The Detrimental Impact of No Team Building and How VR Might Solve It
Teamwork makes the dream work, as the old saying goes, and it still rings true to this day. A business staff that works well together is capable of amazing things. However, that cohesion is easily lost when it isn’t properly honed. It’s important to sharpen your team’s ability to work together.
A fun and inventive way to do that in the modern day is through VR. Before we talk about the fun team-building exercises that VR is capable of, let’s talk about teamwork. Or more specifically, how the lack of it can lead to bad things for your business.
The Impact of No Teamwork In The Workplace
Here are some of the adverse effects that a lack of team building can have.
Workplace Politics
A lack of teamwork means every man and woman for themselves. That means people are more likely to drag people down to raise themselves. Workplace politics is something that you never want to have in your workplace. It breeds a culture of selfishness. This means every single process will be wracked with conflict.
Lack of Accountability
When there is no teamwork, people are less likely to speak up about mistakes. People are more likely to point fingers and save their skin. After all, what’s the point of endangering their careers for people they don’t even like? The danger of no teamwork is there’s no trust. That means mistakes are harder to rectify.
High Employee Turnover
A workplace that is individualistic leaves little room for growth or pleasantry. Most workers will not want to stick around for more than a year. This significantly impacts the growth of your business. Not only do you lose skilled workers, but you also have to train new employees. Said new employees will be immediately jaded by the lack of teamwork in the workplace, and repeat the cycle.
Stagnancy
A selfish workplace with a high turnover rate is not a good place for new ideas. Most people are too worried about keeping their jobs. Not to mention, workplace politics means that any new ideas are likely to be shot down by others. There is no unifying goal for the business to work towards other than survival. This makes for a stagnant workplace.
Inefficient
Overall, the bottom line is an incredibly inefficient team. Inefficiency costs precious time and resources for your company. A lack of communication, a common goal, or even motivation isn’t likely to be competitive. Many small businesses fail in their first two years because of this phenomenon.
How Does Team Building Help?
Team building is important in the same way sharpening a knife is important. A knife starts sharp but will dull after every use. Think of team building as the whetstone of teamwork. People are reminded of how effective they can be as a team when they participate in team-building activities.
Of course, team building is a tricky business. It’s very easy to fall into that “corporate cringe” many employees hate. You don’t want to be forcing employees into embarrassing activities against their will. It is your job as a leader to make team-building exercises that are exciting and engaging. To reap team-building benefits, it has to be voluntary.
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
Fun VR Team Building Activities
VR is an effective way to make people interested in team-building activities. Almost everybody is fascinated with new technology, and VR is about as new tech as you can get on an office budget. VR is immersive, fun, and most importantly, highly versatile. From mobile games to PC spectacles, these activities are all fun for the team.
Trust Puzzles
These are some of the most fun games to do in VR. Not only that, teamwork is essential. Trust games essentially involve one team member being in the VR world and the other one outside of it. Both of them see completely different things. They cannot solve the puzzle without each other’s knowledge and communication.
Games such as Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is the perfect use of VR. In this game, one person is forced to defuse a bomb with odd symbols and wires. Unfortunately, the manual is not seen by them. Only the player outside of the VR world can read the manual. This encourages teamwork in a tense but organic manner.
VR Party Games
These games are a more “sporty” alternative to brain teasers. VR Party Games such as Schlacks and The Take feature a ton of Mario Party-style minigames for the players to enjoy. These are all lighthearted and competitive. Remember, being competitive isn’t inherently bad. Sometimes, a little competition helps people realize what they’re good at/
Virtual Hangout
As a fun change of pace, why not try to hold an entire meeting in VR? For obvious reasons, do not do this for crucial meetings. If there are regular meetings where you just give little updates, being in a VR world with cartoony avatars should spice things up. Not to mention, it might encourage employees who are shy in face-to-face meetings to speak up more often.
About the author:
Chatty is a freelance writer from Manila. She finds joy in inspiring and educating others through writing. That's why aside from her job as a language evaluator for local and international students, she spends her leisure time writing about various topics such as lifestyle, technology, and business.