Six Effective Ways To Improve Team Morale And Bonding

Team building is key to the success of your employees. When there is tension or rifts between the members of your department, it can slow down processes, severely hamper creativity and decrease overall employee satisfaction—things that you definitely want to avoid.

But by using some team building techniques, you can break any tension brewing in your team, as well as help team members create stronger connections. To help, we asked members of Forbes Coaches Council to weigh in on some of the most effective ways organizations can build morale and improve team bonding. Here is what they recommend:

1. Create A Culture Of Play

It can be challenging as a company to do something that is not directly supporting goals and the bottom line. Having “business” agendas while building morale can be a morale killer. If you are doing something to build morale and develop a team, then make that the focus. A great way to appreciate the team and create space for this type of culture and environment is by creating a culture of play. Not all companies can have the “rec center,” but something as small as hosting consistent monthly or quarterly company gatherings with provided food and drink can be significant. Build on the event but making it a regular time to celebrate wins for that month or quarter. Planning activities that just allow people to relax and enjoy each other is also important: Some ideas include things like a watermelon eating contest, chili cook-off, attending a ball game, etc. – Christy Geiger, Synergy Strategies

2. Promote A Social Cause Your Team Can Get Behind

Find a social cause that lines up with your company culture. Use your culture as your guide and then organize company events to bring people together around it. It’s a great way to bring your culture to life. – Dominic Rubino, BizStartPlan.com

3. Create Cross-Functional Mentorship Programs

Organize cross-functional mentorship programs whereby employees are able to work with a department head from a different functional group to gain more awareness of their broader team’s objectives, and also have the ability to learn from someone that is their direct supervisor. This will foster more open communication! – Debbie Ince, Executive Talent Finders

4. Provide Opportunities For Personal Growth

I recommend opportunities for personal growth as well as compassion training within the company container, with the goal to increase awareness on the part of the employees, in order to build morale and improve team bonding. – Natalie Ehmka, Natalie Ehmka Coaching & Consulting

5. Create A Developmental Framework

Develop people at the appropriate level, whether through coaching, peer coaching, mentoring or structured and well-planned leadership development experiential activities. Pay deep attention to inclusion and hierarchical intelligence and how people can engage appropriately in the hierarchy. Develop programs and teams dedicated to innovation projects. Change performance review processes into coaching and developmental feedback. Trade an evaluative framework for a developmental framework. Pay attention to which groups are really teams and which ones are just groups of people with the same reporting relationships. Give actual teams attention and tools to understand and encourage high-performance team development. Spend more time with team assessment and appropriate intervention than with generic team building and morale building activities, etc. – Felice Tilin, Groupworks Consulting LLC

6. Encourage Joining Professional Associations

Organizations that encourage their employees to engage in external professional associations—such as Women’s Professional Organization, American Marketing Association, and Society for Human Resource Management—have an advantage over organizations that do not. Professional associations and membership offer peer networking, learning, collaboration, and often leadership development that is needed to support employee engagement and increased productivity. When organizations invest in development for their employees, they create value for accelerated organizational growth and economic wellness. – Lori Harris, Harris Whitesell Consulting