The Truth About Team Building Activities

Some work environments require quite a bit of teamwork in order for things to run smoothly. Team building activities are commonly used to create a bond between coworkers. However, some work environments require teamwork but the employees work independently. Employees who work at jobs like these really need team building activities to help them stay connected with other workers.

Jobs like this include service oriented professions in places like restaurants and doctors’ offices. The focus of some team building activities involves taking the customer’s perspective. Anyone who has visited a restaurant and received excellent service only to return and not receive the same treatment is more likely to leave disgruntled than someone who had mediocre service to begin with.

When I worked as a waitress I made sure to take extra time to accommodate customer special requests. While this worked well for me independently it really worked against my coworkers as well as the establishment. There are times that you simply can not accommodate every request.

When my regular customers had different waitresses they were annoyed that special accommodations were not made. The manager handled the situation by introducing innovative team building activities that involved taking the customer’s point of view. I thought my accommodating approach would win over the “treat everyone equally” approach.

Through the team building activities I learned that maintaining a consistent front for the customer is far better than making special accommodations that can not always be met. Basically, the team building activities centered on inconsistencies. People like consistency. Surprises, especially when it comes to meals, are not well received.

One of the team building activities involved a taste test. We tasted a dish that had a light, sweet sauce as its base. It was a culinary masterpiece. The chef brought out an identical dish after we finished the test. The second dish was quite different from the first. It had bitter undertones that didn’t suit the food.

The chef repeated the process with a nice tasting dish that did not match the culinary masterpiece. He sent the second identical dish and it tasted exactly like the original. Deep down I know that this mediocre dish wasn’t nearly as good as the initial sweet dish but we favored the second because we knew what to expect.

Team building activities can also help healthcare workers maintain consistent information to patients. I was extremely frustrated when one nurse told me to stop breastfeeding after 12 months while a second nurse in the same pediatrician’s office suggested that I continue. The conflicting information communicated to me that this staff seriously needed team building activities.

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