Team building training is crucial to ensure successful teamwork. Team members get incredibly frustrated and disengaged when teams perform poorly. However, eight proven practices for team training can result in successful, highly productive teams.
Successful businesses and organizations depend on highly performing teams. But building a high-performing team is not an easy task. It requires effort, commitment, and implementing effective team building practices. Unfortunately, many teams struggle to find the right balance, and the entire organization ends up facing challenges.
Do you want to create a successful team that achieves exceptional results? If so, our eight productive practices for team building are the answer. By adopting the right practices, you can foster collaboration, communication, and trust among team members.
This article outlines the eight productive practices that can help your teams achieve success. It provides practical tips and strategies for effective communication, collaboration, and problem-solving within a team setting.
Whether you are a team leader or a team member, you will find valuable insights on enhancing productivity and achieving team goals.
What is Team Building Training?
Team building training is a structured process to improve teamwork. It focuses on helping individuals collaborate as an effective and cohesive team. Team building training aims to enhance communication, collaboration, trust, and problem-solving skills among team members. Ultimately, this leads to better teamwork and increased productivity.
Team building training typically involves engaging in various activities, exercises, and workshops. Team exercises encourage team members to interact, learn from each other, and develop a deeper understanding of each other’s strengths and weaknesses. These team building activities are beneficial because they train members in a relaxed atmosphere.
Why Are Team Building Exercises Important?
Team building activities are vital because they help create and maintain stronger teams and improve team dynamics. These activities provide a safe environment where team members learn the following soft skills:
- Trust each other
- Improve team communication skills
- Stronger collaboration
- Better problem-solving strategies
- Reliance on other team members
- Build mutual trust and respect
- Increase employee engagement
- Identify, develop, and nurture leadership skills
- Increase team synergy
Team building activities encourage creativity and innovation by allowing team members to explore new ideas. Therefore, the benefits of team building training courses are a greater commitment to achieving organizational goals.
Effective Team Building Skills to Enhance Teamwork
Putting a group of people together doesn’t make a team. The same as putting a group of musicians in a studio doesn’t create an orchestra. Therefore, certain skills are necessary for teams to function as a cohesive group, working toward a common goal.
Therefore, the best practices for team building training should focus on developing the following skills:
- Leaders who are understanding, empathetic, and motivating
- Identifying achievable objectives
- Instilling a sense of accountability so that individual team members take responsibility
- Helping team members to feel a sense of camaraderie
- Boosting morale and motivation by recognizing and celebrating a team’s achievements
So, creating a cohesive team that performs well is only achieved by having a team building strategy that focuses on essential practices for strong teamwork.
Eight Team Building Training Practices for High-Performing Teams
Training practices for high-performing teams encompass a holistic approach. They must emphasize proactive action, planning, and prioritizing goals. Also, it’s vital to train team members to communicate, collaborate, and develop mutual trust. Ultimately, the aim is to produce a harmonious, productive team that consistently achieves its goals.
At FullTilt Team Development, we have identified eight common practices in all high-performing teams. This knowledge has helped us develop specific team building training courses to help your organization achieve its goals.
1. Proactive action
Proactive action is crucial because it prevents potentially damaging issues from negatively impacting teamwork. For example, it can help identify and address potential issues before they escalate into major problems. By anticipating challenges and taking steps to mitigate them early, teams can avoid disruptions and maintain their momentum.
Here are some other ways team building training can help teams work proactively:
- Adapt to changing circumstances because they have already anticipated various scenarios and devised contingency plans.
- Improve efficiency so team members can focus their efforts on high-priority tasks.
- Increase innovation because team members feel free to suggest improvements and fresh ideas.
- Enhance team morale that creates engaged, passionate employees. This, in turn, contributes to higher job satisfaction and retention rates.
2. Planning
Planning is a vital practice common to all high-performing teams. Well-thought-out planning gives teams goal clarity and prevents them from wasting time and resources on irrelevant tasks. It also allows teams to allocate sufficient resources to achieve goals most efficiently.
Other reasons why planning is vital include the following:
- Planning helps teams set realistic timelines for tasks and projects.
- Planning prevents overloading team members with work and minimizes last-minute rushes, reducing stress and improving work-life balance.
- A planning strategy allows teams to identify areas to improve efficiency and eliminate unnecessary processes.
- Clear plans include defined milestones and deadlines, making it easier to hold team members accountable for their contributions.
- Planning involves periodic reviews and assessments of progress.
- High-performing teams can better use insights to improve their processes and performance continuously.
3. Prioritizing
High-performing teams realize the importance of setting priorities. This enables them to effectively allocate their time, resources, and energy to focus on the most important tasks and goals.
Here are several reasons why prioritizing is crucial for such teams:
- Prioritization ensures that team members are aligned with the team’s common goals and objectives.
- Prioritizing tasks ensures team members manage their time effectively and only focus on high-priority items.
- By prioritizing goals, high-performing teams often handle complex projects without becoming overwhelmed.
- Setting proper priorities ensures that teams can dedicate time and attention to critical tasks.
Prioritizing helps teams perform better because they can achieve higher-quality outcomes and ensure quality.
4. Sharing success
As the adage goes, there is no “I” in teams. And high-performing teams realize the importance of sharing success. Even though a few members may make significant contributions to the success, teamwork depends on the combined efforts of all members.
Here are a few ways that team building training helps teach team members the importance of sharing success:
- Celebrating and sharing success energizes and motivates the entire team, resulting in a sense of accomplishment, pride, and purpose
- Sharing success fosters a sense of unity and camaraderie among team members.
- Celebrating success reinforces the idea that everyone’s contributions matter and the team’s collective efforts lead to success.
- Developing an environment that celebrates success, which positively fosters employee engagement.
- Success-sharing builds confidence among team members. It demonstrates that they have the skills and capabilities to achieve their goals, instilling self-assurance that fuels future success.
Sharing success is a fundamental practice for high-performing teams. It nurtures motivation, strengthens team dynamics, and encourages learning. This results in a positive company culture.
5. Communicating
Good communication is the lifeblood of successful teams. When team members learn the importance of verbal and non-verbal communication, teamwork flourishes. Additionally, good communication skills learned through team building courses ensure the entire team is “on the same page.”
Here are several key reasons why effective communication is essential for high-performing teamwork:
- Clear communication ensures all team members understand the team’s goals, objectives, and priorities.
- Effective communication helps coordinate tasks and delegate responsibilities among team members.
- Learning how to communicate effectively prevents misunderstandings.
- High-performing teams solve complex problems easier when they have strong communication skills.
- Good communication enables team members to share insights, brainstorm ideas, and collaborate on effective solutions.
- Effective communication allows team members to address conflicts openly and constructively.
- Communication facilitates a continuous feedback loop within the team. This helps team members improve their performance.
Related reading: The benefits of the Mandala Leadership Challenge course.
6. Cooperating
Team members must learn to cooperate effectively to perform to a high standard. This is because it fosters a collaborative and synergistic environment, enabling teams to achieve goals more effectively and efficiently.
Here are several key reasons why cooperation is essential for improving team performance:
- High-performing teams often consist of individuals with diverse backgrounds, skills, and expertise. Cooperation allows them to pool their knowledge and abilities.
- Cooperation makes it possible to tackle complex challenges.
- Cooperation encourages open dialogue and the sharing of ideas. This leads to more innovative and effective problem-solving approaches.
- Cooperation leads to well-informed decision-making. Team members can weigh various perspectives, consider potential consequences, and make better decisions.
- Learning to cooperate in team building training courses creates a supportive environment.
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High-performing teams learn how to cooperate because it maximizes their collective potential. This enhances problem-solving, improves productivity, and fosters a positive and collaborative work environment.
7. Practicing success
Practicing success involves implementing practices to achieve success in small and major areas. It requires “putting into practice” lessons learned in team building exercises. This type of corporate mentality reinforces a company culture of excellence, strong team spirit, continuous improvement, and sustained achievement.
Here are several key reasons why practicing success is essential for such teams:
- Team members learn to reflect on what went well and identify best practices for greater success.
- Teams that practice success focus on reinforcing positive behaviors and strategies that contribute to their achievements.
- By regularly revisiting and celebrating past successes, team members feel more motivated. This fuels their drive for future success.
- Practicing success allows teams to establish benchmarks and performance standards based on their past achievements.
8. Trust and mutual respect
Trust is vital in teamwork because it fosters a sense of security. This environment allows everyone in the team to share their ideas, concerns, and feedback without fear of judgment or reprisal. Ultimately, trust creates a cohesive and supportive team environment.
Here are more reasons why fostering trust can help to improve team effectiveness and strengthen team skills:
- Trust and respect create an environment where fellow team members feel safe to express their ideas, concerns, and feedback.
- Building trust and respect enables team members to address conflicts constructively, seeking solutions rather than escalating disputes.
- Team building training develops team skills so everyone can value the contributions of others in the team.
- Members of high-performing teams that trust each other are willing to take calculated risks. They know that team members will support bold decisions.
- Teams where trust and respect are prevalent benefit from more innovative thinking.
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When team members trust that their ideas will be considered respectfully, they are more likely to propose creative solutions and approaches.
Related reading: What is Clear and Productive (CAP) Feedback?
Team Building Training and Practices for Highly-Motivated Teams
Do you want to ensure your teams are highly motivated and engaged with company culture? If so, team building training is crucial. A program of focused team activities can facilitate continuous learning and address all aspects of team culture.
Contact FullTilt Team Development today to develop a team building training strategy and help your teams reach their full potential.
Our experienced team of professionals has the expertise, critical skills, and resources needed to create an effective and successful program tailored to your company’s needs. With our help, you can create a positive and supportive environment for team collaboration, leading to more productive and successful teamwork.