why do team building activities usually involve games?Teambuilding activities are becoming increasingly popular with organizations in singapore. organizations are paying sums of money to consultants to get their staff out of the office to play games with them. so why play games during professional teambuilding activities? will these teambuilding games ultimately benefit the staff or the company? people are the most valuable assets of any organization. people - humans - have been created with the capacity to achieve beyond boundaries, but, the catch is that not everyone comes close to unleashing their latent potential. why so, you may ask? oftentimes, mentoring and support is essential for a person to realize his potential. each individual’s ability to learn and change, and to subsequently put more energy into their work, very much stems from how they feel about themselves. an environment where people feel valued and capable is an environment that fosters growth - and is poised for success. any organization intent on success should be mindful about grooming leaders, nurturing individuals and teambuilding among individuals. every individual must be empowered with skills that would directly influence their job scope, as well as skills that build camaraderie across job scopes.
playing teambuilding gamesin his book 'Understanding How People Learn', author David G Reay explains that learning is in fact a natural phenomenon - something which all animals do to a greater or lesser extent, particularly during their maturing period, but also throughout adulthood. learning is: 1· continuous 2· natural 3· closely
related to doing things - 'experiential learning' now that we
know that experiential learning is a natural process, how is that
some people don't learn? there are several barriers to experiential
learning, being:
one ingenious way to overcome these barriers is to introduce and encourage experiential learning through play - the playing of games.teambuilding games will help us rememberstudies show
that we remember well when enjoying ourselves. in her book 'The Power
of Mindful Learning', Ellen J Langer encourages introducing learning
materials through play. the rationale behind it is that people seek
novelty in play and have no difficulty paying attention in those situations,
because when something is novel, we notice different things about
it. in playing games, players look more closely at all aspects of
the situation to figure out how to win - to win/overcome is a strong
motivating factor. yet another good news is that playing games does not require comprehensive study skills or extensive use of memory - at least not for the teambuilding games developed at änergy. thus, anyone in an organization can participate, regardless of educational qualifications, and everyone can benefit from the intended learning points during the teambuilding session. co-authors of "World Class Training", Kaye Thorne and Alex Machray, state that, "most memorable learning experiences(experiential learning) usually take place in a special environment". the correct choice of location and layout are vital to encourage experiential learning. most of our teambuilding games require out-of-the-norm settings, away from the rigid work stations, structured boardroom tables or classroom/theatre-style arrangements. the different settings would prove to be a refreshing and certainly more interesting change for people. during teambuilding, the informal atmosphere also sets the stage for people to sub-consciously reveal traits otherwise concealed during formal settings. another research by the National Training Laboratory (USA) has also proven that learning by doing (experiential learning) proves to be most effective, next to personal coaching.
yet another gratification from playing games during teambuilding is the bonds that will be established within teams. when team members strive together to achieve something, the spirit of comradeship is inculcated, and it lingers even after the event. through having fun together, team members also gain more in-depth understanding of each other in a non-threatening environment. this would eventually help in managing differences in personality styles, and adds to the greater cohesiveness within an organization. What more can we say? in a nutshell, experiential learning through teambuilding games would prove to be more productive, effective, memorable and thus, more worthwhile! as articulated by a wise man of the old, “What I hear, I forget; what I see, I remember; but what I do I understand." – Confucius 451 BC related team building
articles: note: the article above was first published on 11 March, 2004, in The Straits Times Recruit Section. the article was contributed by Alvin Quah, a certified behavioral analyst(in business consulting perspectives), who is registered with the Institute for The Motivational Living, Inc, USA. He can be contacted through the website: www.anergyfunengineers.com |
