Learn the Difference Between Team Building and Team Bonding

It is interesting to watch ants working together to collect and store food for their whole colony. The comradeship expressed by these tiny insects is the best example to illustrate the importance of healthy relationships between team members. A team is never made up of people working for their salary.

The term ‘Team ‘depicts a group of colleagues who put in every effort to stand together and work towards the improvement of their company. To have such deep consideration an understanding among teammates, bonding in its right sense is necessary. Most of us get confused between the terms of Team building and team bonding. Is it the same thing or do the two terms stand for different things? Let us have a quick look.

The logic behind Team bonding activities 

See if you can understand the true meaning of the following sentence. You can build a team into one of the best by creating and nurturing strong bonds among the team members.

Here bonding means developing a true sense of comradeship which slowly builds trust and confidence in each other. When the team members have a close sense of care and connection between themselves, they work together effectively. How does a team leader achieve this? Informal gatherings, fun outdoor trips, get-together parties at any one colleague's place, etc are all methods of team bonding activities. It is not necessary that the entire time spent is productive. There will be instances when teammates just relax by themselves in such outings. However, all such programs will gradually bring people closer.

A peep into Team building activities

Now we come to team building. What happens here is the team leader or whoever is in charge of such activities creates a conscious atmosphere to bring the team members to think and act alike. Most team building activities are played with this principle in mind. Co-workers who may or may not get along, in reality, are grouped for a common cause. They are given competitions and role-plays that help them interact and encourage them to work together to win. Such Activities enable them to think strategically for the benefit of the entire team.  Team members focus less on individual goals and concentrate more on the victory of the whole team.

So when a strong bond is formed between people who work together, it becomes easier to build the trust and sense of unity among them. This, in turn, increases the confidence of each individual. And guess what the outcome is - The team productivity soars with no bounds!