This whole idea started me thinking about how other managers try to build team unity and cohesion. What other companies use games or other friendly competitions? Should more companies use this type of team building? Here is a short blurb if you will, on team building. I find the organizing of a day trip to be a great way to incorporate everyone and see coworkers outside of the work environment. I also know that it is a lot harder to organize these types of things when there are so many individuals. Not only must you account for everyones schedules but also all of the different interests. We were lucky to get so many to come out and play in the basketball game. It was a great way to see the talents that can't be shown at work. I think that it was also a great way to find the leadership abilities that some have in different settings. All in all, I find these events both fun and useful.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Work place unity
I was talking to my supervisor right before I left today. He is going to be in the golf outing tomorrow that is being hosted by the accounting club. Him along with at least two other coworkers will be in this outing. It brought me back to when we had a few of our own SBDC outings. We liked to call them team building exercises. One of the most successful outings we had was what we called SBDC March Madness. In short we all went down to a basketball court and played each other for a few hours. It was some of the most fun I had ever had with coworkers. I find that it relates to last nights conversations specifically stereotypes. Looking back now I know I had certain dispositions and stereotypes in my mind before the games began. I know they are wrong to have but at the same time as it was said in class they started for a reason. So anyway, when we were talking today about the golf outing it got me thinking that we need to continue having these outings. I think that events outside of the work place such as these outings help build unity and team cohesion.
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Hi Justin,
ReplyDeleteI do think that the basketball game that the SBDC had was a good idea to build group unity. It seemed instantly that we all fell into places on our teams. I thought this was very interesting because at that point before the game began we had notions of who was good at this sport and who was not. I do not believe that any of us wanted to put particular individuals into stereotypes it just seemed to happen. It was a relief, that some of our preconceived notions ended up being wrong. This really showed me that just because we think someone may not be good at something, until it is proven we do not have much room to judge. In all, I think we should have more team building exercises at work... I think this would be very beneficial to us.
Justin, you're exactly right about the stereotypes we all had before that game. We assumed certain people would be good as basketball based on things like height or gender, and when the game started, we all were surprised at who was good and who was not.
ReplyDeleteI also found the roles that people took in that game to be interesting. People who were not vocal in the workplace seemed to step up and take leadership roles. I know I was more of a leader than I am at work, but that would probably be due to my excessive over-competitiveness and the fact that I really really hate to lose, even at a pick-up co-ed basketball game between co-workers.