Creative Team Building Ideas at Work (Feb 2020)

First up today, team building often gets a bad rap. Most people either think of those trust falls or other lame games to get to know your co workers. But our next guest says it is time to rethink team building.

That's right. Beth Ridley is on a mission to build positive leaders, teams, and work culture. She used to work in corporate America, so she's a recovering corporate America employee. And she now owns a consulting business called A Brimful Life. We're happy to have you here.

Hi, ladies.

Good morning.

Do you think it's Wednesday? Wednesday.

Thank you.

Whatever day it is, do people sort of roll their eyes when you even say team building?

Totally. And the office TV show does not help because people think of being forced to do, like, really embarrassing games and stuff like that. Like the trust fall and then no one cares for.

Sure.

You never live it down. So. Yeah, yeah.

But there is a real purpose to it, isn't there?

Oh, yeah. Team building is really important. I mean, it's all about building personal relationships and trust. And when you have that, I mean, it leads to better communication and collaboration work overall, better work experience. When people trust each other, they're able to be themselves and share good ideas. That leads to creativity and innovation. So there is a real purpose if it's done well. Yeah.

And those benefits really do. They really do matter.

They do.

And so even if people think it's lame, it's not lame.

It's not lame. And I think there's ways to do it so that it's not lame and actually has the benefit that you want. I think the most important thing is not make it corporate. Y Right. So if you're always trying to, like, weave in a leadership insight or like a take away from work, people see through that. It's just not fun. And it detracts from the real mission of just spending time and enjoying each other's company to get to know one another.

Because stronger teams seem like they're going to have a lot more success at work. So it's obvious that it gets a bad rap and there's probably a good reason. What are things that you think are important to keep in mind as you go about team building and if you want to have a positive impact.

Yeah. One of the most important things I think to do is to try to do something that's new for everyone together. So when you step outside of your comfort zone, it's a great way to learn and grow, also to have fun. But, you know, that really creates a meaningful bonding experience. So whenever you can think of Something like maybe taking a class together, you know, learning to juggle or taking a cooking class or an improv class. You know, you kind of step outside of your comfort zone together. You're having fun, but you're growing from it and bonding together as well.

I think it's interesting you say it's not one and done like this is. This needs to be an ongoing thing.

Yeah, I don't think you're gonna get the benefits if you do it just like once a year or twice a year. So they're really easy ways to integrate team building into the regular workday. That's also really nice for people that have family obligations after work and they can't do like the regular happy hour things after work. So if you can even do things like maybe take one or two minutes at the end of every meeting to let someone share about their hobbies or family traditions or maybe cultural traditions or something like that, that helps to create team building. You can plan a fun lunch once a month, order in pizza and break out a board game. These don't have to be big, elaborate or expensive things, but the more that you can sort of integrate them into the workday, the better.

And I think that's less stressful for people too, if you're doing it during the workday rather than expecting people to give some of their free time or family time to promote better working relations, which that is stressful.

Like feeling like, oh, I have to get to this happy hour, otherwise my boss will upset with me. That alone is stressful and doesn't really add to the spirit of team building. But everybody has to eat lunch at some point or take like, you know, a 15 minute coffee break. Those are easy to do and really meaningful.

What if you have a virtual team? I've got a lot of friends that work from home. They're not necessarily going into an office. Some of them feel like they have really strong bonds with their co workers. But how do you do that?

Virtually even more important, because so many people now work remotely or have total virtual teams. And when you're not face to face, you have to work a little bit extra hard to build that team building. Anything that you can do that incorporates video I think is really nice. So to be able to see someone. Someone gave me a really fun idea of a home show and tell. So everybody takes a turn.

Like a tour?

Yes, a tour on your phone, or like a walking tour on Zoom or something like that. To see someone's home. So isn't that fun? You sort of get to see where someone works. And you can learn a lot about seeing someone's kitchen, for sure.

Like you got to clean it, you got to tidy it up.

That's exactly right. Or just taking a 15 minute coffee break where all the virtual team comes together and they share a fun photo. Maybe like a funny pet picture or a best vacation. Just little things like that. If you're intentional about it, you can definitely build relationships virtually.

I always laugh at people who work from home and they do these virtual meetings because they get ready on top.

They're only dressed from here up.

And then they always have like.

Now that could be good teamwork. Yes. Like what's actually happening on the bottom or not. Right. You could go too far.

Yeah. But I think understanding is so key and I think getting to know people is something that most people want to do just in life. And I think getting to know your co workers, you're a little bit more understanding sometimes with people and you kind of know where they're coming from.

Yeah, totally. I mean, building meaningful relationships with people is a critical important of life and it gives our work joy and meaning and purpose. So why should we overlook that? Yeah.

And we spend so much time at work.

You spend a lot of time to.

Have joy, meaning and purpose is a great thing at work. That's good stuff.

Well, I know people can find out more ideas about team building and everything about about you at your website, which is the brimful life. So thank you so much for being here, Beth.

Great.

Thank you so much.

Love it.