“Team building” is a phrase you've probably heard before. Perhaps when you were in elementary school, your class had to solve a puzzle together.
Or when your bunk had to complete a collective scavenger hunt or catch each other in trust falls at camp.
Team building activities have become an essential aspect of the corporate culture. In today's environment, creating a culture of teamwork within an organization is one of the best ways of time management for a firm to grow & enhance productivity
We may say that the firm is moving correctly when all employees join together and work in unison.
What are the five steps to forming a team?
In the 1960s, Dr Bruce W. Tuckerman, an educational psychologist, released his thesis on team development, suggesting that there are five stages to team building:
- Forming: The formation process is people coming together and getting to know one another.
- Storming: The team is learning how to communicate and interact successfully.
- Norming: Individuals adhere to group norms that have been established.
- Performing: The crew is beginning to work more efficiently.
- Adjourning: The team is shutting down and moving on to other tasks now that the mission has been achieved.
Why Do Team Building Activities Matter?
Besides providing a fun and creative alternative to bonding over happy hour (which can make non-drinkers feel excluded), team-building exercises have many other advantages for businesses and employees.
At its most basic level, team-building exercises allow people to learn about one another's interests, skills and limitations, and communication styles, among other things.
When it comes to working and practising together to be the best they can be, work teams can and should do the same thing as any professional sports team.
Team building exercises also foster camaraderie and trust, two of the most vital characteristics of a successful group. People can bring the full strength of their skills, personalities, and who they are to work when there is trust among teammates.
When people don't trust themselves to do so, they hold back, reducing their ability to perform at their best.
Finally, team-building activities can remind people that work is always about the whole group, not just them. When you're encouraged to achieve something as a group rather than alone, it reinforces the concept that the group's (and, ultimately, the company's) success should come first.
22 Best Team Building Activities Your Coworkers Won't Hate
1. Solve a Rubric
This can be a physical puzzle, such as a 500-piece set, or a mental exercise that encourages you to think and brainstorm aloud. Give one to your team and, if you're feeling very ambitious, set a time constraint for them to accomplish it. The key is that everyone must contribute to the project's success.
Please reflect on the experience once they're finished or the timer runs out. Inquire of your team: What was your plan for resolving the problem? What was done by whom? Allowing everyone to think about their approach could reveal unique viewpoints or abilities in each person.
2. Create an escape Room
This is one of the best team bonding activities as nothing brings people closer like trapping them in a room with no electronics and only one way out.
A good old-fashioned escape room will test your team's inventiveness and force them to work together to win the game and escape.
An escape room's most prominent feature is that it can be played online and offline.
3. Consider forming a Compliment Circle.
You may use various approaches to encourage your team to express gratitude for one another. One method is to spend five minutes having everyone complement each other on whatever comes to mind (if you're the boss, you should start the ball rolling!).
“I wanted to tell Gina I appreciated her proposal this week,” or “Significant shoutout to Danny for bringing in doughnuts last week when we were all heads-down to fulfil a big deadline” can be as simple as mentioning.
You can also have everyone go around and address the employee to their right, giving everyone a chance to shine.
4. Shark Tank
Pitching unusual company ideas in a Shark Tank-style setting is a fun team-building way to spend a post-work evening with your coworkers while also highlighting their ingenuity and inventive ideas.
This practice can enhance skill-building, strengthen brainstorming abilities, and lead to the discovery of some fantastic, new ideas by spotlighting your employees' latent capabilities.
5. Share Your Characteristics
Have everyone on your team take a personality test (here are a few of our favourites), then meet and discuss the results. The important thing is that employees understand their coworkers' talents, limitations, and quirks.
Perhaps you can gather people with similar personalities and have them talk about how their attributes manifest in the job or give them an activity like building their “dream” office and sharing it with the group.
6. Play board or team games
I don't have to state that board games bring people together (just read this article on the benefits of networking over games). And there are a plethora of excellent, office-friendly solutions available!
Apples to Apples (a mildly offensive version of Cards Against Humanity), Code Names, Pandemic, and Jenga are cooperative team building games. Non-tabletop games such as Celebrity and Heads Up (both available on iOS and Android) require nothing more than a phone or pen and paper.
It may seem stupid to bring some games into the office, but you might be shocked to learn that it loosens up your team and forces them to collaborate in new and innovative ways.
7. Make a documentary
A humorous documentary or mockumentary is one of the excellent & fun team building activities for everyone in your team to get to know one another better while having a great time. Make a highlight reel of your office with funny, snarky, hilarious, serious, or fun moments from everyone's day.
The goal is to have a lot of fun while encouraging teamwork and collaboration to make the movie. Plan a massive release for everyone to come together and enjoy the mockumentary with food and beverages after it's finished.
8. Make a scavenger hunt
It's one of the fantastic team building ideas for new employees to learn about the organization and their coworkers by requiring them to identify items around the office and ask seasoned employees questions like “When was [Company] founded?” or “Who was our first client?” or “How many people work on the marketing team?” during their first week.
They are equally successful with veteran teams. You can set up for your staff to discover several facts or artifacts at the end of the day. Or divide the group into sections and see who finishes first. This will inspire team members to work together.
9. Together, create a narrative
Each one of us is a writer. So, why not use one of your team building games to bring out this literary genius? This team building activity may bring your entire team together to develop a fun, dramatic, and unusual story on the spot while also increasing employee engagement and team creativity.
10. Loosen a “Human Knot”
This is not only a camp favorite but also a great team building approach to getting team members to collaborate on an issue. Squeeze everyone into a circle and clasp hands with folks who aren't exactly next to them. Once everyone's hands are intertwined, the goal is to detangle without breaking the chain.
You can make it more difficult by not allowing individuals to speak or imposing a time limit. To crawl over each other, you'll need some leg room (not to mention an office atmosphere where people are comfortable holding hands—be careful with this one), but if you're up for it, it can be a fun challenge.
11. Book club on the internet
This is one of the best virtual team building activities for employees. Hosting a virtual book club is a simple way to unwind after a long day at work while also bonding with your coworkers. Even if you don't have substantial book nerds on your team, Your staff will be able to discuss their personal favorites and brainstorm ideas at a virtual book club meeting.
It's a fantastic method to combine skill development with participation and interaction. You never know; folks with similar reading interests may begin to interact more frequently or engage in a regular thread of debate, making this activity a big success.
12. Volunteering in the Community
When people get into a work pattern, it might be challenging to find time to volunteer. Employees given a morning or afternoon volunteer do not need to worry about finding the time on their own.
Community service benefits nonprofit organizations that share your company's beliefs and allows employees to interact with one another in a new situation, which is one of the essential aspects of excellent teamwork.
13. Give Blind Directions
Pair up team members and blindfold one of them; the other person's goal is to guide them around the workplace as best they can, whether getting them to the other side or completing a task like moving an object or sketching a picture.
Let people who don't regularly work together participate in this exercise, this team building idea will help them develop communication and trust.
14. League of Hiking/Sports
Consider activities that will get your entire team moving outside the office if you have an outdoorsy team. Perhaps a riverfront walk or a short hike just outside town is twenty minutes distant. Employees who spend time outside of work biking or jogging can be used to crowdsource destinations.
Do you want to take it a step further? Canoeing or rafting is best done on a warm day. Moving a tiny canoe or rubber raft down a river doesn't require prior knowledge, but it is a fun team building exercise – especially if you bring water pistols.
15. Organise a Lunch and Learn
Your team has a lot of hidden abilities; use them to bring everyone together. Perhaps someone is an expert knitter, speaks another language, or is an Excel wizard.
Have them conduct a “lunch and learn” during your noon break, where they teach the rest of the staff a new skill.
Your employee will gain experience coaching and making presentations, and your team will gain new and intriguing information about their peers.
It is one of the best employee engagement ideas.
16. Tower of Marshmallow Spaghetti
This is yet another workplace creative problem-solving and cooperation exercise. For each team, you'll need 20 uncooked spaghetti sticks, one roll of masking tape, one yard of string, and one marshmallow.
Which team can then construct the tallest structure using only these materials? However, the marshmallow must be at the very top of the spaghetti tower, and the entire building must be able to stand on its own for at least five seconds (i.e. no hands or other things supporting it).
17. Organise a Competition
You could, for example, hold a department desk decorating competition (which is always a hit at The Muse office on holi, Dewali) or have a cookie or guacamole-making contest, in which employees can bring their best recipes, and the team votes on which ones they like most (after all, who doesn't appreciate food during the workday?).
It promotes healthy competition among employees while motivating them to spend time together and bond over a shared interest.
18. Airbands vs Airbands
Divide your staff into groups of three to four people and let them choose the vocalists, guitarists, drummers, backing dancers, and other band members.
Allow them time to select, practice, and perform a lip-synced rendition of whichever work-friendly music they prefer. Groups or a nearby department can vote on the winner after the performances.
19. Participate in an Improv Class
Improv lessons, which are far more participatory than culinary classes, can teach you various valuable skills for the workplace, such as how to communicate with others and work together to overcome obstacles.
They also force you to step outside your comfort zone and laugh with coworkers. You may discover comedy cellars near your office by searching on sites like CourseHorse or a quick Google search.
20. Back-to-Back Illustration
Paper, pens/markers, and printouts of simple line drawings or basic shapes are all you'll need. Split your party into pairs and sit each team next to each other.
One individual receives a simple image or a shape picture, while the other gets a piece of paper and a pen. The person holding the photograph instructs their partner on how to draw the shape or image handed to them (without simply telling them what it is).
After a predetermined amount of time has passed on the timer, have each pair of partners compare their images to discover who drew the most accurate reproduction. Of course, that squad is victorious.
21. Karaoke Night
Who doesn't enjoy singing karaoke? Challenge teammates to a karaoke war, compare top scores, or have fun showing off your singing skills by singing with your team utilizing the built-in microphones and speakers on your computers.
22. Carry out a silent line-up
Set a timer and have individuals line up in various orders without saying anything, such as by height, birthday, or business tenure.
While overcoming an uncommon task, your team will discover a little about each other.
Building a team relationship is critical whether you're a group of five people working in an office or a team of 100+ people working remotely from all over the world.
On each given day, a well-connected team benefits from better coordination, clearer communication, and increased production.
So, get started with some of these team building activities and have a good time with your staff.
