Want Creativity – Bring back fun team building events!
If you want people to be creative they have to trust the people they work with!
The last five years has delivered business conditions that have required organisations to change in many ways. Management has had to spend more time worrying about the cost side of the business. Teams have had to focus harder on winning and keeping business.
One side effect of a greater focus on cost management has been the elimination of “team building” events. Yes the fun stuff where the group goes rock climbing, go karting, sailing, bush walking…or just out for a long lunch that ends after dinner!
As a Manager I have been guilty of driving such moves in the business with a view of maintaining our profit margin etc. Don’t get me wrong, this does not mean I believe effective cost management is not critical for all business; wages for staff come first over any other priority. It does however mean that upon reflection, by getting rid of these so called “nice to have events” I was party to reducing the capacity of the business to work creatively (during a time that needed higher rather than lower levels of creativity).
Let me explain this a little more. In recent times a number of authors have published papers outlining the value of creativity for business. They have also implored organisations to create environments that promote individual creativity and innovation. Within these publications there have been numerous suggestions and ideas for business leaders to consider and adopt.
I must admit I have found the authors comments stimulating at the intellectual level, however I have struggled to work out how to increase creativity in businesses at a practical level. That is until I recently read a number of articles by various authors such as Jonah Berger (and other Harvard Business Review luminaries) who started to highlight the “conditions” people need to experience in the workplace to help them be more creative.
While it is not the total solution, what they effectively outlined was that where people have high levels of trust in the relationships they have within their teams (and with their customers ) there is a greater propensity for people to think and act creatively in order to solve a problem.
So how do “team building” activities play a role?
When you think back to the last “team building” event you got to attend, it is not uncommon for people to recall the memorable stories about yourself or your colleagues. They are often about adversity, vulnerability, achievement ….etc revealing aspects of yourself that a normal work day would never allow you to reveal. This is the point. It is these occasions that enable you to reveal more about yourself to your colleagues and vice versa. It is these occasions that enable you to develop a greater sense of understanding of what makes your colleagues tick. It is these occasions that help form the relationships that gives you the courage to think and act more creatively, pushing the envelope, challenging norms and creating the level of discomfort in people that is required to evoke change.
So not only are team building events great fun, they are a critical element to enhancing individual levels of creativity within your business.
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