What Types of Teambuilding Will Work for Your Team?

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Team members who work well together produce positive business results and enjoy themselves while working. Unfortunately, not all teams work well together - a fact that has sparked intense interest in techniques for improving teamwork effectiveness. Teambuilding refers to activities that improve the effectiveness of a team by building better working relationships, better understanding and alignment among members, improved communications, and improved trust. This article outlines the four most often employed methods of teambuilding and makes suggestions about when each method might be appropriate for a particular team that is having difficulties. There are four fundamentally different approaches to improving the level of teamwork in an organization. These are: 1. Personality-based teambuilding 2. Activity-based teambuilding 3. Skills-based teambuilding 4. Problem solving-based teambuilding Personality-based Teambuilding In personality-based teambuilding, members of the team fill out a personality questionnaire and then learn about their own personalities and the personalities of their fellow team members. The team then uses the results as a basis for discussion, developing action steps, and participating in various development experiences. The underlying rationale for this approach is that if team members better understand each other (such as differences in how team members perceive, make decisions, and react to events), they can then learn how to better communicate and deal with each other, thus enhancing team effectiveness. Activity-based Teambuilding In activity-based teambuilding, teams carry out challenging tasks, usually in outdoor settings (e.g., an experiential "ropes" course, or an outdoor adventure, such as white water rafting, mountain climbing, a survival course, or boot camp). These activities require groups to work together to

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