What It Means
Team building is any deliberate effort to help a group of people work well together. It can mean an outing or a workshop, and it can also be built into everyday habits: how the team talks, plans, shares credit and handles mistakes. Google studied its own teams in a project called Project Aristotle, and its re:Work guide names five dynamics of effective teams that make a useful target for team building.
Try It: Pick What Your Team Needs Most
Pick the dynamic your team is weakest on. The meaning comes from Google's re:Work guide; the activity is Buhata's suggestion.
People feel safe taking risks and admitting what they don't know.
Members finish good work on time.
Roles, goals and plans are clear.
The work matters to each person personally.
People believe their work makes a difference.
Try thisStart the next meeting with the leader naming one mistake they made this month and what they learned.
Give every open item one named owner and a date, and review the list together each week.
Write who decides what on one page, and have each person read it back in their own words.
Ask each person which part of the job they'd keep if they could keep only one, and why.
Share one real result of last month's work, such as a customer's note or a number that moved.
How People Say It at Work
- "We're doing a team-building day next Friday."
- "Honestly, the best team building was fixing that project together."
- "Can we skip the trust falls this year?"
The Breakdown
The five dynamics, from Google's re:Work guide
| Dynamic | What it means |
|---|---|
| Psychological safetyPsychological safetyA shared belief on a team that it's safe to speak up, ask questions, admit mistakes and disagree without being embarrassed or punished. See more | Members feel safe taking risks and being vulnerable in front of each other |
| Dependability | Members finish quality work on time |
| Structure and clarity | Roles, goals and plans are clear |
| Meaning | The work is personally important to each member |
| Impact | Members believe their work matters |
How to plan team building that lasts (Buhata's suggestion)
- Ask the team, anonymously if needed, which of the five feels weakest.
- Pick one dynamic to work on for the next month or quarter.
- Choose one habit that builds it into regular work, such as a weekly reviewWeekly reviewA regular session, usually weekly, where you clear your inboxes, bring your lists and calendar up to date and decide what matters next. See more of who owns what.
- Add a social event if people want one, as a bonus rather than the whole plan.
- Ask again at the end of the period and compare.
Try it today. Ask your team one question: "What's one thing that would make this team easier to work in?"
Good to Know
Buhata's suggestion: keep activities inside work hours where you can, make them optional, and pick ones everyone can join, whatever their health, family duties or budgetBudgetA plan for a set period, usually a month, that lists the money you expect to receive and how you'll spend or save it. See more. If someone tells you about harassment or bullying during an activity, pass it to HR as a report.
FAQ
What are good team-building activities for work?
The ones tied to what the team lacks. A short weekly check on who owns what builds dependability, and a leader sharing a mistake builds psychological safety. A lunch or outing is a nice extra on top.
What did Google's Project Aristotle find?
Google's re:Work guide lists five dynamics of effective teams: psychological safety, dependability, structure and clarity, meaning, and impact. Harvard Business School Online reports that its highest-performing teams had high psychological safety.
Does team building work for remote teams?
The habits travel well, such as clear owners, regular reviews and leaders admitting mistakes. They need written channels and video calls instead of a shared room.
Do It in Buhata
Team Space and Tasks
Ask your team in a Team Space thread which of the five dynamics feels weakest, then add the one habit you agree on to Tasks with an owner.
Open BuhataRelated Terms and Categories
- Psychological safety
A shared belief on a team that it's safe to speak up, ask questions, admit mistakes and disagree without being embarrassed or punished.
- One-on-one meeting
A regular private meeting between a manager and one person who reports to them, used for check-ins, feedback, problems and career growth.
- Constructive feedback
Specific, fact-based feedback that describes what someone did and its effect, so they can keep doing it or change it.
- OKRs
Objectives and Key Results: a goal-setting method that pairs a clear objective with a few measurable results showing whether it was reached, usually set each quarter.
- Toxic workplace
A workplace where disrespect, hostility, unfairness or abuse are common enough to harm the people who work there; some of that conduct is also unlawful.
- Sprint retrospective
The last Scrum event of each Sprint, where the Scrum Team looks at how it worked and picks the changes most likely to make it more effective.
Sources
Google re:Work, "Understand team effectiveness"; Harvard Business School Online, "4 Characteristics of an Effective Team"
- rework.withgoogle.com/intl/en/guides/understand-team-effectiveness
- online.hbs.edu/blog/post/characteristics-of-an-effective-team
Last updated .