How companies like Facebook, Uber and Salesforce engage in team-building

Before I owned my own coaching business, I was in the corporate arena as a director and VP, focused on marketing and product development. In every company I worked for, every once in a while, we’d be asked to engage in some form of “team-building” – from a few days away from the office in a place like Las Vegas (complete with dinners out, casinos and a Cirque Du Soleil performance) to a golf outing (where most of the women didn’t actually play golf) or a nature retreat filled with embarrassing “trust falls,” circle sharing, and more. Did these experiences really build team engagement and connection? Occasionally yes, but most often, any kind of bonding that was forged during the event evaporated the minute we stepped foot back into our contentious roles and stressful work lives.

Interested in learning how the most innovative companies engage in team-building today, I caught up with Jenny Gottstein, director of games at The Go Game, a new interactive and creative approach to team-building. At The Go Game, Jenny has led large-scale interactive game projects, creativity trainings and design workshops around the world. The Go Game combines mobile technology and augmented reality with actors and real-world locations. Go Games are used for marketing, training and entertainment purposes by clients ranging from Google to Bank of America to Johnson & Johnson.

Jenny shared what the top companies today are doing to build their teams.

Kathy Caprino: What are companies like Uber, Facebook and Salesforce choosing to do for team building?

Jenny Gottstein: To understand what Uber, Facebook and Salesforce are doing, you have to understand the overall climate of Silicon Valley. So when these companies make an investment in their team, the experience has to be not only wildly entertaining, but deeply impactful. So when we produce team-building experiences for these companies, we use our Karaoke Rickshaw, we design espionage-themed adventure games, we create massive music-video competitions or we take over an island and turn it into a fortress of fun.

KC: So how are these companies using powerful team-building to achieve corporate success overall?

JG: Interestingly, we’re seeing companies use their strong corporate culture as a bargaining chip to recruit the best and brightest talent. When applying for jobs, millennial employees are not only assessing their salary and benefits, but also whether or not they relate to the working environment, and enjoy rolling up their sleeves next to their peers. As a result of this culture shift, team-building is being used as a marketing and recruitment tool. Often we will produce games for prospective employees or interns of large companies as way to show off the perks of the company’s working environment.

KC: What are some of the most popular games you offer and why? What types of companies have these been most successful with?

JG: Our classic scavenger hunt – the one we first built 15 years ago – is still a crowd favorite. Using interactive technology, talented actors and a healthy dose of humor, we are able to turn any environment (a neighborhood, a building, a city) into a live-action game board. Our Go Game Show is also wildly popular, as it combines popular game show formats into a carousel of high-stakes relays, brain-tickling trivia, and heart-pumping victories.

In recent years, we’ve seen an increase in inquiries around training games and applied play. Our conference gamification layer has always been quite popular, but now we are seeing more requests for leadership training games, disaster preparedness games and mindfulness games. It’s clear that companies are now approaching play as a tool for personal and professional development.

KC: Why is team-building so hard to get right, and what do organizations do “wrong” in their team-building attempts and why?

JG: First of all, team building is not hard. Team building is short for “let’s have fun together and reap the benefits of our strengthened relationships.” As humans, we do this naturally. What’s hard is trying to manufacture those moments and then measure the long-term impact.

I’ve seen poor HR departments trying to plan a fun event while also making graphs and presentations for their superiors proving that the event was financially worthwhile. It is financially worthwhile. Period. So instead, HR teams should spend their time designing experiences that draw out the talents and strengths of everyone. This is the easiest and most effective way to build strong teams.

Kathy Caprino, M.A. is an international career and personal growth coach, writer, speaker and leadership developer dedicated to the helping professionals build happier, braver lives and careers. The author of Breakdown, Breakthrough, and founder of Ellia Communications, Inc., the Amazing Career Project and Amazing Career Certification training for coaches, she is also a leading contributor on Forbes, Thrive Global, and LinkedIn, a TEDx speaker, and top media source on career and personal growth, leadership, and women's issues. For more info, visit kathycaprino.com and connect with Kathy on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.