Human psychology plays a role in whatever we do. There are pre-determined norms in which we act. These may vary but under ascertain circumstances the reactions are mostly the same.

Experiential learning, team building, and internal communication are on the must-do needs of all organisations who are looking for ways to build a productive team.

To make it easy for those struggling with their employee engagement problems, here is the go-through blog to sort out your worries…

Does psychology play a role in team-building events?

This blog will take you through the Pygmalion effects which can help you motivate your workforce to function effectively.

Take a look at the flow of the blog here…

Every organization is striving to achieve team building and employee engagement. To achieve harmony in an organization, it’s important to get your team enrolled in various team development programs.

However, many organizations ignore the concept of team bonding because they see it as a waste of time.

What they DON’T see is that unless employees are brought together and know each other well, they won’t know how to function as a team.

This will hamper their productivity which in turn will affect the organization’s progress.

You must make sure that all your employees believe in the importance of working as a team. Teamwork not only distributes workload but also raises the overall standard of the work done.

This is because every team member will be allotted with work that resonates with his/her expertise. In other words, you’re optimizing your workforce.

4 BLOGS TALKING ABOUT TEAM BUILDING ACTIVITIES THAT CAN TAKE YOUR BUSINESS TO THE NEXT LEVEL

But how exactly should you go about this optimization process?

Charles Kettering rightly said,

“High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation.”

Oftentimes, such high expectations are deemed false until they turn out to be true. But this trick only works if expectations are realistic and achievable.

Take a dig at this story to realize the transformative power of high expectations.

Pygmalion was a sculptor from Cyprus who fell in love with the statue of a beautiful woman he created. His work appeared to be so realistic that all the other women in the town paled in comparison before his work of art.

He expected so much out of his work that he started visualizing it like a real woman. Goddess Aphrodite then granted his wish and when he kissed the statue, it infused life into it.

In essence, your positive expectations can also build a productive team. A team whose goals are aligned with that of the organization.

Here is one more example of positive expectations blooming into positive results.

The Pygmalion effect was studied in detail in the elementary school setting by Rosenthal and Jacobson. They decided to experiment with students who were considered late bloomers.

The ‘late bloomers’ were termed as such because they progressed slower than the rest of the students. The late bloomers were chosen at random for the experiment.

The Pygmalion effect required teachers to have high expectations from them without any change in their methods of teaching.

To everyone’s surprise by the end of the year, there was a substantial increase in the grade of the chosen strata. The high expectation from teachers made students believe in their potential which was reflected in their performance.

Thus positive expectation leads to better performances that became self-fulfilling prophecies.

Team building events contribute to organizational success within a short

Can this virtuous cycle of self-fulfilling prophecies be applied to the workplace environment?

At work, we are constantly searching for ways to upgrade our performance. If you are managing a team, you’d seek ways to upscale the performance of your subordinates.

To make the Pygmalion effect work with your team, you must treat them like stars. You must set realistic goals for them and believe that they’ll achieve them.

More importantly, your subordinates should believe in themselves. This is called the Galatea effect.

Livingston describes this role of belief in one’s own abilities as follows:

“What managers believe about themselves subtly influences what they believe about their subordinates, what they expect of them, and how they treat them. If they have confidence in their ability to develop and stimulate subordinates to high levels of performance, they will expect much of them and will treat them with confidence that their expectations will be met. But if they have doubts about their ability to stimulate subordinates, they will expect less of them and will treat them with less confidence.”

Thus it can be concluded that examining your own beliefs about your subordinates is an essential part of the leveraging the Pygmalion effect for business success.

After setting expectations from your team members, the team manager must also go through some self-introspection. The leader must be very careful about not committing these 5 mistakes.

1. Comparison amongst team members during team building activities

A healthy comparison helps build strong teams. However, there’s only a thin line between competition and rivalry. It is okay to praise the person who has done a good job. But pointing this out to other team members with the intention of putting them down isn’t a clever idea.

2. Giving the Silent treatment

Ignoring the people who make mistakes will either turn them complacent or make them demotivated. If you don’t tell your team what to rectify, they will not take any initiative towards their progress.

So, talking to them and showing them ways to improve their skills is the only way to develop productive teams.

3. Disregarding the opinions of your subordinates

Encourage your subordinates to put forth their ideas. Most importantly, make sure to implement them if they’re good enough. This gives your subordinates a confidence boost and also strengthens the team bond.

5 Stages of Team Building That Can Transform the Way Your Company Functions

4. Acting like a boss

To gain the trust of your team, you must be one among them. You can’t always be seated on the high chair and pass orders to your subordinates. On the contrary, you’ve to be very compassionate and considerate while making sure that your team meets deadlines without any compromise on the quality of the work.

Engaging your team in team-building events is a Herculean task. So, resorting to a bossy way will not yield fruitful results. Instead, find new ways to engage your team among themselves.

After all, it’s an engaged workforce that will pave the way to achieve an organization’s goals.

What has been your experience with team-building activities and increasing employee engagement?

Do you think Pygmalion is useful/ has any drawbacks?

Let your thoughts fly in the comment section below. Don’t forget to share this article with those who need to focus on team-building.

source https://medium.com/@shikhashah510/learn-how-to-optimise-team-building-events-using-psychology-65c187749fd4?source=rss-bf01e1870d9a——2