Connecting Through Team Building
Teamwork makes the dream work, right? Team building exercises are meant to help employees solve problems together so they can build stronger relationships with one another and ultimately be more effective, more productive and more successful. However, many people hate having to do them.
Here’s a list of our go-to office team-building exercises to laugh, learn and connect with your team.
Bridge Building
To improve your team’s communication and creative skills try the Bridge Building exercise. Divide coworkers into two teams and supply them with materials that can be used to build a model bridge.
Each team must build one half of a bridge, and once both halves are finished the teams must see if they fit together properly.
The two teams are not allowed to see what the other one is working on so they must effectively communicate so each half of the bridge will properly fit together. Communication channels, such as Slack, can be used for communication purposes.
Even if the bridge doesn’t fit together perfectly, this exercise is an excellent way to get people talking at work.
Take a Hike
Sometimes, a successful team building experience is a simple physical activity. If your office is close to a nice outdoor space, take everyone for a short hike. It doesn’t have to be difficult; you just need to get everyone outside of the work environment. If you want to make it more interesting, create mini-challenges that employees will have to work together to overcome – like building a balanced rock tower, or crossing a small brook.
Be sure to pack plenty of food and water for the trip for this simple, but great bonding experience.
Office Trivia
Assign a captain and have everyone on your team submit one “unknown fact” to that person. The captain is responsible for auditing facts based on pre-set criteria. For example, you may ask team members to submit facts specifically about their pets or childhood. The captain must create a randomized list of facts and a separate randomized list of participant names. Give everyone a set amount of time to match as many facts to participants accurately as possible. If you have a small team, you can also have each person explain the reasoning behind each match they guessed while reading individual answers aloud.
Community Service
A great way to create employee bonds is to do something to give back to your community. Things like participating in Adopt-a-Family programs during the holidays, sorting canned food at a food pantry, organizing a road clean up or even planting trees — the key is to find an activity that appeals to your team and reflects your company values. Get out of the office and do some good for your whole community.
If the activity you select creates an atmosphere of trust and a feeling of camaraderie between employees, you will help your team get to know each other as more than just your roles in the office.