Understanding Current Trends in Team Building with Summit’s Scott Kress
As we reflect on 2024 and look forward, we discuss with Summit founder and keynote speaker Scott Kress on team building in 2025—including understanding what it is, the impact of team building on creating healthy workplace environments, and how organizations can develop a culture of collaboration, high performance, and team spirit.
Team building has become a vital part of developing effective workplaces, especially for remote and hybrid working models along with companies adopting return to office mandates.
Listen to the Conversation on Team Building in 2025
Defining Team Building
Before we go any further, let’s define what we mean by team building. The reality is that people often mean very different things when they talk about team building.
First, team building can mean training and learning and development; it is a way to make people better at their job.
Second, team building can mean fun and engagement; it is something that will make the company – and you! – happy.
Understanding this dual nature is important for organizations, especially when considering team building in 2025, as it helps them shape the way they want to approach team-building strategically.
Fun and Engaging Programs
A popular trend is organizing fun, physical and interactive team building activities that last up to two hours. These are commonly scheduled at the beginning of corporate conferences because many employees work remotely and might never have met each other before.
To use recent example, in a program we led with a team from across Canada, staff who had only seen each other over video calls were initially quiet and reserved when they arrived together for the day of team-building activities.
By the time we left, they were playing and talking with each other, displaying broad smiles. Well-executed team-building can change the dynamics of a workplace in one afternoon.
Learning and Development Focus
Another trend is on learning and development through team building workshops, where different teams come together to understand how they can become more effective in how they collaborate, communicate, build trust and the like.
And obviously that’s a really important factor for teams that are working remotely and are detached from each other; highlighting the importance of team building in 2025.
And companies are waking up to the fact that, though remote-work isn’t hurting the bottom line right now, it can and does hinder communications, collaboration and creativity by creating silos of managers, employees and departments, and fostering an acute need for team-building that is scheduled and structured throughout the year.
The Shelf Life of Team Building
A key shortcoming that critics of team-building activities point to is their lack of long-term success.
While attendees might feel energized and connected to each other in the aftermath of an event, good feelings often don’t last.
Even if this is true – and in all likelihood it is – it’s worth noting that spending concentrated time together can also have strong benefits for workplace interactions even months or years down the line.
Evidence seems to show that although the advantages may fade with time, they generally plateau at a higher level than before.
If enthusiasm wears off, that’s okay, because the team-building will, nonetheless, have laid a foundation for better communication and collaboration on an ongoing basis.
The Importance of Repeated Exposure
For team building to have the longest-lasting beneficial effects, organizations should organize planned and unplanned exposures for team-building (and training, generally) throughout the year.
This means scheduling events more than once a year, and also planning opportunities for team members to connect informally outside of structured sessions.
Comparing Team Building in the US and Canada
Other team building trends, we have noticed among companies we’ve worked with, are that Canadian offices are taking more time, versus US ones, to return to a pre-pandemic way of working (some may never). They continue to favour hybrid setups and remote working environments.
This creates different team building challenges and influences how much teams will engage with each other and the nature of the interaction.
Teams that become accustomed to more physical proximity will naturally deepen connections, while those that are remote are a risk of becoming disconnected.
High-Performance Teams
All companies want high performance teams but developing one is based on having a foundation of trust and communication.
Building such a foundation has to come before any sort of high performance team work workshop.
What is clear is that high-performance teams are characterized by high engagement, collaboration and trust, essential ingredients that produce better organizational outcomes.
Addressing Disengagement
One of the biggest challenges facing organizations today is that there are many employees who are disengaged from their work.
This may be becoming more of an issue post-COVID-19, as many workers are finding it difficult to stay connected to their work.
Companies need to pre-empt this by creating a positive team culture – get everyone involved with team building activities and encourage team work.
This can help to build rapport across the team and increase everyone’s levels of engagement.
Measuring Morale and Engagement
Companies should view measures of employee morale and engagement as warning signs for a subsequent drop in revenue. If a large proportion of employees are disengaged, then productivity is almost certain to be down and that will impact the company’s profitability sooner or later.
Creating a Culture Strategy
A culture strategy needs to be developed in order to handle the drawbacks of working remotely and being disengaged: formal and informal team-building events, coffee and lunchtime discussions, games on Zoom and friendly interactions in shared spaces.
Formal and Informal Team Building
From time to time, team building in 2025 may take the form of formal workshops, motivational keynotes, training sessions or destination events designed to help team members improve their skills to work together well.
However, on other occasions team building may take place during a less formal setting, a team lunch, dinner or other social outing where team members can get to know each other in a more relaxed context.
Ideally, there would be multiple iterations of each type of event during the calendar year, ensuring frequent opportunities for team members to get together and interact.
Conclusion
To sum up, team building in 2025 is more important than ever in the remote and hybrid work environments of today and those companies wishing for their employees to return to work.
Recognizing the recent trends towards developing connections for colleagues through both formal and informal activity helps organizations to build better, more engaged teams. An active effort to develop teams enhances employee morale and performance in the long-term.