A well-trained and cooperative team in the workforce is a positive force to be reckoned with, but one that is poorly trained can have just as significant of a negative impact. As budgets get tighter for companies across the board, more emphasis has been placed on using the existing resources that employees represent more efficiently rather than a constant cycle of recruitment, training and layoffs. This means not only training individual employees to bring out the best of their abilities, but training groups of employees to operate as a team to maximize productivity as well as profits for the company as a whole. Several approaches are heavily favored by the forward-minded company, including using a Team Builder to work directly with the team members, or hosting a company retreat to work intensively on team development over a weekend or several days.

When a Team Builder is working with their specified group and they will use several exercises intended to bring out the cooperative spirit of the party company. He or she will often focus on educating the group members about each of their fellow members, encouraging them to connect on an interpersonal level to foster a better working relationship back at the job site. Challenges are also another common tactic in team builder exercises, and can range from instructing the group to solve a series of challenging riddles or hypothetical situations using their innate talents as a collective whole. Some company party retreats even incorporate physical challenges in addition to mental ones, requiring that team members depend on one another for support, balance and strength to finish obstacles or even entire courses. These physically challenging party company retreats are usually of the overnight or several days, in order to give team members adequate time to prepare and rest between challenges.

The ultimate goal of Team Development retreats and team builder assistance is to provide the host company with a more agile, adaptable work force that is better suited to tackling new challenges with enthusiasm upon "graduating" the team's guidance course. Many team members that enter a retreat with skepticism about results emerge singing a different tune entirely, embracing the lessons learned and enthusiastically applying them to the day to day tasks back at work. The individual employees also benefit from the Company Party retreat experience personally, gaining better communication skills as well as great tips for working in any group, work-based or otherwise.

While the party company hosting the retreat or training does have to pay for the initial cost of the event, the benefits reaped from a well trained team in the workplace offer an exponential return on the "investment". When team members are educated in their personal strengths, their fellow team member's strengths, and how to work efficiently there's nearly no limit to what they can accomplish. After all, a sense of confidence and a well-honed eye for efficiency are two traits that are worth the cost all by themselves when put to use in a company's employees.

Team Building Exercises