Team Building

In Short

Build trust, cohesion and shared purpose in teams
Best for: Team development exercises
Team Building is a structured tool for coaching and facilitation. Build trust, cohesion and shared purpose in teams. It provides a repeatable framework that can be adapted to individual, team, and leadership development contexts.
Type of tool: Team development exercises
Expected outcomes:
- Improved ability to build trust, cohesion and shared purpose in teams
- A concrete action or development plan to take forward from the Team Building process

In Detail

Team Building is an experiential exercise designed to help coaches, leaders, and facilitators build trust, cohesion and shared purpose in teams. It sits within the category of Team development exercises, making it particularly useful for practitioners working on capability development, team performance, and individual growth in organisational settings.

In practice, Team Building is delivered as a 6-step process. The process begins by each team member selects a shape (circle, triangle, square, squiggle, etc. The session closes by agree which behaviours to cultivate and which to minimise. The structured approach ensures that participants move through a consistent experience while leaving room for the facilitator to adapt pacing and depth to the group's needs.

Team Building is most effective when used to break existing patterns of thinking or interaction. The experiential format creates a low-stakes environment where participants can experiment, make mistakes, and draw direct parallels to real workplace dynamics through the debrief process.

How to Use

Shapes Exercise (from the folder). 1. Each team member selects a shape (circle, triangle, square, squiggle, etc.) representing their personality or working style. 2. They explain their choice to the group. 3. Map the team's shape distribution and discuss implications for collaboration. Behaviour Types exercise: 1. Introduce the list of possible team behaviours (task roles, maintenance roles, dysfunctional roles). 2. Observe team interaction and identify which behaviours are present, frequent, and missing. 3. Agree which behaviours to cultivate and which to minimise.

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Creates immediate, memorable experiences that accelerate learning compared to instruction alone Low-stakes environment allows participants to experiment with new behaviours safely Generates rich debrief material directly relevant to real workplace dynamics	Effectiveness depends heavily on the quality of the debrief — poor facilitation wastes the investment Some participants resist "games" as lacking seriousness, requiring careful framing Time investment in setup and debrief limits how many tools can be used in a single session

Created by Various (Tuckman, Katzenbach & Smith)

When to Use

This tool is suited to the following coaching and facilitation contexts:

Context	Relevant
Individual Coaching	✓
Team Coaching	✓
Leadership Development
Facilitation / Workshop	✓
Online / Virtual

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