How To Spot A Poor Quality Corporate Team-Building Workshop
There are the corporate team-building workshops that are basically just a “fun day out” with a few games or activities — and then there are the ones that really have an impact on the team's culture and performance.
The difference?
The quality of the workshop content that equips the team to build toward consistent success in the long run.
We’ve all seen how something that begins with good intentions, and that should be as useful as a team-building workshop can quickly turn into a meaningless activity that only wastes time and money.
If you're not careful, it can even backfire and create more problems than it solves.
What Are The Signs of A Poor Quality Team-Building?
To avoid turning your corporate team-building event into a disaster, you must be able to distinguish between high-quality and low-quality workshops.
Here are the tell-tale signs of a low-quality workshop:
A lack of structure
Lack of structure is the most common indicator that you're dealing with a bad workshop.
This does not mean that you should be on the lookout for a minute breakdown of the nitty-gritty details. But the absence of an overall structure often leads to a poor-quality experience.
Without a clear plan or objectives, these workshops can quickly turn into aimless exercises that do little to help improve team dynamics. In addition, a lack of structure can also lead to a feeling of chaos and confusion among participants. This can breed frustration and cause people to lose focus, which ultimately reduces the effectiveness of the workshop.
A good facilitator will start with a broad agenda that outlines the main flow and objectives for the day. If your would-be facilitator doesn't have one, don’t sign your money away!
An over-emphasis on fun
Let me go out on a limb and make this bold claim: you should think twice before going for any team-building workshop that only focuses on selling the FUN factor.
Granted, it depends on the purpose and objectives behind the team-building itself. However, the element of fun should not be the first priority and can, in fact, reduce the effectiveness of the experience.
Quality corporate team-building workshops should always leave the team feeling like they've learned something new about themselves, and their team members, or gained fresh insights on how to work together more effectively. If not, you've wasted everyone's time (and money).
A failure to understand your needs
Be especially wary of corporate team-building workshop vendors who are "communicating" with you on the surface level but instead have their minds fixed on trying to upsell you on their services.
This can lead to an impersonal and frustrating experience for your team as they would not be listening to understand your needs and how they can value-add to your team. Instead, they would be listening to find avenues to promote their own services.
A competent team-building workshop facilitator is highly effective at delivering their content and materials.
But a quality team-building workshop facilitator is highly adept at understanding the needs of your team and adapting their workshop content to meet those needs.
Final Thoughts
Your time is both limited and precious. So don't waste it on team-building workshops that will ultimately not build your team up.
When the time comes to plan for your next corporate team-building workshop, be sure to keep these pointers in mind to make sure you choose one that will be a positive experience for your team!
Written by Rachel Chai
Connectedness • Empathy • Strategic • Belief • Context
Rachel is a Strengths School™ Certified Strengths Trainer and the Content Lead at Strengths School™. Being deeply introspective, she believes in helping others draw connections between how their unique strengths play out in their lives.
