The Science of Team Building

Team building is like taking a group of people who work together and helping them become a real team. It's about them getting to know how each person works, trusting and supporting each other, and respecting that everyone is different. Read more about team building in our blog: What is Team Building: Importance, Activities & Tips for Workplace Success.

In today's work world, team building is very important for helping people work well together, come up with new ideas, and feel good about their jobs. It's not just about fun activities; it really helps corporate teams be more productive and feel more involved, especially when they're working from different places.

Do Team Building Exercises Actually Build a Team?

Yes! Team building is a continuous process that helps a group of individuals become a united and effective team. It helps people share what they expect from each other, build trust and support, and respect everyone's unique contributions.

Studies have shown that team building significantly improves team performance. For example, research indicates that team-building activities make teams better at working together, solving problems, and communicating, especially in sports and at work. 

One study found that the team-building exercises that worked best lasted for more than two weeks and had the biggest impact on teams of people aged 15 to 20. This suggests that activities that really involve people for a longer time create the most lasting positive changes in how a team works together.

A study that looked at many different pieces of research (a meta-analysis) by Salas et al. (2008) found that well-planned team-building activities can boost how well a team performs by 20% or even more. The exercises that are most effective focus on solving problems, building trust, and improving communication, as these things directly help with real teamwork in the workplace. 

Activities like escape rooms, group brainstorming, and taking turns being a leader all help teams develop important skills like problem-solving, critical thinking, being adaptable, and working together—all of which are essential for teams to do well at work. 

Check out some case studies of successful team building.

How Teams Grow: The Science Behind It

There are some well-known ideas about how teams develop and get better. One of the most famous is called Tuckman's Stages of Group Development. It says that teams usually go through five steps: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning.

1. When a team first comes together (forming), everyone is usually nice and a bit unsure, looking to the leader for what to do. They try to avoid disagreements to fit in.
2. Then comes the storming stage, which is normal. People start to share their opinions more and might disagree. This is important for working through different ideas.
3. After that, in the norming stage, the team starts to feel like a unit. They set rules for how they'll work together. People start to trust each other and express their feelings in a better way.
4. The performing stage is when the team is really working well. They're flexible, everyone knows their role, and they can work together and alone to get things done.
5. Finally, adjourning happens when the team finishes its work, like at the end of a project, and the team breaks up.

This shows that disagreements are not always bad; they're part of how a team grows. Team-building activities can be designed to help teams get through the storming phase by teaching them how to talk things out and solve problems. Also, because teams can go back to earlier stages if new people join or things change, team building needs to be ongoing. This means that keeping a team working well together takes effort.

Besides Tuckman's model, other ideas explain how teams get better. Bass and Ryterband's model (1979) says it's important to build trust, have good communication, keep people motivated, and have ways to manage the team. Woodcock's model (1979) talks about teams going from not knowing what they're doing to being really good and always trying to improve. Adair's Three Circles Model shows that it's important to get the task done, build the team as a whole, and help each person grow. These different ideas tell us that team building should look at all these different parts of how a team works.

There are also some key scientific ideas that help make a team great:

• Psychological Safety: Everyone on the team feels comfortable taking risks, sharing ideas, and admitting when they make a mistake without being afraid of getting in trouble or being judged. Research from Google's Project Aristotle found that psychological safety is the most important thing for a team to work well. It leads to open communication, new ideas, and better problem-solving.
• Oxytocin and Trust: Brain science shows that when people on a team trust each other, their brains release a hormone called oxytocin, which helps with working together, being creative, and solving problems.
• Shared Purpose and Clear Goals: When everyone on the team knows what they're trying to achieve and how their work helps, they feel more motivated and the team works better.
• Diverse Skills: Teams work best when people have different skills that fit together, like technical knowledge, problem-solving abilities, and people skills like communication and empathy.
• Mutual Accountability: Everyone feels responsible for both the good things and the bad things that happen. This shared responsibility builds trust and leads to better results.
• Good Communication: Teams that work well have clear ways to share information, solve disagreements, and make decisions, making sure everyone gets a chance to speak and that things are open and honest.

How Can Team Building Practices Help Employees?

Team building goes beyond improving team performance—it also has a profound impact on how employees feel and interact in the workplace. One of its most significant benefits is fostering psychological safety, as stated before, where employees feel confident to speak up, share ideas, and take risks without fear of judgment or repercussions. This sense of safety is crucial for innovation, open communication, and collaboration.

Team building also plays a key role in reducing workplace stress, improving relationships, and boosting employee engagement. According to a study from the Harvard Business Review, employees in high-trust environments experience 74% less stress, are 50% more productive, and report 40% less burnout. These outcomes highlight how team building contributes to a healthier, more supportive work culture.

Structured team-building activities, such as problem-solving games, communication workshops, and outdoor challenges, help employees connect with one another, feel valued, and stay motivated. When employees feel a strong sense of belonging and trust within their team, they are more likely to be loyal, engaged, and committed to the organization’s goals. Additionally, team building helps individuals recognize their own strengths and weaknesses, as well as those of their colleagues, leading to greater self-awareness and job satisfaction.

Conclusion

To sum up, team building works because it's based on scientific principles. It makes teams stronger by building trust and safety, improving communication and teamwork, creating shared goals, developing responsibility, using everyone's skills, and making it easier to solve disagreements. 

These ideas come from well-known theories about how groups develop and match the scientific principles of high-performing teams.

From a scientific point of view, team building has many benefits for employees, including more motivation and engagement, better overall well-being and less burnout, and more chances for personal and professional growth. 

Therefore, planning and consistently using team-building practices is not just a good idea but essential for creating teams that work well together and perform at a high level within organizations. This leads to better productivity, more innovation, and ultimately helps the organization succeed and last. 

Ready to take your team to the next level? Check Sherlocked's team-building activities in Amsterdam.

Supporting Articles

• Examining the Effect of Teamwork and Employee Job Satisfaction in an Organisation 
• The impact of team-building interventions on team cohesion in sports teams: A meta-analysis 
• Team cohesion profiles in athletes: Relationship with mental skills and stress management 
• Psychological Safety and Behavioral Integration as Antecedents of Management Team Effectiveness: The Moderating Role of Task Complexity 
• Just Feeling Like Part of a Team Increases Motivation on Challenging Tasks