Team-building activities are an excellent way to form a high-performing real estate team and a strong culture. Over the years, some team-building activities have gained a bad reputation because companies don’t always plan effectively. To avoid hosting an activity that doesn’t improve your team dynamic, it’s important to craft your team-building activity carefully. Ensure your activity has the intended effect by including these 5 things:
- Purpose
The first thing you need as part of your team-building activity is a clear purpose. Think carefully about what you are trying to accomplish with this event. Is the goal to build personal relationships? Is the purpose to improve communication? Is it to build unity between departments? The purpose should be understood from the beginning because it will shape the planning of the activity from start to finish.
An example of a great purpose for a team-building activity is to learn more about each other’s personalities. If you haven’t already used the DISC personality assessment with your team, you can access it for free here. If you have already taken this personality assessment, you could further discuss the dominant personality types of your team members and how that impacts teamwork.
- Buy-in
It’s easy for the team members who’ve planned a team-building activity to look forward to the event without realizing the rest of the team isn’t as excited. It’s crucial to remember that getting buy-in from the whole requires some planning. To build anticipation for your team activity, announce the event far in advance and regularly remind people that it’s coming up.
When you discuss the upcoming activity with your team, be sure to explain the purpose. When your team understands what you hope to accomplish from the event, they’ll be more likely to look forward to the experience. A team-building activity can have a huge impact on the culture of your team, but without buy-in from everyone involved, the activity won’t make much of a difference.
- Challenge
One of the major aspects of a successful team-building activity is including some type of challenge or problem to solve. In real estate, there are all kinds of real challenges and struggles that you can draw from to create your activity.
Whether you include a game, brain teaser, or discussion about a problem, be sure that there is some challenging aspect in your activity. It’s better if everyone works toward a similar goal during the activity because this most resembles the work environment where you are all one team.
- Fun
While problem-solving is an important part of a team-building activity, fun is just as essential. If you don’t make your activity fun, it will be harder to get buy-in from your team for future activities. It will also make your event more memorable if everyone has a good time. The more fun your event is, the more likely your team is to spend time in the future reminiscing about it. This keeps the lessons learned at the front of everyone’s mind for the long-term. Shared memories are highly unifying for a team.
It’s important to remember that not everyone will agree about what makes an activity fun. You have to understand what your team members enjoy doing in order to plan a fun event. It’s unlikely that everyone will agree on an event, but be sure to choose things that can be adjusted to meet a variety of interests. If there’s food involved, make sure there’s something for everyone. If there’s a highly specific activity, like a bike ride or other physical activity, make sure you’ve talked to each team member about how they would like to participate and if there’s anything that can be done to make the event a good experience for them. This will ensure that your whole team will look back on the event fondly, and not just a small handful of people.
- Reflection
When you learn something new, it’s more likely to become a part of your long-term memory when you take time to reflect after learning. No matter how well-planned and meaningful the event is, the impact to your team won’t be lasting if team members don’t take time to reflect on what they learned and how to apply it to their work life. Reflection is the most important piece of the puzzle in making sure your activity is a valuable use of time. Group reflection and individual reflection are important for creating the most lasting effect.
If possible, set aside time at the end of the event or soon after to discuss as a team what you learned. It’s valuable for the team to hear what their teammates learned because it can reveal new things that they hadn’t thought about and encourage more growth. It also can be a bonding experience to learn more about the way other members of the team experienced the activity.
Team members should also take time on their own to think about what they learned from the activity and how it applies to their role on the team. During this reflection time, team members should think about how they can implement this new knowledge and create new habits and routines.
Team-building activities are just one part of building the best possible team. To learn more about strengthening your team and building a great culture click to learn more or schedule a free consultation with a WSS business analyst.
