One realisation in these “VUCA” times is that no one individual has all the answers. “Teams” become the way to go. Besides, high speed connectivity means that we can form teams across the globe, or at least use a lot of “team apps” to facilitate working together.
With this emphasis on “teams”, corporates know the value of “team building”. Yet, there will always be hesitation whenever, a team building exercise, retreat or kick-off whachacallit is mooted. Why? Because event organisers have not evolved with their team building activities.
Divide the attendees into mixed groups from different divisions and levels. Throw in some physical activities where they need to overcome challenges as a group. Provide feedback on how “Together Everyone Achieves More” (T.E.A.M. — yay!). Enjoy a nice buffet together. Job done. Silos will be miraculously broken down. Staff will know people from different divisions (at least one or two). Everyone will love one another. Kumbaya.
Seriously?
Every person who has attended such team building retreats will know that EVERYTHING reverts to status quo the next day. The only thing that’s changed is that the wallet of the event organiser got a bit fatter.
But doesn’t the feedback survey show that everyone was happy and gave great satisfaction scores? Of course! Which staff would not like an all expenses paid getaway from work?
So, what would an effective team building exercise be? We may understand the saying that “culture eats strategy for breakfast”, but culture does not happen on it’s own. A culture of collaboration and innovative risk-taking is not created by a team-building retreat… or two… or three.
Safi Bahcall, author of “Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries”, said in an interview with Roger Dooley: “As anyone who’s been inside large companies knows, no amount of asking people to sing kumbaya or hold hands, or watch two hour movies about brotherhood is really going to change culture very much. But a small change in structure can do it.”
Just like how Singapore’s founding fathers understood that racial harmony will not just happen by chance or because we appeal to altruistic goals. In Singapore, there are laws (ie., structure) that enforces a mixture of races for each housing estate. The people have to live together in a community instead of forming their own districts. The children have to attend the same schools. This structure created (or forced, if you like) the environment that will foster the culture of mutual understanding (granted, even this structure is facing its challenges today as more people are closed up in their own worlds on the internet).
My idea of a good team building retreat format would be in the form of a hackathon. The issue with the common team building retreats is that the “teams” are temporal, lasting only for the duration of the retreat. Using a hackathon format, teams are structurally established to work on actual corporate problems. These can vary from organising the year-end celebrations to solving the elevator crunch during rush hour or creating the corporate brand narrative etc.
Prior to the retreat, the teams get to attend creative thinking workshops to prime their idea generation. When they start to work on the proposals during the retreat, breaks are designed throughout for getting to know one another. Teams are also incentivised by granting access to top brass who are usually not available to lower ranking staff. Finally, the ideas are presented and awarded accordingly.
The winning teams will be granted time (and other incentives) to continue with the projects to see it through to fruition. They can also co-op other volunteers (and ideas) into the team. In this way, the teams created continue to function after the retreat (at least a group of them). With the right incentives, the exercise can be accorded with the prestige and importance such that employees will be willing to vie for it.
What do you think of this idea? There will of course be logistical issues for a huge corporation… but I suppose we can look into breaking down into separate sessions. I am particularly interested to try out working on the corporate brand narrative. Not only will the narrative be something that is co-created by the employees, it can be co-owned by all. Having the organisation aligned on brand narrative would be powerful on so many fronts.
