Team building isn't about acronyms or silly activities. It's about getting to know each others' stories.
I worked at the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) for nearly twelve years. I learned a lifetime of valuable lessons during my time there and one I want to share today is “tea time.”
Every afternoon we had what was coined “tea time.” People got up from their desks and went and talked to folks outside of their department and/or division. No agenda, just catching up. Sharing ideas. Checking in on each other. It fostered free flow conversation, organic team-building and spun up a few new ideas (at least for me!).
Sadly, this devolved into a weekly newsletter from divisions about what was going on within the division and the tradition slowly died.
But, it was a wonderful idea and one that I’ve kept going at each subsequent job.
Great Ideas Are Rarely Born In A Cubical
One of the lessons I learned during this time was that great ideas are rarely born inside a cubical. Talking to other people, throwing ideas out and bouncing those ideas around is where the magic happens. Inspiration strikes from the most random places.
Henry Ford is remembered for building the Ford company. But his real innovation? The assembly line. Do you know how he came up with the idea? He was at a butcher shop…watching butchers cut slabs of meat. Each butcher had a specific job and then sent the slab on to the next butcher who had another specific job.
Now, during Henry Ford’s time…cars were made one at a time. A team of people worked to build a single car. So as Mr. Ford watched the butchers he thought “why can’t we build cars that way?” And voila. He wasn’t in his office when he dreamed the idea up!
Team-Building Should Be Organic
Raise your hand if you like “team-building.” Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? Didn’t think so. Most corporate team-building exercises are painful. It’s gotten better as we’ve pushed to have offsite events like ax throwing or playing pickleball, but there are still hundreds of team-building events happening in office buildings around the country using a Powerpoint presentation.
Team-building is an organic function. You can’t sit in a conference room and listen to an “expert” talk about team-building…and then do “exercises” to reinforce the lesson. Look, I’ve sat in on sessions like this.
Personally? I’d rather get tased than do that again. Which, now that I type that, might make a really great team-building session. Legal? What say you?? Let’s get the team together and tase each other!
Looks like Legal just emailed me an answer...
The point is, getting up and away from your desk to have quick, non-scheduled/non-structured conversations fosters team-building. We can’t go ax throwing every day. But we can find 5-10 minutes out of our day to walk over to someone’s desk and check in on them. Find out what they’re working on. Spitball new ideas. Laugh a little (I hope HR doesn’t read this! Laughing at work is a definite no-no for some of you! Unless it’s during structured team-building sessions, of course.).
Why are we so resistant to getting away from our desk for a few moments in a day? If you’re “afraid” of what perception that may create…you are most definitely in the wrong culture. If you’re being measured for how long your butt stays in your seat? Make a 2019 goal of updating your resume and hunting for something better. You deserve it. Butt-in-seat metrics aren't great bullet points on your resume (I would never write a metric like that on my resume. At least not again).
Your Culture, Your Choice
Creating a team-oriented culture doesn’t happen in a meeting room with Powerpoint slides. It happens one conversation at a time. Culture isn’t a document that sits on the company intranet and pulled out once a year to be “updated” by a committee. It’s not posters on a wall or cute acronyms.
Culture is organic. It’s living. Ever evolving. It’s created and supported by the individuals we work with day in and day out. We can’t have a culture of “transparency” if we discourage people from talking to each other. We can’t have a culture of “trust” if I only communicate with someone during a meeting.
Culture is built the same way relationships are. Through communication. So embrace it. Encourage it. And let me suggest an easy starting point: creating your own version of “tea time.” Get people out of their seats and talking for a few minutes a day!
Oh, look! It’s getting close to tea-time. A hot mug of tea and a conversation are waiting for me. Cheers!
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