1Running head: Team Building

Building a Winning Team

Sheveeta Gayles

Octavia Nelson

Christina Wilburn

Joy Alexander

MSL 630

Belhaven University

2 Team Building

Abstract

Team building is an essential element to building great teams. The research gathered in this

study concludes that team building activities enhance communication, morale, trust, motivation,

and collaboration to successfully reach team goals. As teams are formed they should continue to

use these exercises to sustain togetherness and growth within the team. The team building

exercise, snap hunt, encourages teams to work together using teamwork and competition. This

project is a great way to learn the unique skills and talents of team members as well as how team

members should use those diverse skills to complete tasks and reach team goals.

3 Team Building

Building a Winning Team

Teambuilding is a creative way to develop effective communication, improve team

morally, and to reinforce company ethics and values. Organizations that enforce team building

activities have developed healthy organizational cultures through building teams and exercised

the teamwork. One team building exercise, Snap Hunt, is a creative activity that encourages

teams to work together to complete the assembly of the puzzle. Competition and motivation are

the key factors to successfully completing this task as a team. This activity also encourages

teams to work with other teams to complete tasks. Through this activity, teams with specific

skills will learn how to work with teams of a different expertise. Upon completion, teams will

recognize the importance of working together, communicating effectively, and exercising their

unique skills while building teamwork.

The Bible encourages teams to be productive in order to please God. I Peter 4:8-10 says

Above all love one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to

one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good

stewards of god’s varied grace. Team building is one of the ways that teams build trust, strength,

and teamwork to ensure successful outcomes as well as please God.

Some think that team building is about playing silly games, or indulging in irrelevant out

of work activities. The managers and corporations feel that their money is worth being spent.

Others might have problems in their workplace with conflict in groups, poor performance, or

unmotivated staff uses team building as positive, and goal driven. Team building is to give clear

understanding of team building and the role of leadership in achieving high performance.

4 Team Building

This team building activity is a process that takes place in time. To start the process of

this puzzle activity is where there is a group of people, two or more, and a leader. The end of the

process is where a high performing team is formed through these techniques, they are highly

motivated to perform better and have been through a well-developed processes and systems to

organize their workload, and who gain immense satisfaction from their shared achievements.

The overall objective is to achieve high performance, develop the group through the

various stages of development until it becomes high performance. However, like all process,

there are different steps or stages, and there are quite different objectives and goals at each stage.

Focusing on the correct objectives at each stage, and changing your objectives as you go through

the process, will help you achieve high performance. According to Steve Schumacher the

objectives of a team building activities should be focus on the challenges that are occurring in the

company (Schumacher, S. 2013).

There is no ‘I’ in team. The objective is to bond the team together to achieve their shared

goals. Our objective is to get the ‘I’ back into the Team, to keep them together, but develop

individual excellence as a team goal as well.

The number one benefit that will come from the team building activity is communication.

In order for the team to complete the task, they have to communicate. Team members will

communicate by sharing their opinions about how to complete the activity. This activity will

increase good communication with the members. The activity will increase communication to

members who hasn’t communicated before. Communication will help build a relationship in the

workplace.

5 Team Building

Collaboration is another benefit that the team members will benefit from the activity. The

members have to work jointly together to complete the activity. There is no independent work in

this activity. So, members have to work together to complete the activity within the time

provided. The collaboration will help the members learn their team member’s strengths and

weakness. It will also let the members know how they could go to for things they need help with

in the company.

The activity will help diversify the team members. The team can have different diversity

within the team. Including diversity in the activity will bring different aspects and ideas into the

activity. Bringing diversity in the activity will help the team members who have a problem

working with people from a different culture. It will also give team members a chance to work

with people of different race and ethnicity if they have never worked for a company with

diversity. Cultivating teams will help positively influence culture within the company (Taplin, S.

H., Foster, M. K., & Shortell, S. M. 2013).

Teams can choose from various team building activities. However, team building

activities should be directed toward conflict or issues in the team. If the company directs the

activities towards conflicts and issues will ensure that the teams will gain some benefits. Any

team activity selected should build trust and productivity. The activity should allow the teams to

see working together will bring accomplishment.

The activity that our team selected has team members locate each other. The team

members can find each other with the same picture. This idea is that each person on the team

makes up the puzzle. In addition, each team member holds a piece that is similar to someone

else. The team members need each other to complete the picture of the puzzle. This is the same

6 Team Building

as the team needing different pieces of each other’s personalities to meet the team goals. Upon

the completion of putting all the pieces of the puzzle together, unity is formed. The team has a

feeling of accomplished.

Accomplishment is the result of everyone on the team participating and fitting their piece

of the puzzle. The unity of the pieces allows the team members to all see the real big picture. It is

important for teams to know that they may be differently. It is ok to be different as long as they

can be cohesive like the puzzle. Teams need to know that after completing the activity they can

see the big picture which is exceeding their team goal. Team building activities can provide

feelings of accomplishment. Accomplishment is reached when team goals are met.

It is critical for teams to understand that team building is a continuing process. As

employees, we tend to get comfortable after we have established relationships within our

organizations. When employees get comfortable, we can create biases such as categorizing and

stereotyping. To avoid getting comfortable organizations implement team building activities. We

have researched and concluded that team building activities such as snap hunt strengthens and

motivates team members. This activity also encourages team building while improving

communication, collaboration, and acceptance of diverse skills and talents within a team.

7 Team Building

Bibliography

Schumacher, S. (2013). Making Teambuilding More Than Just Fun. Rock Products, 116(6), 42-

43.

Taplin, S. H., Foster, M. K., & Shortell, S. M. (2013). Organizational Leadership For Building

Effective Health Care Teams. Annals Of Family Medicine, 11(3), 279-281.

doi:10.1370/afm.1506