Why Team Building Matters

“To the extend that we can characterize evolution as designing our modern brains, this is what our brains were wired for: reaching out to and connecting with others.”

Social by Matthew D. Liberman, 2013, Crown Publishers

I’ve built my whole career on what I believe is this one truth: we were made to connect. The retreats and team building events and meetings I’ve designed, spoken at, created, and executed – they all hang on this innate desire and need within us all to connect to those around us.

And science would agree. Loads of research by people far smarter than I am indicates that the default state of our pre-frontal cortex is social. In other words, you have to "turn off" your social brain to do a math problem or write a blog. When you are taking a break, your brain returns to a social orientation. It is constantly evaluating and looking out for how you relate to others.

It is why we have a meetings and events industry. Face to face matters. We learned how very difficult it is to simulate the dynamics of an in-person meeting during the Covid Pandemic. Try as we may, we cannot replicate the interactions and value we get when we are together in one place.

But how do we carry over the value from the once-a-year sales kick-off meeting to the rest of the year?

How do we create teamwork and cooperation and true communication in our day-to-day work lives?

Countless dollars are spent on researching and implementing these questions by consultants and organizations far above my pay grade. But having worked with and observed groups of all shapes, sizes and functions over the past 30 or so years, I do have some thoughts.

Keeping employees engaged in their work comes down to building solid and positive relationships in the workplace.

You can reward them, pay them, recognize and promote them. But if individuals don’t have relationships at work that are meaningful, the next great opportunity will easily lure them away.

So, if you are at all invested in leading a team, retaining employees or boosting engagement at work, team building cannot be a once in a while effort. It is not a box you check on your annual meeting agenda. 100% - it needs to be on that meeting agenda. But it also needs to be woven so deeply into your culture that your organization is unrecognizable without it.

Ready to host or run a teambuilding event of your own? Click here. You can also fill out the form to the right or give us a call at 678-907-7132.

In business since 2002, PlayWorks Group is an award-winning team building events and meeting design firm serving North America and the Caribbean.