Working as a team is an important part of life whether it is
a team within your organization or working together as a family team with your
spouse and children. There will always be ways to improve and strategies that
can be employed that will help make the team more cohesive. EcoSeagate has
developed an approach for its teams which involves traveling to an off site
location and competing against each other in events that encourage teamwork
(Brown, 2011). While I was impressed with the concept, several things occurred
to me. First, Brown (2011) mentions that the participants have all applied to
go through this process. Being that it is largely a physical challenge, this
may deter some people from wanting to participate. Once the participant is
there, the team provides support and encouragement; however, if an individual
is worried about the physical challenges this team building exercise includes,
he/she will never reap the benefits. In the videos, the participants looked as
though they were having a good time. I was not clear as to what team building
strategies were offered to the participants ahead of time. I noticed that there
were individuals helping others cross something akin to a tightrope and others
carrying bikes for their teammates but I wondered if this was happening
spontaneously….because it is natural to want to help others we see in distress.
Many of the tasks seemed as though they were individual tasks, like biking,
rather than team related.
I also think that while this looks like a lot of fun,
knowing that it comes with a price tag of $2 million and there have been no
measurable results up to this point, I am not sure it is worth it (Brown,
2011). Employees have to return to work with a new sense of invigoration. It
happened to me when I was teaching high school and would go off to a workshop
on some new concept. I would be excited to return to work to try what I had
learned. I feel the same way now when I return from department retreats or the
Worldwide Conference…motivated to do something better or different than before
I went. With this in mind, if the members are not working any better in teams
than when they left, then is the goal being achieved? It would seem not. It is
difficult to have teams where some of the members have been to one of these
team building excursions and others have not and do not see the point of
actually working on building a cohesive team prior to getting started on goal
accomplishment. There have to be better and more cost-effective ways of team
building that using an outdoor lab in the manner that EcoSeagate does.
While teams are a natural part of life to varying degrees
for many of us that does not automatically mean that we are going to be good at
working with others. Because of that, it is essential that high-performing
organizations offer some type of training and experiences for their employees.
These experiences have to be ongoing and allow members to work with different
people each time. Organizations that spend a reasonable amount of time and
money on such activities will reap the benefits because teams will be more
focused and utilize each others’ strengths and compensate for weaknesses more
effectively.
My organization thrives on teamwork; therefore, training
focused on team building activities and strategies would definitely be helpful.
This is not something that is currently being focused on in my organization but
it could benefit us in so many ways. The extent of team building activities that
have been incorporated recently was at the WW Conference where we had to work
together to complete a series of events culminating with the building of a
tower that would support a cup of M&Ms. This was not a successful activity
in my opinion for many reasons. It could have been beneficial to all in the
group had we been given some guidance and strategies to employ (consciously)
ahead of time.
Brown , D. (2011). An experential approach to
organizational development. (8th ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Chao, M. (2008). Eco
Seagate 2008 1/3 [Web Video]. Retrieved from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCOfOFMiLtE&feature=youtu.be
Chao, M. (2008). Eco Seagate 2008 2/3 [Print Photo].
Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Etwuap-_Azk&feature=youtu.be
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