teams to find or complete—be creative!
- Determine the boundaries or area where the scavenger hunt will take place
How to play:
1. Divide participants into teams of 3-5 members
2. Distribute the scavenger hunt list to each team
3. Set a time limit for teams to complete the hunt (usually 30-60 minutes)
4. Teammates have to work together to find the items or complete the tasks on the list
5. Teams can use communication tools (such as walkie-talkies or messaging apps) to coordinate and report progress
6. After the time limit expires, gather all teams and review their findings. Award points based on the highest number of tasks completed or items found
4. All Tied Up
Objective: Develop teamwork, communication, and leadership skills through a physical problem-solving challenge.
Setup:
- Gather team members in a physical location
- Divide them into small groups of 2-4 people
How to play:
1. Tie up the hands of team members with each other using a string
2. Give them a goal to accomplish while maintaining their physical connection. It can be completing a board game or puzzle or performing tasks such as making a sandwich or tying shoes
3. The team that completes the task in the shortest time wins
5. Talent Show
Objective: Encourage creativity and self-expression and find out hidden talents.
Setup:
- Decide the time and venue (virtual or physical) for the talent show
- Invite participants to prepare for acts to showcase
How to play:
1. Invite each team member to showcase their talent. It could be anything from dancing, singing, painting, poetry writing, story writing, storytelling, rapping, and more
2. You can also turn the event into a friendly competition and invite judges to evaluate the performances
3. Give awards or mementos to each participant
💡 Pro tip: The next time you organize team-building games (virtual or in-person), use ClickUp’s Event Management Software . Facilitate everything from planning and collaboration to execution, and take the extra loads off your shoulders!
Start Building Your A-Team with ClickUp
Your network is your net worth, and your team is your strength. Your network or connections might bring you leads, but your team nurtures and sustains those leads with high-quality deliverables. So, it’s a wise business decision to invest your time, effort, and resources into team building.
And guess what? Building strong team dynamics is easier when you have the right technology in your stack.
With a comprehensive project and work management platform such as ClickUp, you can strengthen your team members to collaborate the way they want, share ideas, track progress, focus on their personal growth, and so much more.
Shape the team of your dreams— get started with ClickUp today !