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Team-building checklist

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By Kenny Zail

Teamwork continues to be a crucial element in the success of an organization. Yet, many team-building events have been given the label of “just fun and games,” and its value fades in a couple of days. This does not have to be the case.

Three questions need to be addressed if a team-building event is to be successful.

1. What do you want to accomplish?
2. Is it attainable, given the time, money and participants?
3. How will you sustain the results?

To clarify these questions, I have created a checklist to help improve your Return of Investment (ROI), and your Return on Objective (ROO), for future team-building events. This checklist involves the stakeholders, event sponsors and the meeting planner.

A. OBJECTIVE

What is the objective of the team-building event? This should be in writing, because the objective will be referred to throughout this checklist and may be misinterpreted as time goes on. The event will be judged on its objective. All the following decisions will be based on your objective.

Here are examples of three common objectives:

1. Developing Intra-Networking:
   This objective is used to introduce attendees to each other, understand different behavior styles, learn personality characteristics, and develop collaboration. These events should involve interaction, full participation and, because attendees may be cautious, these activities should not be intimidating or stressful.
2. Improving a Business Issue:
   Examples of this might be: low scores on a customer survey, high turnover in a department or a sales slump. The goal is to fix something. These events might include communication and listening skills development, problem solving and role playing.
3. Creating a Strategic Team:
   This objective could be for a new board of directors or a team inventing a new product or service. This team-building event could include goal-setting activities, discussion of roles and responsibilities, or the exploration of strengths and weaknesses.

Defining your objective is paramount in the success of a team-building event.

B. PURPOSE

Defining the purpose of the team-building event. In other words, what is the value of the objective? The purpose is defined by this statement:

“After this event, we want the attendees to…(fill in the purpose).”

Examples of a purpose might be, “After this event we want our attendees to”:

• … define the obstacles to launching our new product and the best solutions.
• … make decisions based on the core values of our organization.
• … be able to recognize and converse with fellow staff members on a first name basis.
• … improve the dialog between these two departments and focus on mutual goals.

Purpose will help create a metric for this event.

C. TIME

With the objective and purpose established, next on the checklist is time allotment. Here is where a reality check on ROO will surface. How much time is available: 45 minutes? half a day? a full day? Is this time sufficient to accomplish the purpose? Considering the time allotted, is this a reasonable goal? Do we need another event in three weeks? Three months? Six months? One of the keys to a successful team-building event is a reasonable time expectation.

D. PARTICIPANTS

Using the event’s objectives and purpose as your guide, who needs to be in attendance to receive the optimum ROO? Leaving people out of this team-building event who will have to support or execute the purpose obviously will affect the ROO, and therefore the ROI. Important pillars of team-building success are inclusion and information sharing. Having one key person missing may sabotage the intended results.

Participants will vary from examples like: the whole company, the marketing department, the Southeast agents, all VPs or a project group, depending on your goal.

E. BUDGET

I put budget in this position because success is achieved by doing what needs to be done, and not by doing what we can afford. If at this point the budget isn’t sufficient to do what is needed, stop and reevaluate your objective and purpose. Not to do so is, “Praying for success, yet paying for failure.”

Team-building sessions are created to improve or change a situation. Look at the impact this team-building event will have. How will this change or improvement affect the organization financially? There is a financial impact to every change that occurs in an organization, from moving the coffee machine further down the hall and having staff away from their desk longer, to needing two signatures on a check and upsetting a client, to someone not using their talents and therefore not engaged in their job. What are the benefits to improving an outcome, eliminating a problem, or redirecting a thought? What is the worth to fixing a problem in the present rather than in the future? What is it worth to meet your objective?

F. LOGISTICS

Every detail has an affect on the objective. Here are a few of the items that come to mind:

1. Location – off premise or on-premise, audio/visual needs, overnight accommodations, disability access, food (i.e. vegetarian, allergies or Kosher)
2. Meeting Room – size, convenience, lighting, adjacent activities (MLM rally next door?)
3. Set-up – tables (rounds, banquet, U-shaped), chairs (folding, wheels, stacking, none)
4. Timing – commitments of attendees, weather, local events happening (festivals, sporting events, concerts)

Finally, Return on Objective and Return of Investment depend on sustained results. Relationships wane if not renewed, techniques are lost if not practiced, and lessons are forgotten if not reviewed. How will these changes and improvements be sustained? Will there be follow-ups, further training, tele-seminars, coaching, assessments, handouts, emails, newsletters or in-house meetings?

Team-building events do not necessarily have to be “just fun and games” to be enjoyable and exciting. With foresight and strategy, there can be a continued improvement in the workplace because of successful team-building events as well.

Kenny Zail, founder of Making Teams Rock, works with organizations that want a common sense approach to team leadership. He can be reached for presentations and workshops at 404-861-5130 or Kenny@MakingTeamsRock.com.