By DUX Laser Tag

05/03/2017 What is team building?
As the name suggests, team building is about building up a team and not a group of people. The difference between a team and a group of people is that the former works strongly together whereas the latter are just individuals being placed together to perform tasks with no synergy whatsoever.
Team building is a collective term for different types of activities that enables social relationships with one another and defining roles among team members or departments that will enhance efficiency. Team building is being widely used for group-development activities in organizations. Out of all such activities, one study found out that team-development based ones provided the strongest effect in improving organizational performance.
Gathering people to perform activities isn’t so simple. Most find it lame and boring with the typical “not-again” mindset. However, it can’t be stressed enough on how important an investment team building is for a company and its people.
Why is team building important?
Environment is the top reason why employees leave a company. Who or what is the environment, you may ask? The people working in the company is the environment! A study conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for 19,000+ employees discovered that the top reason why people leave is due to the environment and NOT money. To be exact, 72% has to do with non-money related reasons.
Team building helps bring employees and employers together out of the normal work timing, to pause at work, realign themselves with the company’s vision and mission in a fun and engaging manner. It also helps realign goals and direction of the team or department, allowing each other to understand their working style and let team members find creative solutions to a problem. Team building builds trust, mitigates conflict, encourages communication and increases collaboration between team members. Effective team building also mean more engagement among employees which improves company culture.
How to select a team building company?
The most basic criteria in choosing a team building company is checking to see if they are interested in understanding your company’s values or what you want your employees to gain, and not the budget, location, timing and attendance. Because one, that shows they value learning and growing. Two, they wish to form a long term relationship based on trust rather than earning your money in the short run.
The next criteria would be to check their history on the materials or tools that were being used. Are they cheap, old and simple products that can be easily procured with a few dollars? If so, why then are you paying so much? Most would reply with the standard phrase of, “It is not the tools that are important, but the user”.
My answer would be that the right person must have the right tools. Would you carry on using a 2G phone when you have access to a smartphone? Similarly, a good team building company keeps their equipment and tools updated. With the world evolving at such a rapid rate, it doesn’t make sense to continue using old tools, when new ones will improve one’s results by leaps and bounds.

How can laser tag can help you in team building?
Laser tag is THE new activity in town. With new missions each time you play it, it will always be a brand new experience. Not only is it safe, but it also brings out the adrenaline within you through the excitement!
Improvement in communication is also a key benefit as it allows employees to engage with one another throughout each mission. Ranging from strategical discussion to actually executing the plan, thoughts and ideas are being exchanged constantly. Furthermore, there will always be a change in circumstances, because, how many times have our plan happened the way we wanted it to be?
This gives the players a realistic view of how the real works and that adapting to changes is key in achieving their goals. What’s most important is what everyone learns at the end of the day.}
Individuals will be given opportunities to voice out their opinions and propose solutions to achieve the mission objectives. Through the missions, employees will reveal their true selves that aren’t usually seen in their daily lives or work, and this promotes greater understanding with one another.
Trust is also enhanced as it is a key ingredient to the success of the mission as everyone needs to fulfil their job or responsibilities placed upon them. If objectives aren’t achieved, the team will then evaluate what when wrong and make the necessary adjustments.

I hope this shows how important team building applies to the context of your company’s values, vision, mission and culture. By allowing them to experience what your company stands for, will leave a much greater impact as compared to just conveying it in words.