In this post, I’m revisiting the overall foundation of Bracket’s monthly newsletter – “making culture-building a team habit” and what I mean by this.
If you’re here reading this, it’s likely that you already understand the importance of a strong team culture and how that connects happy, engaged people with high performance.
But I also appreciate that it’s become harder to find the time to give it attention, because our teams and organisations have become increasingly complex amidst the uncertain, constantly changing environment we’re all working in.
This is on top of the actual work you need to deliver. It feels overwhelming and dizzying to stay on top of it all.
So, when a leader finally does get a little bit of headspace to address their team culture, their initial approach might be to do some kind of teambuilding workshop. And that makes sense. You do need to bring your team together if you want to improve, change or create new ways of working together.
And while it’s still a step in the right direction, the world we’re currently living in means a one-off session like this might not move us forward as far as we think. There may even be some unintended consequences.
Real teambuilding shouldn’t happen away from work. It should happen as we work.
These kinds of one-off activities worked well when teams stayed relatively stable – in terms of who was on the team, the work they did, and what was happening around them. It was fine to treat teambuilding as a separate, occasional activity.
But now, the work you’re doing, while you are doing it, is the biggest opportunity to build your team… in how you solve problems together, address challenges, create value, deepen connections, and get to know more about each other.
Teambuilding needs to move from the periphery of our work right to the centre – in the very fabric of how we work together.
There is still value in taking your team out of their usual environment for fresh thinking and a new approach, but the cost – both in time and money – needs to be well worth it.
We’re often relying on the “good vibes” created in these sessions to magically spill over into everyday work. It can happen, but often not without specific intention and persistence.
Otherwise, it’s very easy to slip back into business as usual. And I’ve spoken to too many people who look back on a great workshop from months ago, where nothing really changed afterwards.
Worse still, when that keeps happening, resentment builds and reinforces the idea that teambuilding is a luxury, not an essential.
Don’t just run workshops. Build a workshop culture.
The thing is, these sessions do feel good in the moment. They can be productive, energising and connecting. The collaborative energy that happens in a workshop is exactly what we need.
But we need it every single day, not just in a one-off event.
So, we don’t need to stop running teambuilding workshops. We need to stop seeing them as the complete solution when they should be a catalyst.
We can use them to show us what work looks like when we’re at our most creative, engaged and motivated, and then use those principles and practices to help us be like that every day.
What if every day of work could feel like your most productive teambuilding workshop?
Your team does the teambuilding every single day.
This perspective also starts to shift your role as a leader. Teambuilding can feel like something a leader does to a team, but with this approach, you stop being the only person driving culture. You facilitate the dynamic for your team to work well together.
You start moving towards an environment where your whole team are empowered and motivated to do this for themselves. We don’t just want our team members to consume the culture that the leader builds. We want them to be co-creators of it.
And when that happens, culture-building becomes a team habit.
High-performing, happy teams don’t see this as an optional extra. It’s integral to how they work. It’s embedded into daily conversations, meetings, rituals, processes and systems.
Then teambuilding is no longer tactical or sporadic. It’s strategic and intentional.
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This is the foundation of all the work we do at Bracket, because high-performing teams build their culture every day, not just in one-off teambuilding sessions.
My monthly newsletter provides practical tips, insights, ideas and perspectives on how to make that happen. Sign up here.