**Collaborative post**
Every business office runs according to its own philosophy, even if it only differs in marginal ways from the business the floor above in the same building. That’s because the personalities and priorities that comprise good office management and use will often determine if a team works efficiently in that space or not.
It’s also interesting to see how measures that are hard to measure can have such an impact on office synergies. Putting it simply – if your team doesn’t like one another, if the social experience is somewhat frayed, and if there’s a lack of investment in team building, even the most expensive and well-designed office is going to suffer for it.
Yet as a new manager, you may wish to avoid some of the artificial, boring, tiresome, and often hollow “team-building” activities we often see pushed as a remedy for this. You may be wondering – are there ways in which to perfect team building without forced fun or somewhat by-the-numbers social improvement?
There absolutely are. Take a look at this post to learn more:
Refreshment & Comfort Areas
It’s nice to have an office space that not only feels accommodating to the working needs of our staff but also to the daily need for comfort, refreshments, and rejuvenation. Using a water cooler company to provide a worthwhile water cooler section where staff can relax, talk, and perhaps use the kitchen facilities and tables nearby can be great. It’s even better if there’s a cleaning rota where certain staff have to clean the space once a month, so it always seems inviting. If you can, investing in free coffee and light refreshments also works. This approach is much more organic than anything else.
Enjoy Team Outings
There’s a funny internet joke that suggests school trips are wasted on the youth, because how fantastic would it be for an adult to be paid to go and learn how a local factory works while also having that arranged as part of their productive skills-learning development. But you actually can put that into practice. Why not book staff on appropriate trips for the purpose of rounding off their skills, but without any unnecessary team-building experiences that “action days” are designed for corporate teams could have? If you run a business in a certain field, visiting some of the industry leaders could inspire your staff.
Have A No-Tolerance Policy
To curate healthier relationships in the office, you need to stamp out behaviours that could possibly drag people down. Bullying, mockery, harassment, and discrimination—all of these should be addressed immediately, and you can allow for the reporting of such difficulties through a clear, confidential, open-door policy that shows everyone is welcome. This way, you can avoid one person bringing the team down and causing friction between employees or allowing a manager to feel immune to such reprimands. Unfortunately, sometimes poorly socialised offices will need negative influences to be addressed before they can thrive.
With this advice, we hope you can keep your office friendly but without artificial team-building efforts of any kind. Your team are certain to show the best of themselves!
