The Absurdity of Life...Through Team Building

On Tuesday, we were informed that there would be a mandatory meeting after school for all staff. We were to gather on the front lawn. That was it. No other details. As I was sitting in the hallway for my break, I heard one of the quality assurance staff members talking about water balloons.

The first thought in my head? "Crap. It's another 'team building' thing."

Oh, dear reader. It was.

I am not a fan of team building activities at my facility for the simple reason that they do not actually build teams. This term is bandied about for things that people think will be fun, but there is no learning about the people that you work with during these times. I find them to be absurd, especially because the only people who seem to find value in these situations are the people who put them on.

We were split into four teams, given a ball and a baseball bat, told to spin (which no one did that I saw), then try to hit the ball, and then move to the pitching spot. The first team that got through everyone won. Oh, and I did not mention that the people who were "hosting" this particular meeting were going to be throwing random water balloons at all of us. At the end of it all, we had to take team pictures ("See what types of FUN things we do at insert facility name here!"), and then we were told that we had so much fun.

That's right. We were told that we had fun.

How is that a team building exercise? There was no communication between team members. There was no opportunity to learn a bit more about how we work together towards our common mission statement. There was no opportunity to engage in any sort of meaningful connection. We were told how to feel about the entire thing.

I'm not sure it worked. I know I feel unfulfilled and the comments from others that I passed in the walk back to my music therapy room seemed to be in the same sort of vein. 

Now, my response to all of this is one that may not be shared by others, but I want to spend my time in a professional manner that actually serves my clients in some way. Not spinning around to see who is going to get dizzy (I can't spin due to a chronic vestibular disorder) and then get plastered by a water balloon so you can drive home completely wet. Ha. Slap-stick is not my type of comedy and watching my co-workers have to go through these things is not my idea of fun. At all.

Now, if this team building activity had included some sort of working together toward a common goal rather than just waiting in line to do your stunt, there might have been some learning about the team going on. This element was absent. We could have done a much larger relay where we selected people for specific tasks to get to a common goal. So, two people on the team could have been chosen to be pitchers, two could be batters, two more could be fielders, and another two could be runners. We could have engaged in a bit of finding out what sort of roles people would like and could have learned a bit about each other. It didn't, and we didn't. I can only tell you one other person that was on my team - and it was the person I pitched to. I can't even remember who pitched the ball to me.

But, I was told that I had fun.

If you are ever in the situation where you are in charge of team building things, please remember that you can't build a team when you don't offer opportunities to interact as a team.

I was told that I had fun.

(In the interest of full disclosure, I kinda went on a rant about yet another team building mandatory meeting that is in the near future, but I decided that I couldn't post that on a public forum. This type of thinking has to be a bit more private, just in case.)

I was told I had fun.