Paper Example on Team Building Exercise

Introduction

Team building entails different activities and paths of duty that members in an organization require for maximum productivity. The activities refer to exercises that aim at uniting the team and increasing the survival chances. In most cases, the ability of members from different backgrounds to work together requires unique modes of supervision. The ability to understand the common goal of the organization helps the team to work together and increase the level of productivity. One of the primary exercises performed as part of the team building activities is the provision of an outline of the goals and objectives to all the members. The understanding of the objectives allows each member to get an idea of the typical duties and responsibilities of the team. In most cases, organizations face different challenges that lead to an automatic drop in the level of production and profitability because most teams fail to perform their tasks accordingly. The process of implementing tasks predicts the possible outcomes and challenges. In some cases, the process leads to under-performance of the function, leading to a range of negative impacts. The impacts affect both the members of the team and the organization either negatively or positively. Some of the common adverse effects that come along with poor working processes are stress, hatred, losses to the organization and into an extended closure of the business. The paper focuses on a task and process that affect a team negatively with a close evaluation of the possible team-building exercises that act as a solution. The exercises come along with challenges and implications that cover part of the essay analysis.

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Process and Task-Related Problem

Problems in a place of work come out of differences among the members of a team, which causes a negative impact on the progress of the organization. Some of the common problems associated with tasks in places of work are the inability to complete a task before the deadlines. Deadlines refer to the set timelines that a particular task should come to an end with the submission of results. The inability to accomplish a deadline in a team emerges after some members fail to cooperate effectively. The leaders of a group play a role in causing the problem through lack of communication and coordination of the members. For instance, in a human resource department, teamwork plays a significant role in ensuring completion of tasks within the time limit. Every member must perform their duty to allow the next individual on the desk to deliver their expectations. In the past month, most expectations from the management have not reached the point of achievement because of delays of some members of the team. The head of the human resource department finds it hard to organize meetings that allow all members to give out views on issues and tasks that involve a team. The leader makes most of the decisions and the process of doing the activities. The members of the team later come to learn about the set goals and deadlines, which causes them to fall into a disagreement. Lack of involvement causes the team members to feel neglected and under-valued. The feeling causes some of the members to underperform and become ignorant of the set dates of completion of the tasks. The leaders must avoid making the participants feel unvalued because an automatic assumption of their inappropriate support causes a drawback and losses in the business.

Poor communication in a team during the performance of a task causes a general failure in the organization. The mode of communication must use the right channel and words to make the members understand all the discussed factors. In a case where the team leader composes emails and sends them to specific individuals with an assumption that the rest will get the information causes a mood of misunderstanding. The time of communication determines the level of preparedness to carry out the normal tasks. The team leaders must always be keen on identification and determination of the method utilized in the performance of a specific task. The method refers to the stages that the tasks require to get to the last part of the result submission (Warrick, 2016).

Team-Building Exercise

Team building exercise refers to an activity that the management performs to improve the understanding of employees and members on the importance of teamwork. The task involves the members directly and allows them to use critical and creative thinking in getting the solution for certain problems. In most cases, the team building exercises may involve a physical activity that allows the members to expound on the communication and problem-solving skills. During the action, every member must participate and get a chance to showcase their ability which makes them feel valued. The first exercise implemented in the team of human resource management who could not meet the deadlines due to poor communication in the Tag Team game. The requirements for the game are large sheets of paper, pens, writing sheets and markers. The leader of the group distributes the items to each member and allows them to be in a comfortable position. In cases where the members of the group are many, divisions into groups of four individuals applied. Each member of the group writes down their strengths and attributes on the piece of paper (Mager et al, 2015). The leader picks all the papers and allows the group to fall into a discussion of sharing their ideas on dislikes and likes. The activity enables members to learn and express their personal attachments which improve their social circles. Closely, the members analyze the papers and choose the member who they feel owns the best characters. The use of markers and large sheet tallying applies in the determination of the member with a unique style. The chosen member gets a title crown and becomes the new leader of the group and explains how they manage to have such positive attributes. The rest of the members write down a story about the winner according to their own perception. The members repeat the exercises but based on analysis of their weaknesses which provides them with a chance to learn about each other.

The second team building exercise plays a significant role in solving the task-related problem on poor performance and inability to meet deadlines. The training takes around thirty minutes but impacts the members positively. The first part of the exercise allows the participants to be open to the rest of the group and boost their esteem by mentioning their strengths. Generally, individuals prefer mentioning their strengths to their weaknesses. The members discuss the possible ways of overcoming the weaknesses during duty performance. The procedure undertaken during the team building activity expounds on the process choice during the performance of a task (Luthans et al, 2018).

Evaluation and Implementation

The implementation of the team-building exercise depends on the responsiveness of the participants which defines the challenges involved. Some of the challenges faced when conducting the activity are lack of openness and interest among some participants. The members try to exaggerate on their strengths probably to make others think good of them. The inability to accept a weakness that one possesses contributes significantly to some of the problems during task performance. The members are not sincere about their strengths which displays the wrong image to the leader. The exercise aims to evaluate the ability of the individuals to think critically and creatively, which ends up unaccomplished because the members fear to open up. The lack of interest expressed by some who fail to write down the expected answers shows a cooperation and an automatic failure of the team. Cooperation collectively refers to the level of acceptance of the team members to pursue the goal of the organization (Sacks et al, 2015). The exercise was easy to perform because of the less demanding requirements from the members. The leader easily collects the information from the participants, especially after dividing them into groups of four. The presence of disciplined members in the group makes the assessment easy and possible to get positive feedback. The team building exercise involves all the members who make them feel valued and recognized through their efforts. The execution of the challenges and the positive attributes of the activity create a positive mood and help in the evaluation of the success of the group. The activity significantly boosts the future performance of the team, leading to an increase in profitability and productivity of the business (Moore et al, 2016).

Conclusion

Team building activities entail different games performed to boost the strengths of members in a group and suppress the weaknesses that cause a deviation from the core objectives. The objectives and goals of the organization converge to the point of increasing productivity through provision of services effectively. The employees perform a significant task in the business, and thus the management must get an effective way of empowerment. One of the common ways of empowering individuals in a team is through organization and performance of the team-building activities that break the monotony from the general mood of work. The exercises help the workers understand that working revolves around communication not only the pressure at the place of work. In most cases, the activities should take place in an open environment away from the general place of work. Poor communication and inability to mean deadlines are the common task-related problems in the current places of work. Some of the common adverse effects that come along with poor working processes are stress, hatred, losses to the organization and into an extended closure of the business. The deadlines set to determine the effectiveness of the task performed, and thus the team building activity must focus on ensuring that the members understand the required implications. The process of performing the tasks remains the responsibility of the management that must avoid all the negative factors. In conclusion, team building activities have positive impacts despite the few challenges faced during the implementation process.

References

Luthans, F., & Doh, J. P. (2018). International management: Culture, strategy, and behavior. McGraw-Hill.

Mager, D. R., & Lange, J. (2014). Teambuilding across healthcare professions: the ELDER project. Applied Nursing Research, 27(2), 141-143.

Moore, J. M., Everly, M., & Bauer, R. (2016). Multigenerational challenges: Team-building for positive clinical workforce outcomes. Online journal of issues in nursing, 21(2).

Sacks, G. D., Shannon, E. M., Dawes, A. J., Rollo, J. C., Nguyen, D. K., Russell, M. M., & Maggard-Gibbons, M. A. (2015). Teamwork, communication and safety climate: a systematic review of interventions to improve surgical culture. BMJ Qual Saf, 24(7), 458-467.

Scholz, G., Austermann, M., Kaldrack, K., & PahlWostl, C. (2015). Evaluating group model building exercises: a method for comparing externalized mental models and group models. System Dynamics Review, 31(1-2), 28-45.

Warrick, D. D. (2016). What leaders can learn about teamwork and developing high performance teams from organization development practitioners. Performance Improvement, 55(3), 13-21.