 Corporate Social
Responsibility Best Practices
Team
Building Through Community Initiatives
Offices that serve together stay together
By
Debra Faulk
“Talent wins games, but
teamwork and intelligence wins championships.”
- Michael Jordan
Many types of employees and
work groups exist in organizations, making it
challenging to achieve effective teamwork. That is why
team-building programs are essential to all companies,
no matter how large or small.
Team-building events help improve communication, tap
into creativity, maximize resources, teach how to deal
with change, enhance leadership skills, and increase
productivity. Team-building events break down normal
office barriers, enabling staff to interact in a
different way, completely divorced from the day-to-day
work activities. It gives people an opportunity to
extend themselves beyond their comfort zone in an
environment where morale, individual fulfillment, and
fun all occur at the same time.
Imagine introducing a team-building program into your
organization that not only does all this, but also
increases employee loyalty, makes you a more desirable
employer, and delivers substantial community benefits!
Compassionate
action
Today’s workplace programs
need to appeal to the changed priorities of the
available workforce, with younger employees preferring
to work for a company whose values are aligned with
their own. “Meaning” is making a comeback. Employees are
no longer motivated by awards and trophies that gather
dust in the work cubicles. They want non-material
benefits from their work.
Companies can respond to the needs of the new workforce
by integrating community service into their
team-building strategy. Organizing and implementing a
community service project is like a microcosm of the
working world — people working together for a common
goal, with deadlines and limited resources. Yet, unlike
at the workplace, employees can see immediate results
that deliver benefits outside the company. Community
service team building projects help colleagues get to
know each other better without the pressure of formal
networking. There is a real sense of satisfaction when
seeing the finished job at the end of the day and
knowing that you have done something to help others. It
is a team-building event with a difference.
There are so many opportunities to utilize community
service as a team-building event, whether it is for an
afternoon, a full day, or recurring days. Events can
include building a home with Habitat for Humanity,
creating a community playground with the support of
KaBOOM!, or painting an after-school center for the Boys
& Girls Clubs. Organize your employees to clean up a
river through Keep America Beautiful, get a group
walking for American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life or
March of Dimes’ WalkAmerica, or ask your employees to
plan and implement their own, unique service project.
Sometimes the best lesson isn’t a better communication
strategy or a fresh way to improve productivity; it is
this opportunity to see co-workers in a new and positive
light. Maybe the head of the company paints poorly, but
another employee is the star of the day. Or a managing
director cannot complete a task like tearing down a
damaged wall without the help of the entry-level
assistant. When office hierarchies go out the window,
new leaders can emerge and new friendships are formed.
Laboring side by side on a volunteer project gives
employees the opportunity to build relationships that
enhance their communication and productivity when they
return to the office.
Bond, boost
and benefit
Involving staff with a
charity on a more regular basis through a community
service-oriented team-building program is excellent for
motivation and solidarity. Likewise, charity focused
team-building days can be amazingly creative and
different. The charity gets the opportunity to interact
with an audience it would never normally have access to,
plus it receives vital financial support. The spin-offs
from this mutually beneficial situation are
considerable. Companies and charities can establish an
ongoing relationship that might include volunteering,
careers, legal, financial, and marketing advice, payroll
giving, and sponsorship.
Participants walk away with an integrated set of skills,
knowledge, and plans to renew team spirit, enhance
performance, and improve team leadership. When these
skills are applied, teams are stronger, more productive,
and more aligned in purpose than ever before.
Team building: Any exercise or program that helps a
group of interdependent people create long-term behavior
change resulting in a more efficient or productive
culture.
- Doug Staneart, The Leader’s Institute
To create a team-building
community service project with one of the nonprofit
organizations mentioned, please visit their web site to
find an affiliate organization in your area.
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Debra Kent Faulk is
principal of Tampa-based DKF Connects, a socially
conscious marketing services firm specializing in public
relations, social marketing, and strategic partnerships.
For more information call (813) 258-2599 or visit.
www.DKFConnects.com. |
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Published September 2007,
Volume 1, Number 6,
Bay
Area Business Magazine
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