As the old saying goes, if you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life. And few professions seem to fit this description quite as well as Pro Athlete. Who wouldn’t want to get paid to workout and play a game, right? Well, it turns out even professional athletes need a break from the norm, which is why Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin opts to take his team out for a day of team building each offseason, foregoing one of the team’s 10 days of OTAs (Organized Team Activities). Last year, Tomlin took his team bowling. This year’s activity? A team trip to Dave & Buster’s.
“We acknowledge that camaraderie and togetherness is very much a part of team development,” says Tomlin. “Our closeness is going to get us out of tough situations. We know that. We show respect for that by taking a team activity day and doing something that fosters that togetherness and brotherhood.”
“This is awesome,” said Steelers safety Sean Davis. “Like Coach said, we have team bonding, working on building chemistry. We are a new team this year. If we want to start that process early, this is great. Coming out here instead of practicing serves a purpose.”
The same concepts hold true in the corporate world. According to a study by Bright Horizons, employees with high morale are more productive, and 89% more likely put in extra effort. In laymen’s terms, happy employees are productive employees. According to researchers at the University of Warwick, happiness makes people an estimated 12% more productive.
Tomlin has recognized this, and applied many of these business practices to his football team in an effort to increase morale during a long offseason.
“You get to have fun with the guys that you don’t always get to do at work,” says Steelers safety Mike Mitchell in regards to the team’s trip to Dave & Buster’s. “It’s good team bonding for us.”
Mitchell is exactly right. Team bonding activities can be a great way to boost morale and camaraderie. Many companies, many employers do the same thing, looking to boost morale through bonding activities, fun activities: company dinners, picnics, outings to Dave & Buster’s, etc. The problem: unless fundamental changes are made within a business, the benefits of team bonding activities will only be temporary. In order for morale to remain at a high level, changes must be made within an organization that change process for the better. This is where Team Building comes into play.
The term “Team Building” is often thrown around out of context to refer to morale building activities. However, team building is so much more than that. Team building is designed to bring employees (and employers) together to not only have fun, but also learn to work together in a constructive way. Team building is designed to help a business evolve and transform in a cohesive unit. You see, morale building is designed to increase happiness for a short period of time, while team building is designed to create a lasting change within an organization.
“The business world is in the midst of a sea change,” says David W. Ballard, PsyD, MBA, head of the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Psychologically Healthy Workplace Program. “Successful organizations have learned that high performance and sustainable results require attention to the relationships among employee, organization, customer and community.
Team Building with Terrapin Adventures
“Team developmental interventions are key mechanisms that may be used to facilitate team effectiveness,” writes Raymond Noe inEmployee Training and Development.
Conveniently located between Baltimore and Washington DC, Terrapin Adventures is able to create a customized team building programs (onsite or offsite, indoor or outdoor) to help better your business. Presented in a fun and creative way, team building exercises challenge your group to step out of their comfort zones and encourage them to work together to solve certain tasks. These simple exercises help break down communication barriers and foster trust, which will, in turn, help promote teamwork and collaboration.
After each team building exercise, your group will sit down with their facilitator to discuss the lessons behind each activity and how they translate to the business world. This discussion is designed to reinforce these lessons and help ensure that the progress made during your team building outing sticks.
Schedule Your Corporate Team Building Session!
Get in touch with a Guest Relations Specialist today and ask about how we can help you plan your team building event.
If you have any questions, please call Terrapin Adventure at 301.725.1313, or email us at info@terrapinadventures.com to learn more.
Works Cited
- Cutlip, Teresa. “Team building, engagement factor into workplace success.” GSA Business News . N.p., 30 May 2017. Web. 07 June 2017.
- Kulkarni , Rhucha . “Team Building: A Must for Virtual Teams.” HR Technologists. N.p., 5 June 2017. Web. 7 June 2017.
- Florio, Mike. “Tomlin scraps OTA on Monday, take players to Dave & Buster’s instead.” ProFootballTalk. NBC Sports, 6 June 2017. Web. 07 June 2017.
- Varley, Teresa. “Fun and games instead of football .” Pittsburgh Steelers. N.p., 5 June 2017. Web. 07 June 2017.
- Noe, R. A. (2002). Employee training and development (2nd ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill.