11/08/2026
Hand on heart: how effective is your team building? Honestly!
I ask because I often see team leaders relying solely on social events for team building, such as drinks or lunches. Social events are an important building block of team working as they help break down barriers and build bonds. But they are less suited to improving how well a team performs.
Why?
Social events don't facilitate deep conversation, sharing ideas or working together on problems. Conversations may stay superficial and learning shallow. Your team members may like each other better after a social event, but they may still act as individual performers rather than a team.
That's why it's important to use more constructive events as part of your team building strategy, such as:
▶️ Events where the team creates a joint vision, e.g. what values or service standards they want to adopt.
▶️ Events where they solve a specific work-related problem, e.g. how to streamline customer onboarding.
▶️ Events where team members explore and celebrate the differences in their motivations, perspectives and values, such as an Enneagram team exploration event (my favourite).
This kind of work has the potential to create genuine shifts: team members apply new ways of talking to each other. They start reaching out to each other when they hit a problem instead of solving it alone. And, most importantly, they move from judgment to compassion for each other's differences and look for ways to leverage them.
Social events work best AFTER a deeper team building event, when people are still buzzing from the themes they discussed.
When was the last time you created the space for your team to connect deeply and intentionally?
Message me if you would like to explore how this could support your team and leadership goals..
Enneagram Team Events: https://enneagramgrowthjourneys.com/enneagram-for-teams/
LEGO® Serious Play Team Events: https://hansschumann.com/lego-serious-play/
