You need to put a lot of work into creating an environment of mutual respect and trust among team members. This is not a small task.
So, whether you’re someone who’s responsible for facilitating up with team-building activities, or you’re a team leader or manager looking for ways to add some fun for your teams, below are some team building methods:
1. Daily Activities
Team building exercises can be conducted daily with close to no costs. These can help in ultimately strengthening and building a more engaged team. A few team building activities that you can try are:
Two Truths and a Lie: Not only is this a fun icebreaker game, but it also takes as little as 10-15 minutes to complete. It is a creative way of bringing coworkers who have not directly worked with each other.
To conduct this, all you have to ask from your co-workers is to share three things about themselves, two of which are the truth while one is a lie. The task for the group is to identify the lie.
The Egg Drop Challenge: Another great activity to bring your team together is the egg drop challenge. Offer different groups with some packaging materials that they can use to protect their eggs from a steep drop. The challenge is to find the winner whose egg remains intact and survives from breaking.
Show and Tell: Basically, each team member gets one minute to show and talk about something they own. This could be anything – such as your favorite straws, a tug of war trophy, or even a passion project! After each turn, save two minutes for a conversation from the rest of the team.
2. Team Outings
Team building activities can also be taken out of the office for an amplified effort. Take a look at the ideas below:
Volunteering: Be it a Christmas charity program or helping the underprivileged on Thanksgiving, volunteering, and bringing teams together in a great way. It helps in giving back to the community and achieving togetherness among team members.
Escape Room: One of the most fun activities is the Escape room. They encourage problem solving and help people get their heads together to get out of the locked room!
Retreat: Offsite retreats can be an amazing way for team building. While it involves more cost, it can also offer more time and space for teams that don’t work together to bond with each other.
3. Team Assessments
How cohesive is your team? Does it have any shortcomings that you can objectively measure? Finding answers to these questions is the goal of team assessments.
Adopting frameworks like the Five Behaviours Model can go a long way in team assessment. They help employees perceive their strengths and open communication as a team.
4. Team Selection
A smart way to select your team is to bring people who have similar traits together. For example, personality tests help the group understand more about each other by learning more about the aspects of their personalities that can result in gelling up or clashing with each other.
The Myers-Briggs test is one of the most successful personality tests that divides people into 16 different personality types, helping each other learn about their strengths and weaknesses.
5. Employee Recognition and Reward system
69% of employees say they’d work harder if they were appreciated. This is why you must create an online recognition system for your remote employees. Recognition and appreciation will vary from organization to organization, and how you appreciate employees will depend on your unique company needs.
