Team Building by Way of Community Service

Matt Tovrog, associate partner of Bell Oaks Executive Search

I had the pleasure of organizing a company service project recently where our team visited the Atlanta Furniture Bank to build tables and assist the organization's families with picking out and loading furniture onto trucks set for their new homes. The Furniture Bank is a wonderful non-profit that provides essential household furniture to people moving out of homeless shelters and into their own residences.

It was a fulfilling day of camaraderie among colleagues helping people within our community. But we are only human. During the table building portion of our project, the competitive juices started flowing and a race to build ensued. Teams worked together creatively to beat the competition and complete a table faster than the next team.

Several business lessons occurred to me during our service project that directly correlate with leading a successful company through team engagement.

1. Senior leaders must empathize and connect with every level of the organization. "Walk in the shoes" of each person who works with you. If that's not possible, find creative ways to be "peers" for a day and get to know them personally.
2. Create opportunities for shared experiences for everyone in the office outside the immediate purview of the business. Great cultures are formed not only from business successes, but also those occasions that put employees in different environments interacting with different coworkers.
3. Competition is a natural motivator. Harness that energy in a way that drives productivity and efficiency.

Let's explore these lessons and how our service project highlighted each one.

First, each member of our team was a peer for the day. There were no managers or direct reports, rather individual contributors all out of our element needing to work together. A senior leader was operating a drill while a junior member of our firm voiced instructions. Remember playing a sport in junior high or high school and the final practice involved the coaches scrimmaging with the players? A different side of the coaches emerged and the player/coach relationship was changed for the better afterwards. The same principal applies when managers interact at a peer level with the rest of their colleagues.

Second, it is extremely difficult to work on a task or create an experience that involves everyone within an organization. By sharing this service project, we grew more cohesive as a business unit, but also connected on a personal level. We are better colleagues as a result. Why not serve the community while sharing one of these experiences?

Third, we learned a great deal about the competitive nature of our group (some of which was surprising) and, as a result, found a new way to motivate certain individuals. Individual work styles also were revealed. Some were methodical and focused while others were boisterous and talked their way through problems. For the record, my team won the table building race; I am one of the competitive individuals in the office!

The Furniture Bank recognizes the opportunity they have in offering a team building experience. Here's what Meghan Anderson, Executive Director of the Atlanta Furniture Bank, had to say about the volunteer opportunity at their program:

"The Furniture Bank offers a great opportunity for corporate groups to positively impact their community while simultaneously building team unity. Our volunteer program is unique in that employees interact directly with clients and truly see how their work is making a difference. Additionally, the Furniture Bank provides volunteers with the chance to build tables for our families. This is a great team building activity as each table takes several people to assemble and is usually a new experience for everyone in the group."

Companies spend thousands of dollars annually on programs geared to build trust, improve communication, and strengthen a team whereas our group got together for one morning and learned the same valuable lessons. And, we positively impacted a great non-profit in our community!

The Furniture Bank is one of many great organizations that offer volunteer opportunities. Dan Campbell, CEO of Hire Dynamics, echoes the positive influences that come from volunteering as a company:

"Hire Dynamics' community service projects primarily revolve around our core competency of preparing individuals for the workforce. In this area, our projects have included Junior Achievement classroom training, support of Samaritan's Purse annual Operation Christmas Child with over 500 of our associates during the past five years and a partnership with First Step Staffing in the pursuit of job placement for previously homeless individuals. Our staff takes pride in applying our unique skill set to help others in our community build confidence and experience through job opportunities. In almost all cases, this is done by our internal teams which builds camaraderie and strengthens relationships."

Dan's idea of leveraging his firm's expertise to help the community is practical and smart. Why not focus on the strengths that your team offers and identify a non-profit that would benefit?

Non-profits are reeling from the economic crisis. The shortage in individual donations as well as government funding is crippling these organizations. Free labor from volunteers is vital to their success and survival.

The next time your party planning or team unity committees are planning a company function, explore the opportunity to have that function impact a non-profit. Not only will it save your company money, your group will be positively impacting a non-profit within the community.

When the gratification of charity work is combined with the team building and shared experience of the entire group, I suspect ropes courses and falling backwards from a ladder will seem like a waste of time and resources.

About Bell Oaks With a 42-year legacy in executive search, Bell Oaks specializes in identifying, attracting and hiring professionals to critical positions with companies across the country. Founded in 1970, the national firm has particular expertise in the areas of sales and marketing, human resources, finance and accounting, information technology, and manufacturing/operations/engineering. Bell Oaks is consistently ranked as one of the leading search firms in the South and was recently named one of Atlanta's Best Places to Work by the Atlanta Business Chronicle for the second consecutive year.