Getting your staff working as a team takes more than hiring a bunch of employees and having them get to work. In order to cultivate a harmonious environment, team-building is a must. Learning how to rely on one another and utilize each team member’s strengths for the benefit of the whole group is essential for achieving success. Here are 4 team-building exercises that are sure to elevate your staff to a new level of commitment and cohesiveness.
- Reveal Something Interesting About Yourself
While we spend so much time with our co-workers, we don’t always get to know much about them, except perhaps for the role they have in the company. Plan some time after lunch one day or on a Friday afternoon for a “get to know you” session among the team. Ask each employee to tell the group something they may not know about him or her. No one has to get too personal or uncomfortable; it could be that he or she went to France for a semester at sea or loves koala bears. Just make sure it’s something special and unique and wouldn’t come up in everyday office chit chat. When the team feels like they know a little more about the other staff members’ personalities, the office environment becomes more open and relationships can better flourish.
- Blind Drawing
Have your staff pair off into teams of two for a drawing challenge. Each pair will sit back-to-back and one person will hold a picture and the other will have a pad and pencil. The goal is to have one person describe the picture so the other can draw it as close to the original as possible using their direction. The better the instructions, the better the drawing will turn out. This will teach the team to be explicit, detailed, and patient when working with their fellow employees. It’s a fun way to show how differences in explanation can generate a masterpiece or create a disaster.
- Famous Name Game
Again, pair off the team into twos and have one person wear a sticky note on their head with a celebrity’s name on it. By asking a series of detailed questions, the person wearing the note must try to figure out who the celebrity is by the answers his or her partner gives. The more direct and specific the questions, the better the answers will be. The team that gets the most correct in the shortest amount of time is the winner. This exercise shows your employees that by asking the best and most important questions, they will reach their goals more efficiently. Plus, it’s a great way to create team bonding and light-hearted competition.
- Office Trivia Game
See how well your staff pays attention to their surroundings while revving up a little office challenge of the minds. Split the team into two and hand each a list of 20 questions about the company: items in the office, roles people have, developments in your field, etc. Give them a set time to complete the list with no help from computers or smart phone searches. You’ll find out how much your staff is aware of, and if by working as a team, they can ace the list. This will exemplify that each person doesn’t have to know everything but as a team, they can collectively get the job done well. Teamwork leads to much more than one can accomplish solo.
Have you tried team building exercises with your staff? Which one was a winner and really got the group working as a unit?