10 Tips for Team Building

Searching for solutions to common interpersonal or team problems can be overwhelming. 

First, you have to establish goals for your solutions then whittle everything down to the granular, logistical components for each step in the process. We've found that an effective method for overcoming team challenges, whether it be miscommunication within the group or on-boarding new team members, involves individual and group coaching in the form of team building sessions. Check out these ten tips to bring greater interpersonal understanding, communication, and empathy to your team.

1. Foster Strong Relationships

The key to creating an unbeatable culture within your organization starts with your people. Make sure to develop strong relationships between your team members to shape a supportive and collaborative team environment. 

2. Celebrate Individuality

Each person possesses unique strengths that they bring to the table. While one team member may adhere to processes and established methodologies, another may focus more on exploring new ideas and the big picture, taking an innovative approach to their work. Both work styles are essential and necessary for organizational stability and growth. Assessments are a popular option to enhance team building as they provide a platform to understand how individual complexities influence relationships.

3. Establish Goals

Before you select an assessment, be sure to establish goals that outline what you are looking to accomplish and why. This will give your sessions direction and ensure you are able to make the most significant impact on your team. 

4. Design Your Framework

There are a lot of assessments to choose from, and the number of choices can feel overwhelming. To streamline your search, be sure to keep your goals at the top of your mind. This will help you determine how in-depth your assessment will need to be, the types of reports it should offer, and the breadth of information you’ll need to accomplish your goals. 

5. Conduct Thorough Research

The scientific research and design behind assessments are not equal (some have none to speak of!) It is critical you take time to find one you can trust. While free options may be a tempting solution, they should only be considered if you do not need specific, actionable results and just want to use it as a fun team activity. If you have tangible, particular goals, then your team building will require scientifically reliable and valid insight.

6. Determine the Project Scope

Decide how you should facilitate your workshop with two questions:

• Do I need a quick activity that will get my team together?
• Do I need to address a cultural, team, or individual problem within my organization? 

After considering the scope, you can select what kind of personality assessment to use—a shorter, surface-level report for a quick team building session, or a robust assessment to drive impactful team and organizational change.

7. The "Short & Sweet” Method

The “Short & Sweet” Method:

• Ideal for quick team building workshops
• Utilizes assessments that provide high-level personality data
• Requires the least amount of investment from your organization
• Offers the lowest amount of insight into individual behavior and perception

8. The "Deep Dive” Method

The “Deep Dive” Method:

• Ideal for solving a team problem
• Utilizes assessment that provide in-depth personality data
• Requires more investment from your organization
• Delivers robust perception and behavior data to help the team collaborate better

9. Keep Up Team Momentum

Team building sessions shouldn't stop after the first team building activity you execute. Be sure to keep the momentum going with your team by hosting short but frequent team building sessions to reinforce the assessment’s concepts and keep the group engaged. You can even get creative and integrate smaller conversations into meetings or projects throughout the week to enhance the concepts you learned together.

10. Address Assessment Concerns

Face any roadblocks head on—you can quickly lose the group if you don’t address their concerns. Hesitations towards using a personality assessment may range from the scientific validity of the report to being wary about being honest when answering questions. Here are some tips to overcome common challenges with using personality assessments in your team building session.

While you may feel overwhelmed in leading your team building session, breaking the process down into digestible parts is helpful to keep track of all the main components you'll need for a successful team building session. Work through these ten tips to make sure you cover all grounds to make the most out of your team building session.   

Get More Insight From Our Assessments for Team Building eBook Series

This topic features in the first of our three part Team Building eBook series to help you get all the information you’ll need to select an assessment, so you can save time and focus on what matters most—your team members. Download the eBook today.