By Christian Crettaz
Conducting a team building without debriefing is somewhat like celebrating a birthday without candles on the cake… It’s pleasant, but it lacks the meaningful connection to the event.
At Teamway, when we are commissioned to conduct a team building activity for a team, we make the client aware of the importance of debriefing.
If the client does not wish for feedback on the experience, it is then preferable to guide them towards a recreational activity that is more akin to entertainment. This remains relevant, but it is not the same type of intervention.
Why? Because the post-experience review accounts for half of the value in conducting a team cohesion activity. Participants must be able to connect what occurred with future actions. They can thus capitalize on the time and energy they will have invested in this day.
For effective team building, firstly, it is essential that the initial briefing or presentation is clear and precise. This allows participants to identify the objective and the framework within which the team building activity is conducted.
Once this first phase is complete, the facilitator’s role is to observe the interactions and team dynamics during the team building activity. During the debriefing, these observations help remind the group of the chronology of events and key moments, in order to contextualize the participants’ feelings.
At the end of the activity, an immediate debriefing allows for giving meaning to the team building, fulfilling its function, and improving human relations and social skills within the team.
The first part of the debriefing should allow participants to express their feelings and emotions. Certain situations experienced during the activity can have a significant emotional impact. During this time, it is important to avoid intellectualizing the discussions, so as not to fall into justification or argumentation, which can make exchanges complicated or sterile. To do this, the facilitator ensures that each person can express themselves in an atmosphere of trust and respect.
Secondly, the facilitator will invite individuals to communicate and share with the team the actions they took and those they would have liked to take. This allows the group to have a collective vision of the activity in which they participated. By establishing a secure environment, the facilitator allows tensions to emerge to invite participants to progress individually and collectively in their practice.
An anchoring phase, integrating a summary of the two preceding steps, concludes the debriefing. It is also the moment to make connections and transfers between the completion of the activity and professional reality.
The debriefing thus made it possible to give meaning to team building, to fulfill its function, and to improve human relations and social skills within the team.
