Team building is an umbrella term that denotes any specific activities or exercises that motivate a group to cooperate and produce results. Research has shown that team-building exercises have numerous benefits on overall team effectiveness. On an elemental level, team building enables people to discover the commonalities they have between coworkers and establishes a togetherness and sense of trust.
There are different types of team building activities that focus on and foster specific components including communication, trust, adaptability, organization, and problem-solving.
Your team is the most vital resource in your company, and that fact cannot be forgotten. Everyone appreciates the validation, however, inspiring your team involves more than mere praise for a job well done. There are a few ways that organizations can inspire team members for continued success in the workplace.
Team building activities can range in length from a few minutes to a few hours. Here are some examples of quick 5-minute team-building exercises that serve as fun icebreakers to try in your workplace.
This classic game is an excellent way for your team members to become more familiar with one another. Have employees sit in a circle, and challenge them to think of a single item they would want to have with them on a deserted island.
To gain even further insight into each team member's personality, you can be more specific with the object—for instance, a particular book or item of food.
This is another fun game that is a great way for employees to simply communicate with one another. The concept is simple: have your team partner up, then ask each team member to write the name of a famous person (living or dead) on a Post-it note without anyone seeing the name. Each employee then sticks their respective partner’s Post-it note on their forehead, proceeding to ask “yes” or “no” questions to deduce the name of the famous person. Whoever guesses their partner's famous person first, wins the game.
With this collaborative task, employees divide up into groups and see who can make the tallest tower of paper in only five minutes. Hand out three sheets of paper to each individual group, then the teams must ingeniously construct their respective towers without the use of any tools such as scissors or adhesives.
A scavenger hunt is a fantastic collaborative activity that will certainly enable your team to bond over the thrill of the search. As a secondary activity once the scavenger hunt is completed, treat your team to an enjoyable company lunch in a park. Regardless of the palate, delight your employees with one-time credits directly from your Ritual for Companies account.
This outdoor team-building exercise will definitely prove a hit with all team members. In a park setting, have employees divide into pairs and give each team a tennis ball. The objective of this competitive exercise is to see which team can toss their tennis ball the greatest distance without bouncing on the ground.
Organizing a Clue-esque murder mystery is a great team-building activity certain to inspire productivity. For convenience, there are even companies solely dedicated to providing virtual murder mystery events specifically designed for team building.
An escape room is a game situated in one or more rooms where team members must solve a series of puzzles, clues, riddles, and complete tasks to leave the room in a specific amount of time. Escape rooms have increased tremendously in popularity over the last few years. There are also virtual escape room games for remote teams as well.
A great way to inspire productivity is with a team-building workshop. These sorts of activities foster collaboration and provide crucial learning opportunities for your entire team. Some companies conveniently provide a myriad selection of team-building workshops depending on the objective of your organization.
Before commencing the workshop, team members can discuss what they believe will make the forthcoming workshop most enjoyable and meaningful. This enables team members to establish a consensus for the desired takeaways of this exercise.
Team building is a critical component to the success of any organization. Scientific studies have shown that there is a clear correlation between team-building exercises and the productivity of team members. Moreover, these exercises provide an opportunity to engage team members, increase employee satisfaction, and are in essence, fun.
Suffice to say, implementing these types of activities in your workplace could prove exceedingly beneficial. One activity certain to enable your team to bond is sharing a meal together. Having a team lunch provides essential downtime, allows your employees to socialize with one another, and ultimately, will have a positive effect on productivity.
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