What are the Goals and Objectives of a Team Building Workshop?

In any Organisation, and at any level, a facilitated Team Building workshop can be a possible route to improve the Team and to foster high performance.  A Team is a powerful entity, as we know from sport. A high performing Team not only achieves success, but also has dynamism and an energy that nurtures individual high achievement and a high degree of job satisfaction.

The Overall Objective

The overall objective of any Team Building Workshop should be that your Team is further down the road towards achieving the status of a high performing Team. This is a useful theme for the workshop, as it keeps the Team thinking forward to where we want to be, and planning how we can get from where we are now to the forward vision.

This fundamental objective gives us a framework that should be part of any Team Building Workshop -

1. Where are we now?
2. Where do we want to be?
3. How will we get there?

This framework can be used on a Team Build Workshop to address either or both of the 2 separate branches of the Team’s goals and objectives –

1. The Team’s objectives regarding our Team purpose, our Team goals and performance targets
2. The Team’s objectives regarding our Teamwork, how we effectively we work together to achieve our Team purpose and objectives

Both strands will come together at the end of the Team Building workshop, in the form of strategies, plans and actions to take us forward.

Team Purpose Objectives and Goals

When addressing our Team Goals and achievements in a Team Building Workshop, it is useful to begin with a fresh look at your Team purpose and where it fits in the Organisation purpose.  It is also important to identify the Organisation’ strategic goals and the goals the Organisation has given the Team, as this is our context.

The objective in a Team Building Workshop then is to ask ourselves –

1. How well placed are we to achieve our Team Goals?
2. What are our strengths as a Team? What have we got to achieve these goals?
3. What is blocking, or preventing us from achieving?
4. What do we need to improve or develop to achieve success?

Our Goals in terms of Teamwork

Teamwork is the way we work together to achieve our goals. It includes our values, attitudes, relationships, and Team processes. The key to removing blocks and moving forward in a Team is to identify what PROCESS can we use to improve on this issue? There will always be a Team process that will improve relationship issues, effective work practices or blocks to high performance.

To move forward as a Team, it is useful to think in terms of Tuckman’s Stages of Team Development. This will give us a good objective framework to identify where we are, and where we want to be.

In the Team Building Workshop, the Team can –

1. Review and assess their current Stage of Team Development
2. Identify their future vision, where we want to be as a Team. This involves both a vision and clearly identified goals.
3. Identify clear short term goals, the next steps we must achieve to move them to the next level
4. Plan how we will do this, strategies and actions to achieve those next steps.

Planning the Team’s Way Forward

Taking the 2 strands of goals together, the Team can sift out the mission critical areas for future development. A good Team Building Workshop should finish with a brainstorm and planning session so that the Team has a plan for improving each specific issue. They leave with action plans and new Team Processes to enable the Team to work effectively together.