Corporate Teambuilding Warning

At the Friday staff meeting the boss excitedly announces that in two weeks the department is going to take a day off-site for teambuilding activities.  The extroverts are jumping for joy inside, oh boy; a day of fun and games!  There is a collective internal groin from the introverts, crap; maybe I can call in sick that day.  The poor clueless boss has no idea what disaster is brewing.  He went to a conference or read a book or was advised by someone in HR that this would be a great thing for his group.  Just the thing to whip up morale and boost productivity.  So what’s the problem?

As best I can determine psychology tells us that your personality is pretty much established by the time you are five or six.  And it seems that most of this is hard-wired, not so much learned or influenced by the social environment.  Which means that it’s really not going to change, no matter how many books your read or seminars you sit through.  People can be taught to try to mask their personality or fake it, but that usually never actually works well.  They tend to overcompensate and it just comes out weird, everyone can tell.  There are many models for describing personality types, but I am just going to stick with simple, generic introvert and extrovert.  Just convert to whatever model you favor; the principles are pretty much the same. 

It seems clear to me that society is generally structured around extroverts.  That is held as the de facto normal or correct personality type.  Introverts are looked on as a bit weird, eccentric; not really conforming to the norms of most of society.  They are quiet and withdrawn and shun interpersonal interaction and relationships.  Why don’t these people like others?  There must be something wrong with them, maybe an abused or dysfunctional past or family life growing up.  The extroverts plot to fix them; we must help them come out of their shell into the bright light of day!  They obviously aren’t having fun (as defined by the extroverts, of course), and to extroverts having fun is always the ultimate goal.   How could anyone have fun all by themselves?  The solution?  Teambuilding!

I’m not here to bash all teambuilding, it’s not all bad and it does have a role in corporate America.  But only if crafted properly and presented in a way that takes into account the different personalities of the group and does not put undue pressure upon people to do or say things that are phony or threatening to them.  One problem I see is that bosses or hiring committees generally do not make a serious effort to understand the psychological profile of the job and match it to someone whose personality fits that profile.  So we wind up with introverts in jobs that are best suited to extroverts and vice versa.  Some workgroups are nearly solely introvert types, think software engineering while others are solely extrovert driven, think customer service representatives or sales.  And of course others are blends of both.  The savvy boss understands this before filling these positions and is careful to find people with the right personality for the job.  Ah, if only it were so.  Unfortunately, that’s probably not usually the case.  So now we have mismatched jobs and employees and we’re going to throw that mix into teambuilding activities.  Watch out!  A lot of these people are already stressed and professionally unhappy because they are in a job that their personality is not suited to.  They will try to succeed by faking it, conforming, putting on a mask, reading books, going to seminars or even employing coaches to try to be something they simply are not.  The solution is to try to find a better job fit.  But back to teambuilding.

I find that most teambuilding programs are written and facilitated by extroverts.  And, probably unintentionally and unaware; most are written for extroverts.  Well, think about it; who would write teambuilding for introverts?  That’s an oxymoron.  It would basically be, sit in your cube and read a book!  Sales teams love teambuilding games, the engineers will hide under their desks.  So why do we keep trying to put square pegs into round holes?  Because the extroverts over in HR tell us that we need to have these days for the good of the team and the organization.  After all, they heard it at a conference from some expert (extrovert) who wrote a book about it.  He has a consulting business and a website so he must be right.  Forcing the introverts in the workgroup to put on a smile and participate in all of these activities can lead to unwanted behaviors and comments as well as bad feelings and damaged relationships.  They may poison the activity, make rude comments about the stupidity of the activity or just throw up their hands and walk away, refusing to participate.  Bosses and facilitators may see this as childish, disruptive behavior and resort to coercion or threats of disciplinary action in an attempt to get them to ‘work together as part of the team.’  They may be shocked at this behavior in someone who has been a good employee and never acted like this before.  What they don’t realize is that the introvert is displaying an ego defense mechanism under extreme stress and anxiety to try to protect their psyche.  They are not being intentionally uncooperative or disruptive; they are trying to keep from blowing a gasket.  So the boss or facilitator must ask themselves what is really to be gained from forcing someone to do something they are really not suited for.  Is the employee and the group really better off?  Has morale and productivity improved?  Probably not, actually it may now be worse.  This can create a lot of confusion and misunderstanding amongst the members which wasn’t there before. 

So what to do?  Well, from the get-go try to hire the right person for the job.  This will go a long way to maintaining a productive, pleasant work environment.  Introverts can work with others effectively, even with extroverts; but they function best when not being expected to act and perform like an extrovert.  Subtle social pressures will certainly undermine this, as can calling them out in teambuilding activities.  When introverts are in introvert jobs and extroverts are in extrovert jobs the wheels will turn much more smoothly.  Let the extroverts gravitate to each other and let the introverts be loners.  Don’t take it personally, it’s not.  Remember, when it comes to extroverts and introverts it’s not a matter of good or bad, right or wrong; just different.  Use the differences to your benefit.  The extroverts are great at working with the public and cheerleading new products.  The introverts are great at getting the details done behind the scenes.  Just tell them what you want, what resources they have and when it’s due then get out of the way (as much as is possible), leave them alone and you’ll get the results you want.  The introverts and extroverts will collaborate when necessary, just as long as it’s on their terms, not artificially contrived.  And when it comes to teambuilding, remember some people like to be on the field under the lights competing to the cheers of the crowd, while others just like to sit in the stands and watch.