But there is not one single company operating today that can hope to be successful without a functioning level of teamwork. In this digital age, where there is much talk of agile teams and "new work", there is a decisive role to be played by the interaction between different characters within a company. A strong team spirit has been proven to lead to increased productivity, greater levels of motivation - and less sick leave!
Senior managers and leaders must possess the ability to assemble efficient teams and manage them effectively. Team events can be of great help when it comes to achieving this aim and help people to get to know each other better outside of the daily work routine. But not all of these events are created equal - and not all of them achieve their full potential. When it comes to organising team events, the following five typical mistakes are often made.
Mistake number 1: No clear objective
What exactly is it that you want your team event to achieve? Where do the team's shortcomings currently lie? Think carefully about whether you want to focus more on
- intensive socialising between team members to foster team spirit and motivation,
- working together to solve complex problems,
- professional development, further training and learning skills such as critical ability, conflict management, communication and efficient cooperation
- or creating a shared sense of achievement throughout the team with, outdoor activities or sporting events, for example.
Tip: Have your team members known each other for a long time already? Then outdoor activities, such as raft building, a digital scavenger hunt or a "geo challenge", are the perfect way for team members to get together and cooperate in a completely different context than they are used to. These sorts of activities help defuse tensions and frictions between individual team members.
Mistake number 2: Insufficient communication
Right from the word go, make sure you involve your employees on the road to creating your successful team event. Keep a couple of surprises up your sleeve, but also bear in mind that your team members should, at the earliest possible opportunity, be included in the planning, preparation and running of the team event.
Involving team members in the organisational process helps to keep a number of issues at bay, namely discontent, lack of motivation and rejection of the team event before it has even begun.
Tip: Set up a microsite on the intranet in the run-up to your team event. This ensures every employee can always keep abreast of the basics (where? when? what? how do I get there? etc.).
Mistake number 3: Poor planning
A team event cannot just be planned on the hoof. It requires intensive preparation and clear delegation of responsibilities when on site at the event. It often makes sense to involve an external agency or seek external consultation.
These specialists boast the necessary experience for executing the team event in a way that goes above and beyond its aims and objectives. It also helps to incorporate an outside, neutral perspective of your own company and team.
On our website, you will find an overview of experienced partner agencies in the Salzburg area. These agencies can work with you to implement team events and associated support programmes.
Tip: Good planning starts as early as the scheduling stage. With the help of a Doodle survey, you can quickly pinpoint a time and date that suits the majority of your employees.
Mistake number 4: The wrong location or the wrong programme
Even the best team building programmes will fail if the location does not support the team event's goals and objectives. This point is one that is often undervalued and overlooked. An inspiring environment helps to liberate employees, unleashing their energy and allowing different perspectives as well as creativity to come to the fore. In this way, you can break up entrenched behavioural patterns and find creative solutions to problems.
Mountains, natural scenery, lakes... these are all ideal places in this regard - with this in mind, the Salzburg area has a lot to offer!
Tip: On the website of the Salzburg Convention Bureau, you will find a vast selection of possible team activities, from the drone workshop, to the hunting bow course in Gastein, through to the rustic Alpine Olympiad.
Mistake number 5: No post-processing
Even if the team event is going well and all your participants are happy at the end of it - the positive effects will soon fizzle out if you don't give any thoughts to how beneficial aspects of the event can be introduced into everyday work activities.
Such follow-up actions could, for example, include regular status updates for agreed projects, communication meetings, or routines such as the Swedish Fika. Fika is basically a coffee break with cake - but in Swedish culture, it is seen as much more than that. It represents a conscious break in the daily work routine - a break that is spent together with colleagues. Such routine breaks have been proven to increase productivity and promote teamwork.
Tip: Even at the planning stage of the team event, you should be thinking about how you can achieve a sustainable impact. A team cooking event could subsequently be combined with a monthly team meal, for example, with a different team preparing the food each time. This way you can continue to promote team cohesion and create new memories.
Conclusion
The ability to assemble, lead and motivate top teams is a key competence for successful companies. Team events contribute crucially towards promoting a team's level of cooperation and team spirit. Motivated employees are ill less often and are significantly more productive, as confirmed in a study conducted by the Techniker Krankenkasse (a German health insurer).
With its mountains, lakes and landscapes, the Salzburg area is an ideal location for team events in so many ways. The region boasts a comprehensive infrastructure of agencies, service providers and programme offers for team events.
Please feel free to get in touch with us, and waste no more time to explore the possibilities and plan a team event that is just right for you. Call us on +43 662 88987 271 or send us an email at team@meetsalzburg.com.