In the past, a lot of my clients asked me to define the word “Teambuilding” but I told them “Teambuilding” is a word which, technically, cannot be defined as it comprises of two words “Team” and “Building”. I was just being very theoretical in the way how I answered them. But somehow or other, I was convinced that ‘team building’ should be written as ‘ teambuilding,’ though it’s not really been recognised in most dictionaries. In my quest to look for the perfect explanation of “Team Building”, I chanced across the following quote:
I thought the explanation was brilliant. The quote above explains the idea of ‘ unity is strength’ and ‘together, we can make a difference.’ Oxford Dictionary defines “team building” as the process of encouraging a group of people to work well together as a team by having them take part in activities and games. The programme focuses on team building, leadership development and community service, team-building activities/exercises/skills.
It is typical that when it comes to team building Singapore companies tend to place low importance on such activities as the management and leadership tend to focus more on achieving KPIs and profitability of a company. But if a company is not built well on strong feelings of camaraderie and team work, it would be even more challenging to achieve those KPIs and profitability in the first place!
During the journey of conducting team building activities, often than not, I find myself combining the words ‘team’ and ‘building’ together as one entity. In Happy Sparrow’ s eyes, “Team Building” looks better when being written as “Teambuilding” because it connotes the combination of a team which is being built together via interesting activities and programmes.
Don’t be surprised next time when Happy Sparrow customises a “Teambuilding” Programme for your company instead of writing it as “Team Building” programme because this is done on a deliberate basis to tell his clients that he has already internalised this special word “teambuilding” in all the programmes he does.
“…“Team Building” looks better when being written as “Teambuilding” because it connotes the combination of a team which is being built together…” – Jack ‘Sparrow’ Chen, Singapore Team Building Expert.
So which is more correct? “Team Building” or “Teambuilding”? You choose! There’ s no wrong and no right on whichever word you choose. You just have to embrace and internalise!
