Team building is the main method to prevent a toxic work environment. These techniques bring teams together and promote collaborative work.
In recent years, the number of workers in Spain who voluntarily leave their jobs due to a toxic work environment has increased. This problem also leads to a decrease in productivity and a tendency to make mistakes that could be avoided in a cohesive team.
What is a toxic work environment?
This type of work environment is characterized by tension, arguments, and negative attitudes.
The components of a toxic work environment include:
- Authoritarian leadership: Bosses who do not listen to their employees’ opinions or fail to acknowledge their achievements.
- Poor communication: Communication does not flow, there is confusion, and work becomes difficult due to a lack of understanding or active listening.
- Mistrust and exclusion: Departments do not interact with each other, leading to exclusion. Such attitudes foster rumors and jealousy, resulting in complete distrust.
- Stress: Work overload or confusion in receiving and transmitting orders generates stressful situations that affect employees’ mental health.
- Job resignations: This type of environment causes employees to resign, leading to constant team changes and making unity impossible.
- Negative competitiveness: An environment that fosters extreme competitiveness turns the workplace into a battlefield with individual struggles. Collaboration among colleagues is non-existent.
Faced with this bleak scenario, one of the main solutions is team building, which consists of practices that foster team unity.
One of the most effective team building activities in Madrid are gymkhanas or Clue-type games that help coworkers get to know each other outside the work environment. Stepping out of the comfort zone allows employees to experience new sensations with their colleagues, helps create happy shared memories, and discover commonalities with other team members.
In a game, creativity and teamwork come into play as participants overcome unique challenges. When we play, we discover how we can cooperate and use our team’s skills to succeed.
Communication also flows, breaking down daily barriers. While solving a logic puzzle in a gymkhana or participating in a Clue-type game, conversations focus on the dynamics of the game, and, without realizing it, we communicate spontaneously with colleagues we barely know. After the activity, there will be no fear or shame in communicating.
Engaging in a team-building activity helps senior staff interact with employees naturally and without the stiff behaviors of everyday work. This facilitates the sharing of ideas and improves boss-employee relationships.
Offering fun and original experiences to employees makes them feel more valued and associate the workplace with a pleasant environment. Today, leisure is linked to quality of life, so providing entertainment to the work team regularly is very positive.
Team building is essential to avoid a toxic work environment and to create unbreakable relationships among employees within the company.
