Bright Activity

Every employer should want to boost morale, increase staff communication and ultimately increase proficiency, so why don’t all companies send their staff on team development events?

Maybe it’s because some of these events can suffer from the fact they evoke bad thoughts – many connected to the farcical events pictured on television?

For certain, the wisdom of David Brent from television’s “The Office” have forced middle management personnel to consider themselves and wonder if that’s who they resemble.

Amongst Brent’s many, now infamous, quotes the one that most accurately shows his thinking about working as a team reads: “There may be no ‘I’ in team, but there’s a ‘ME’ if you look hard enough”.

Fans of the show will remember the funny instalment in which a team development expert visited the Wernam Hogg offices. David Brent rapidly took control, and changed the course into essentially a celebration of himself, including a rendition of his seminal 1980s pop ballad “Free Love on the Freelove Freeway” on the guitar.

Yet, in real life team development events are nothing like the cringe worthy and destructive nightmare depicted in The Office.

Many organisations across the UK now offer companies the chance to take their staff away from the office and out on a team building day.

Team building allows staff members to learn and develop the tools and skills essential to push business growth as well as sustain development and improvement.

And despite the worldwide recession, staff development remains crucial to the growth of a business. Actually, it’s even more important, as when the recession stops there will certainly be chances for the best-managed businesses to take advantage of the growing marketplace.

Team development can take many forms, from in-house education to going out into the great outdoors and undertaking adventure courses, high ropes trails and personal challenges – which will certainly inspire and be memorable for employees taking part.

All of these activities are fashioned to encourage staff – regardless of age and background – to work as part of a team for the common good of your company, and they all add to the common long-term goals of your business.

That’s why team development events are essential to the growth of any business. Just don’t follow the example of David Brent, whose policy for hiring new staff was simple: “Avoid employing unlucky people – throw half of the pile of CVs in the bin without reading them”.