I found Sam Stall’s Oct. 3 article misleading. “Team-building exercises remain popular, but do they work?” failed to make the critical distinction between building a high-performing team and facilitating a single team-building activity.
When properly designed, a team-building activity allows participants to experience one aspect of team dynamics that will benefit that specific group. On the flip side, building a high-performing team is a continual process that requires a lot of work, needs to evolve based on the team members and is always challenged when the business climate changes. Organizations must understand the distinction in order to set appropriate expectations.
When building a high-performing team, you should expect strong leadership, clearly defined roles for all team members, active support of a common focus, a high level of trust among team members, shared consequences, continuous communication and more. It’s foolish to expect that these characteristics can be built in one activity.
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Jennifer Rufatto
consultant, FlashPoint Human Resources Consulting
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