Fun and Engaging Team Building Activities
- Use What You Have
- Blind Drawing
- Created Economy
- Jenga
- What’s My Name?
Any organization that wants their employees to collaborate and work efficiently should invest time and money in team building activities. Some colleagues who work in close spaces are able to bond simply because they are in the company of another individual more than they are at home. Unfortunately, in small, medium, and large-sized offices, it’s not so easy for staff to connect and build a rapport. According to Forbes, 64 percent of employees are confused by who is doing what in their organization and this confusion leads to a loss of production.
There are myriad options for exercises that you can find online to get everyone on the same page. The key is to choose a fun and engaging activity that’s not all about introducing yourself and mingling. By forcing employees out of their element and urging them to work together, the inner workings of the organization will become more efficient. Here are five unique ideas:
1. Use What You Have
This activity is all about learning how to be resourceful as a team. The gist of the exercise is to divide your office into equal groups. Once all of the teams are decided randomly, you will give instruction to the teams.
The trainer can choose any type of project from creating a bridge that holds a specific amount of weight to creating a device that can propel an item to a target without electricity. Trainers will then set out a pile of the supplies that can be used for the project. At the end of this, teams will learn how to problem solve with one another.
2. Blind Drawing
For the Blind Drawing team building activity, managers will divide their office into groups of two. It’s preferable to match people up with individuals with whom they don’t work closely. Each group will have:
- one picture
- one pen
- one piece of paper
One member is given an image and the other the pen and paper.
The team member holding the picture will then describe the image to the artist without using restricted words. The accepted words will be directions and adjectives and not words that describe the nouns. This exercise is all about speaking the other person’s language and learning how to communicate effectively.
3. Created Economy
Another great idea for smaller offices is to create a mini-society. In every society, there are problems that citizens and the government must overcome. Citizens have to:
- enact different laws
- assign council members
- organize the running of the town, village, etc.
All of this can be done as a team building activity within your suite.
The key is to set flexible rules where there’s room for people to have to have discussions in an effort to fix the system. It’s natural for problems to arise in mini-societies, but in this new economy, teams will learn how to think outside of the box together to solve work-related problems.
4. Jenga
Companies with several different departments could benefit from playing a modified version of the game Jenga. Trainers can either get larger cardboard boxes to make the Jenga pieces or you can use an actual Jenga game. Then, each piece will be labeled as the departments and other hierarchies in the organization. Be sure that the percentage of pieces is in relation to the size of the department.
After the labels are done, the structures will be built with all of the pieces. Then, like a traditional game of Jenga, pieces are removed, but only from the branch of the organization that’s given. Teams should be working towards building structures with the pieces that won’t fall apart if pieces are removed.
5. What’s My Name?
This game takes introducing one another to another level to address labels and stereotypes head-on. The goal is to write either celebrities or types of people down on a piece of paper. Tags are placed on every person’s back. The group will then mingle and treat one another as if they are the person on the label. The goal is for everyone to guess who they are based on how they are treated and answers they are given.
Facilitating team building exercises internally as a company can be difficult when there’s not a dedicated person to do this. If someone is willing to take on the task, these team building activities are unique ideas. They don’t require a lot of work but still remain fun and useful.
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