Successful Activities
For Team Building

Learning How to Give and Receive Team Feedback

For example, a very effective activity for team building is to set aside time to give positive feedback to one another.

Think about and communicate those positive skills and unique contributions each team member brings to the table; what you appreciate about each other; how each member meets a specific need that no one else is able to do.

This will build energy, encourage confidence, and increase motivation.

If you ask people about the feedback they receive they often say they get far too much negative feedback and very little positive feedback.

Giving thought to that positive skill or attribute that a team member brought to the team, (especially if that team member is irritating or challenging) and then sharing it, can be transformational.

It can change a negative attitude into a positive attitude, which in turn may even influence those negative or irritating behaviors on the team, in very positive ways.

A team leader can also encourage positive activities for team building by having each team member write a positive feedback statement about something the whole team has done, or is doing well.

The team leader needs to prepare several positive feedback statements to start this exercise.

One of the most important activities for team building is learning how to give constructive feedback about negative or undesirable behaviors.

There is a big difference between negative feedback and constructive feedback. Negative feedback is often a knee-jerk or “without thought” reaction to a negative or problematic behavior. It often produces a defensive response in the person rather than any desire to change.

And yet negative feedback is so much more common in the workplace than constructive feedback.

Many people are uncomfortable confronting a problem head on, especially if the person with the problem is likely to re-act or become defensive.

It takes courage! BUT we know that negative performance or behavior is unlikely to improve without some constructive feedback.

The following steps are designed to help you maintain the team’s self-esteem and to preserve positive relationships in the team, as you give constructive feedback about an undesirable behavior or negative performance.

1. Describe the behavior that has affected you or the team.
2. State exactly what happened.
3. Describe the impact of this behavior on you or the team.
4. State how the behavior made you feel.
5. State what behavior you’d prefer.
6. State the positive consequences of changing the behavior for both you and the team.

The best way to deal with negative criticism, the type that comes to us not out of concern for us or to help us grow, is to defuse it.

There two effective ways to defuse negative criticism:

1. Agreeing to what is the positive truth.
2. Changing the subject.

One thing that will destroy a team quickly is arguing over criticism, since that only encourages continued criticism. There should be only one purpose of constructive criticism is to help your team to learn and grow.

There is only one strategy for dealing with constructive criticism – accept responsibility and learn from it.

Anytime you give or receive feedback you need to focus on your active listening skills. It is very important to allow time for the team to give and receive feedback on a regular basis.

We hope you explore other successful activities for team building on this site.

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