Team Building

I had a meeting yesterday with my department and it was a fruitful and meaningful one.  Our IT Department consists of a programmer, two technicians and me as their manager.  After discussing and resolving department issues I facilitated a short team building activity to lighten up things a bit.  I asked them to write three things that no one knows about them.  I took their papers and asked them to guess whose "secret" was it.  It was a fun activity, it allowed us to get to know each other better and to understand the root cause of each other's behavior.  After the secret revealing activity, I asked them to say what they do not like about one another.  Nothing really big or too personal things were revealed and I am glad that my staffs are getting along pretty well.  Naturally, I asked them what they do not like about me.  I was nervous asking that to them but I have to face what they will say about me and do the best that I can to change my negative attitude.  I admit to not attending to them on a regular basis because of the many extra duties my bosses have given me, I am so guilty about it... that was actually the feedback from them.  Hearing from them about the thing that I am too guilty about made a lot of difference in terms of really doing my duty as their boss.

I have learned that taking time to do team building activities even after a meeting allows the team to work more as one.  If you are a manager, I suggest that you do the same.