"Complete waste of time". "Just like the last time". "We never seem to learn from these". Sound familiar? Someone is talking about a team building session. Or are they?

Id argue not. I'd argue that they are comments commonly heard after a team bonding session. A proper team building session is one that focuses on real development. It delivers something of genuine value back in the workplace. As well as fun.

The difference between the two is immense and yet people all too often think that they are the same. Indeed, most commonly, people set about organising team bonding days without realising that they are missing a really important trick. Team bonding brings people closer together but only deliver improvements in team effectiveness by luck. They usually focus on fun (always important!) but without a commensurate emphasis on team development.

So - team development requires a true team building session rather than just a team bonding one. Which begs the question - what can be done to genuinely improve a team in a session that only lasts a short time? Perhaps as long as two days, more commonly just the one day - or even less?

I argue that to be the best that it can be, a team needs 4 key elements - which happen to form the acronym ACME:

A) - Ability

C) - Commitment

M) - Methods

E) - Experience

If you look at these, a team building session can only realistically and significantly affect just the one of them. Let's look at each.

People are born with their ability. A session that lasts a year isn't going to increase a single person's ability. So it can't help this.

A good team building session will improve every participant's commitment to the cause - but only for a limited period. If you think how long it takes when you get back from holiday until you forget that you've had one, you'll understand what I mean. The real world will quickly dull the initial flush of enthusiasm that a good team day will instil in the group.

Skipping to the last one, a day spent for a team of say 30 people will add 30 "man days" of experience to what will be literally hundreds of "man years" experience - negligible at best.

When it comes to the third letter in our acronym, however, we're in with a chance. We get to work with many organisations of all sizes in all sectors and industries and our most common reflection is that we see good people achieving things despite the way they go about them - rather than because of. We see people's ability, commitment and experience papering over the cracks of their team methodology.

What are the steps to focussing on the M in ACME to deliver real team improvements from a session?

1) Choose an exercise that requires the same team approaches that your team need in the workplace - albeit something sufficiently far removed from the day-to-day work that people can enjoy it.

2) Use trained observers with an understanding of the issues that the team faces and a structured observation guide to help them pick up the key points to feed back to the team.

3) During the debrief, ensure that the focus is on generating an action plan - one that is sufficiently detailed that everyone involved knows what they are going to do to implement it.

4) Also ensure that each action point is assigned to a named individual who is responsible for making it happen - even if he or she does not do it himself of herself.

5) Set a time - probably between 4 and 6 weeks away - when the plan will be reviewed - and make it plain that the action points are expected to be delivered within that time.

Follow this guidance for your next team building day and I'll be surprised if you hear the comments this article started with at the end of it.