What is Team Building and Why Does it Matter for Business Success
May 2, 2025
Team building. We’ve all heard about it and the important role it plays in a dynamic, supportive workplace. The inner workings of your workforce are as important as accurate invoicing, succinct pitches, and dedicated, encouraging middle managers. But what does team building realistically look like for a business? And what does a great team building venue look like?
At Cameron House we are a luxury resort that provides a comprehensive selection of options for team building, allowing you to build your team up, maintain positive morale, and create a cohesive workforce.
In this article:
What is team building?
Team building is defined as:
‘the action or process of causing a group of people to work together effectively as a team, especially by means of activities and events designed to increase motivation and promote cooperation.’ – Oxford Languages, 2025.
But this definition, while it’s an accurate description, doesn’t emphasise team building’s vital role in creating a cohesive, efficient team for your workplace.
Team building is creating a team that is effective at working together towards a common goal. It’s about identifying key strengths your individual team members have but also about fostering positive workplace relationships between employees – especially team personalities that may not always see eye to eye on a daily basis.
Good team building will boost collaboration between team members, increase productivity by making employees feel valued, and ensure team morale remains high with fun activities people actually want to take part in.
Some key team models and frameworks to consider for furthering your understanding of team building are:
- Tuckman’s Stages of Group Development (Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, Adjourning).
- Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions of a Team (Absence of Trust, Fear of Conflict, Lack of Commitment, Avoid of Accountability, Inattention to Results).
What does team building entail?
Contrary to popular belief, team building isn’t all about a single event or even a series of events you’ve organised for your team. It is an on-going process that is continuous, rather than a ‘one and done’ event. That being said, team bonding exercises and events play a vital role in team building; they are a genesis point for fostering positive workplace relationships.
The core differences between team building and team bonding:
| Team Building | Team Bonding |
| Should begin as soon as a new employee begins the onboarding process. It should be a core focal point for managers and team members, and usually starts with showing interest beyond just work. | Are usually exercises or events that are designed to strengthen a specific area of team cohesion. For instance, organising a one-to-one with a new employee a week or two after they join to assess how they are settling in. |
| Should be a day by day, week by week effort from all team members. For instance, encouraging everyone’s opinion and making them feel valued in sharing it. | Play a vital role in boosting employee morale. They can almost be seen as a reward that’ll have tangible benefits for your team’s collective state of mind. |
| The result of team building should be a more productive and effective team. This can quite easily be measured by output and employee performance. | The result of team bonding is a more harmonious team dynamic. This is harder to measure, as it relies on subjective opinions about the team bonding exercises. |
The TLDR; team bonding is a vital component of team building, and is usually an event or activity that begins and ends. Team building is an on-going process that never ends.
Why is team building important?
Good, attentive, purposeful team building is how you create a team that runs like a well-oiled machine. In the context of running a successful business (of any size), team building is important because it allows you to:
- Improve communication within teams, and improve cross-team communication. It is much easier to ask for a favour from another team member if you are more familiar with them. It will foster positive workplace relationships that will be constructive in the long run.
- Help employees leverage collaboration. By taking part in team bonding exercises, people can learn the relative strengths and weaknesses of their fellow team members. This can lead to greater efficiency among teams as tasks can easily be dispersed based on individual strengths when working towards a common team goal.
- Develop problem solving skills. Conflict arising in team working environments is inevitable. Team building and team bonding exercises will teach people how to solve problems and implement natural conflict resolution tactics to produce a better outcome, no matter the task at hand.
- Help your company attract and keep talent. A company or business is only as good as the individual talent that you attract and retain. Investing a lot of time and effort into attentive team building will show prospective employees that your business is a place that looks after their needs and promotes their personal development.
- Promote a healthy company culture. Placing a focus on valuable and purposeful team building for all your employees will build a very positive environment for your workforce. Happy employees will make for a less stress-inducing working environment overall.
Boost creativity and innovation. While it vastly depends on the kind of team bonding exercises you choose, having a culture of encouraging team building as a priority will undoubtedly promote creative thinking and innovation amongst your teams. Team building will allow different experts from different fields within your company to share experiences and expertise with one another in a laid back, friendly environment. This can lead to the creation of new ideas, or a shift in how problems are tackled within the company hierarchy.
How To Implement Positive Team Building Outcomes
When it comes to implementing team building for your workplace, there are several considerations you’ll need to think about in order for the outcomes to be a success:
- You need to understand your team. What motivates them, who they are, and their strengths and weaknesses? Assessing their needs and their goals will help you create a plan for team building that will benefit everyone.
- Set clear goals. What is the main reason you’re wanting to focus on team building? Do you want to improve team cohesion? Team communication? Do you want to boost morale after a hard project, or increase the trust bond between various employees? Thinking about why is just as important as organising the activities and team building action plan.
- For team bonding exercises, choose inclusive activities. This is super important as there’s no point choosing an activity that isn’t right for everyone. Things to consider could be any disabilities you have on the team to account for, the overall team size, what their common interests are, and your overall budget – just to name a few.
Make it fun. When people are having a good time and enjoying the team building exercises it will boost participation rate. People are more likely to take part in fun activities than something they won’t find stimulating.
Corporate Team Building Activities
For a corporate workforce there are all kinds of activities that you can organise as a part of your team building efforts. Some great ones to consider, regardless of your sector, are:
- Outdoor challenges. This is dependent on your team members and how outdoorsy they are. Disabilities that might exclude certain employees are worth considering for outdoor challenges, but these can be activities such as paintball, adventure courses, rock climbing, abseiling, kayaking, and so on. All of these activities will demand an element of team cohesion to succeed.
- Indoor challenges. If outdoors is a no-go, then there are plenty of indoor activities to consider. Some popular ones are crazy golf, digital axe throwing, bowling and escape rooms are just a few ideas.
- Wellness and relaxation retreats. This is another common option for those who want to boost their employees’ wellbeing. Spa days, mindfulness sessions, and wellness retreats are great for team morale.
- Social experiences. These are another popular method of team building, and perhaps the most common type. Going out for a group meal, or taking part in a group cooking class, or booking a pottery fun day are a few examples of social experiences that allow your team to interact and enjoy themselves in a social environment without the pressures of work.
Interested in learning more about creating a detailed activities itinerary? Thankfully, we have an article covering that!
Organising a Team Building Event
When it comes time to plan your team building event, you’ll want to consider the following:
- Set clear objectives. Having defined goals that you want to work on and that you want for your workforce are crucial. Without a goal or an objective, it can be hard to assess the value and success of a team bonding exercise.
- Book a stellar venue. When it comes to choosing a venue you’ll want one that can provide the right amount of space for your activity, include team building activities as a part of venue hire, has all the correct facilities for your team, and is accessible to all your team members.
- Consider logistics. How are you all going to get there? Is accommodation needed for those travelling from far away? How will you all get back? Will you cover catering? These are all things you’ll need to think about for your team building event.
- Champion being inclusive. By far the most important thing to consider is to be inclusive for all your team members. Are there any dietary preferences to consider? Do you have employees with disabilities? Ensure your event caters to all.
What makes a good team building venue?
When looking to book a venue you’ll want to choose a place that will cater to your every need and will streamline the team building activities for you. Some key factors to consider for this are:
- Event spaces and meeting spaces that are versatile and accessible.
- A venue that provides a whole host of different team building activities, making it easy to narrow down what the team would like to do most.
- A venue that provides a range of different catering and dining options. This is especially important for those who may have alternative dietary needs, or medical dietary needs.
- The venue staff are just as crucial to picking a place as the venue itself. Professional, supportive, and attentive venue staff will streamline the logistics and coordination of your event.
Why Cameron House Is Perfect For Team Building Events
Of all the venues you might consider, we can guarantee that Cameron House is ideal for corporate team building events. We not only have attentive and expert staff, we have a myriad of different options to consider, such as:
- A dedicated event coordinator that will take care of all your logistical and organisational needs.
- Seven restaurants spread across the resort, giving you ample choice for dining experiences for your full team.
- A comprehensive selection of both indoor and outdoor activities. With Cameron House you can arrange a wellness spa retreat just as easily as a corporate golf break. We also have an impressive choice of adventure activities to consider too such as Falconry, Jet Skiing, Kayaking, and more.
- Availability of premium meeting spaces. This is good for arranging team strategy meetings or for discussing any matter of business or team building.
- Inspiring scenery. Nestled among the Lomond Hills and on the shores of the famous Loch Lomond itself, Cameron House has stunning views that are hard to beat.
Cameron House are the go-to experts for providing bespoke team building retreats that are memorable, impactful, and engaging.
Book A Team Building Event With Cameron House
When it comes to running a successful workforce and business, team building is a crucial component for creating a cohesive and effective team that will deliver exceptional results for your clients.
To promote team building within your business you’ll want to show that you care, and what better way to show this than by providing your team with a luxury, premium team bonding experience at one of Scotland’s prime resort destinations. Choosing the right venue is one of the most important steps in planning a team building event.
Cameron House has no shortage of fun, engaging, and unique activities that will help your team create a strong bond.