I talk about workplace team building quite a bit here, mainly from a leadership or HR point of view.  Not that it's a Virgin space flight, but in this context it can be pretty exciting.  It is certainly challenging these days for the above-mentioned groups to think about and plan ways to strike that perfect balance between being entertaining and motivating.

However, especially if that scenario does not happen, from the employee's perspective team building has been and remains an "ugh" experience.  When you factor in both the time lost toward reaching goals and the politics that can creep in if there is inter- or extra-departmental tension, it's not hard to see why that is.

But as Jackie D'Andrea, a newer member of the team at 2007 Top Small Workplace Corporate Ink, shared on the Boston-based technology PR firm's blog Corporateinklings today, the process of senior leaders in a company just talking openly and honestly with employees can turn team building from an "ugh" experience to an "oh" one.

Jackie writes,

When I heard the entire company would be spending eight hours offsite talking about goals and planning for the future, I bit my tongue and did not point out what I thought was obvious - there was no way we would need an entire day to ‘plan our goals.’ Didn’t we have more important things to attend to – like answering emails, speaking with clients and scheduling interviews? It wasn’t exactly my idea of a productive day.

What happened was truly shocking: the day wasn’t about cheesy ‘team-building’ games or being told what to believe in. We each got a say in what we thought was important and I learned a lot about my co-workers in the process. It was a real motivator to start my first year off right and put into perspective what I really want to accomplish. I also learned it’s easy to get distracted by ‘goals’ that don’t really count, even if they sound lofty. Focus on 3 that matter – to our clients, and to me, professionally – is usually best.

The lesson I got from Jackie's post is that it's OK to take the Linda Richman approach to employee engagement: "We'll talk, no big whoop."

How do you keep your employee engagement activities real?