Article by Materahub

Team building is an increasingly widespread and “serious” phenomenon, often fully integrated within a performance management process in order to develop certain transversal skills of employees.

Among the many possible definitions, team building, in the field of human resources, is a set of training activities that companies reserve for their workers and that can be aimed at different objectives. The literal translation of team building is ‘group building’: the main aim is to have a working group that is able to collaborate as effectively as possible, targeting activities according to specific aspects to be improved. Collaboration, motivation, communication or leadership within the team are just some of the elements on which corporate team building focuses, which can include both indoor and outdoor activities.

These activities are nowadays very much in demand by companies with a view to employee engagement, improved teamwork and performance in general, retention, employer branding, etc..

In this context, many exercises are offered by the world of theatre, aimed at promoting and strengthening the skills of employees within companies.

The main objectives for this type of activity are as follows:

• Improving one’s communication skills
• Learning to develop empathy with others
• Improving one’s body language
• Developing assertiveness
• Learning to build trust with colleagues
• Learning to integrate different talents
• Focusing on one’s strengths

Here are some examples of useful exercises:

• Active theatre: team members actively write scripts inspired by real-life anecdotes experienced in the company and perform them personally. This activity is particularly suitable for increasing communication between team members and relations in the group, strengthening collaboration and problem-solving skills;
• Self-Theatre: the company team is completely immersed in the performance: they write a script (on a free theme, not necessarily a critical aspect of the company) under the guidance of experienced directors, rehearse the script and bring it to the stage;
• Improvised theatre: after an analysis of the company context, a script is drawn up from which the team members must draw inspiration to stage a completely improvised performance. In this way, team members will try, through problem-solving, to untangle the hypothetical problematic company situation staged;
• Theatre workshop: this experience aims to make the corporate team experiment with new roles and behaviours. It brings the various participants into play, allowing characters and inner aspects to emerge without obligations or judgements from the other members;

Conclusion

Theatre exercises not only allow individual team members to express their own selves without being judged, but also significantly increase the emotional and communicative bond between the various members: by expressing their thoughts and emotions freely, an intimate atmosphere is created that transcends their simple role within the company, everyone is placed on an equal footing and can seek support and empathy with their colleagues. Communication, passion and thought are shared between everyone, creating a compact team free of prejudice or barriers.

Corporate Team Building Theatre is increasingly used thanks to its apparent lightness combined with the infinite possibilities of expression. In fact, acting guided by the coach-director allows imaginary characters and situations to emerge, which in many cases helps to bring to the surface and dissolve tensions that have been carried within and never addressed.