Well designed and facilitated team building exercises can be very effective in building productive and cohesive teams, especially if the team members do not know each other very well or have some reservations about the value of working as a team instead of alone.

Working alone can be preferable for many of us, so it can be very challenging to get people on the same page and working well together. On any team some personality types are just more comfortable working alone. Another may feel threatened and shut down by more dominant members of the team while another team member irritates everyone. For another team member its "my way or the highway" and there is no value for the styles or contributions of anyone else. A new team leader can become very overwhelmed but none of this is uncommon!

Well designed team building exercises, games and activities can be a great way to get a group who have been assigned a project or a task, to see the value in working together as a team. They can help to break the ice and build positive and respectful relationships between them. They can also provide ways to diffuse conflict and structures for solving problems which any team will encounter.

Such team exercises can help each person get to know and understand one another more personally. They can also help to facilitate effective team building as mutual trust and understanding begin to develop. A positive work culture can then be created where energy and morale is increased, along with work productivity.

Effective exercises which are facilitated well, can also help each team member work more strategically together, towards the same company goals and objectives.

They can also promote the personal development and confidence of each member of the team, by providing a positive working environment that is both respectful and encouraging to work in.

However a word of caution may be helpful. There are many good team building games, activities and exercises that are available but few of them will work without adequate thought and preparation; practice and rehearsal. This is true for either corporate team building or for church or community teams.

For sure there are some very gifted leaders who can "wing it" when it comes to facilitating team building exercises but for most, the effort of careful selection, planning and preparation, will be well worth the time. Such effort combined with well designed and effective team building exercises will produce a motivation within the team, to keep going until the team has accomplished its goals and fulfilled its purposes.