Are team building and teamwork the same?

Teamwork and team building have many similarities and overlapping benefits, but there are certain differences that mean they shouldn’t be treated the same. However, each does support the other.

Teamwork is the collaboration between two or more employees who are all working together in order to achieve a common goal. It involves using each others’ strengths to produce the best results on time and on budget.

Team building focuses more on leadership by motivating and inspiring employees, and identifying which employees have the relevant skills and strengths to make up the best possible team. Team building brings employees together by effectively, as the name suggests, building a team. It allows team members to get to know each other and understand how they work and how they can collaborate.

Team building will always come before teamwork can start. Once a team has been built, the employees within that team can begin to work together to achieve their objectives. The groundwork for good teamwork is good team building.

Why is team building important in business?

As we’ve already highlighted, without first building a strong team, there can’t be effective teamwork. Team building ensures a team has the best possible start, with benefits including:

• Ensures a team has all the necessary skills to reach its goals
• Builds trust
• Establishes clear expectations
• Allows for open and honest communication
• Makes sure the team can be productive from the outset
• Promotes learning and development
• Prevents conflict
• Builds company culture

Why is teamwork important in business?

Your individual employees may be among the best your industry has to offer. However, without coming together as a team, their work will never be as strong as it could be if they had all the appropriate skills.

Teamwork is critical for a number of reasons, including:

• Increases productivity
• Allows for better problem-solving
• Increases creativity
• Encourages innovation
• Improves morale and culture
• Helps develop individual employees
• Can prevent burnout
• Builds trust and respect
• Leads to fewer mistakes

Why does your business need to offer team building and teamwork training to your employees?

The goal of every team is to produce the best work possible. In order to do this, every member of the team must understand their role, the importance of the work they do, and how they can contribute towards the overall success of that team. Effective team building and teamwork are both skills that can be learned by every single member of your organization.

When your employees take a teamwork course, it ensures they’re aligned and understand what’s expected of them. It teaches them the standard they have to meet in order to be contributing members of the team.

Similarly, the same training will help new starters adapt so they can seamlessly enter the team to hit the ground running. Training also establishes you as an employer that values its employees.

Training not only benefits your organization, but your employees too. When employees have trust in each other it boosts morale and confidence. This helps increase engagement and job satisfaction, which in turn decreases employee turnover.

What are key team-building skills?

Many skills are shared by both team building and teamwork. As we’ve already covered, they go hand in hand with ensuring your employees are fully equipped to be as productive, efficient, and supportive as possible.

However, certain skills are more closely linked with team-building. These include:

• Being able to motivate others to keep them engaged
• Leadership skills
• Conflict resolution
• The ability to make decisions
• Effective and fair delegation
• Being a great listener, including active listening
• Having patience and understanding
• Being empathetic

What are key teamwork skills?

Many of the above skills, such as empathy and patience, are also transferable to teamwork. However, there’s much more to being a great team player, and key teamwork skills include:

• Collaboration
• Communication
• Planning and organization
• Problem-solving
• Trust
• Reliability
• Accountability
• Honesty
• Self-awareness

What's the best way for employees to learn team building and teamwork?

There are two key ways in which employees can learn about effective team building and teamwork:

• In-person training
• Online training courses

As teamwork involves a lot of collaboration, in-person training can be a great way to develop a group of employees. This ensures that every employee learns from the same tutor or material. However, classroom-based learning can be time-consuming and expensive, especially as team building and teamwork involve many different skills. It can also interfere with employees’ day-to-day responsibilities.

Online training courses allow employees to learn in their own time, as they’re completely self-directed. Employees also learn from the same material, ensuring consistent learning across your organization.

The benefits of learning team building and teamwork via eLearning?

Because eLearning courses are so flexible, they’re a fantastic way for employees to develop their team-building and teamwork skills. Course materials can be accessed as and when employees have the time to learn, allowing for microlearning - which in itself helps with engagement and retention.

eLearning is also a more affordable way to develop employees and is easily scalable. If your organization utilizes a learning management system (LMS) your admins can track which employees are engaging with courses. This ensures you can provide additional support for employees who may need it.

What are some of the best team-building and teamwork courses?

Another reason why eLearning is a great way to develop your employees is that there are many courses available to access right now covering everything from the fundamentals to advanced topics.

Below are just some of the online teamwork and team-building training courses available here at Go1:

• Successful Teamwork
• Teamwork
• Reinforce Great Teamwork
• Creating a Strong Team Culture
• Team Building: Measuring Team Performance
• Team Work-Life Balance
• Open Communication & Teamwork - Workplace Excellence Series

Train your employees in team building and teamwork today

Ready to enroll your employees in a team building or teamwork course? Go1 has a wide range of eLearning courses produced by industry experts that can be accessed instantly. For more information on how Go1 can help support your organization with developing and upskilling staff, book a demo today.