The raft was nice. The spaghetti towers impressive. The silos were back by Tuesday.Hey, How are you? These weeks are flying, but I find myself consistently in similar conversations. Everyone says they are “busy” AND, spending lots of time in meetings, however when we speak about the meetings and I challenge the meeting vs actual conversation gap there is a realisation that they may be creating some of this busyness. Are you? Some people then say, we need an away day or team building event, do you? Really? So this week I want us to explore, the difference between team building and building a team, because they are not the same thing and the gap costs a fortune. Because becoming one team is not an event. It is a set of conversations, held on purpose, over time. The away day builds a memory. The conversations build the team. I have nothing against away days in fact I get asked to speak at a number of them for our clients. People should spend time together. But the raft, the barbecue and the personality quiz produce a nice Thursday and a return to guarded meetings by Tuesday, because none of it changed what gets said in the room when something is genuinely at stake. You cannot zip-wire your way out of a trust problem. What actually works runs on two levels at once, and this is the bit most development misses. The team develops collectively: shared language, shared standards, the courage to challenge and the clarity to own. And each leader develops individually, because what the journey asks of each person is different. For one it is confidence, learning to hold their own among senior peers. For another it is letting go, delegating, trusting others to carry it. For another it is listening differently, or getting comfortable with conflict rather than smoothing it. The individual and the collective grow together, feeding each other. That is precisely why sending your leaders on separate individual courses so rarely changes the team. The development was disconnected from the shared work. The question for your commute: has your team building ever actually changed what gets said in your Monday meeting? The step to try: replace one social team building slot this quarter with one real conversation, everyone answering what do we most need to be able to say to each other, that we currently don’t? Then sit in the answers. Has your team building built a team, or just a memory? The Conversation Cost Scorecard tells you where the real work is: Access Here, Or book 20 minutes, no pitch: Let’s Chat Have fun Lee Co-founder of Get Knowledge Author of The People Puzzle |
You can’t away-day your way to one team (that’s not too easy to say fast)
