You don’t have to look far to find people who are skeptical, or even cynical, about team building. The irony is, when you ask them why, you soon discover they never participated in true team building at all.

Here’s why. According to organizational surveys, 78% of so-called team building efforts within companies who reported having tried it consisted of one-time events. The surveys also showed that department heads or managers with little or no training or expertise in developing teams typically led these events.

Team Building is NOT Group Venting or Fun Group Activities

Not surprisingly, most managers and employees surveyed considered these one-shot team-building events a waste of time. One participant summed up his frustration this way:

 “It was just another touchy-feely activity HR foisted on us—when we all had real work to do. It turned into a bunch of venting, a group-grope and pity-party.”

Besides venting sessions, the other team-building events reported were basically fun group activities. These include group games, simulations, outings, parties, dinners, adventure courses, and so on. Unfortunately, many OD and team-building consultants also call such events team building. But they’re not. Climbing rope courses, riding horses, or paddling kayaks for a day might be considered healthy group fun. It might even create temporary feelings of group togetherness and comfort. But post-event surveys show it doesn’t take long before things return to business as usual. In fact, the evidence that these one-shot events improve workplace performance is zero.

Team Building is NOT the Same as Teamwork

Trying to cultivate teamwork or team spirit is not the same thing as team building either. Feeling good and getting along better are great. In and of themselves, however, they won’t raise team performance one iota. On the contrary, sometimes rallying cries for “more teamwork” cause people to think they should start working in committees, which generally lower productivity and performance.

Team Building is NOT an Event

The bottom line is, just as you wouldn’t try to develop a professional sports team with a one-shot event, you can’t develop a professional work team that way either. True team building requires a concerted strategy. It requires long-term commitment. And, most of all, it requires being accountable to performance-based goals and metrics. Perhaps one of the pioneers of team building said it best:

“Team building is a process, NOT an event.”—William Dyer