Have you ever wondered what can you do to improve teamwork and collaboration in your company?
With companies embracing more and more hybrid and remote workplaces, getting to know your teammates and the company culture becomes a harder – and most of the time a more tiresome – task. Still, finding the best way to help your team work in harmony is something you gotta strive to achieve, but how can we keep them connected and engaged with the company when they are working remotely?
That’s where Team-Building Activities come into play.
Team building activities are a great excuse to pull members of teams together who may not always work closely during their day-to-day responsibilities, and provide them with more skills, training, and resources while also having fun!
These activities can range from solving a puzzle together which can be done online, or face-to-face games like a scavenger hunt. It’s not only a great way for your people to relax and have a nice break but also helps to develop skills and knowledge as well as build trust and camaraderie between your teams.
Let’s not forget that for these kinds of activities to have a real effect they need to be a part of your organization’s culture. Team building activities are a continual process that needs to be planned with a clear purpose in mind, for example, fun games to increase creativity, puzzles to improve problem-solving skills, etc.
Once you have organized team-building activities that have a purpose and objectives behind them, you’ll start to see improvement in both your team and organization. These are some of the improvements that team building activities will bring to you:
Benefits of Team-Building Activities
Encourage Creativity
Creativity empowers people to discover new opportunities, come up with original ideas, and to be able to adapt to different situations to solve complex problems.
Out-of-the-box team-building activities give employees the freedom to use their imagination to come up with creative solutions and at the same time, they let your employees know that the workplace is a safe space to share thoughts, bounce ideas off each other, and brainstorm solutions.
Some great creativity activities that you can implement are:
– Complete the drawing. Where you give someone a curved line and ask them to complete the drawing.
– Write a six-word story. Try to tell a story with only six words! Like a newspaper header.
– Avoid the letter e. Where you and your teammates should strive to have a conversation without long pauses while avoiding using the letter e.
Improve Communication
No matter the job position, having good communication within your team is key to success. Believe it or not, most conflicts between team members tend to lie in being a communication issue, that’s how a bad joke ends up in a meeting with HR. So, how do we avoid those situations?
Train your employees in communication exercises that will lead to results. Enjoyable, fun activities that help your employees to get to know each other, create a better understanding, and encourage them to focus on what they have in common rather than their differences.
Some communication-focused activities are:
– Charades. Learning how to communicate using body language is as equally as important!
– Blindfolded Obstacle Course. Where effective communication is as important as trusting your teammate.
– Card Pieces. Team members trade pieces of playing cards to put together complete cards. This exercise is useful for showing team members others’ perspectives. It builds communication and negotiation skills and helps people to develop empathy.
Increase Collaboration
Teamwork is all about getting work done together and helping each other out when needed. Hence, teamwork is all about collaboration, and when you have a collaborative work environment you will bring people closer, help build skills for discourse and learn how to work towards solving a problem together.
There is a multitude of various fun activities that can help bond teams like:
– Playing sports.
– Participating in a charity drive.
– Hobby Clubs (Books, Movies, Music, etc)
These kinds of activities are bound to bring the team together and help members engage with one another.
Increase Motivation & Productivity
Every company has individuals they wish to retain because of their abilities, character, or potential, and employing fun activities and rewarding hard work will ensure employees look forward to coming into work and increase morale, productivity, and motivation.
These activities could include games, team-building exercises, or practical training developed by managers and team leaders.
Activities that are fun help keep team members happy, motivated, and feel appreciated. These activities can occur in the office or outside, depending on the type of activity you wish to organize. Some examples of fun ideas you can use to motivate your team members are:
– Going on a trip!
– Surprise lunches to reward your team’s hard work and effort.
– Make meetings more fun by including icebreaker games, and fun and short competitions.
Make an impact
To take complete advantage of team-building activities remember that they need to have a real purpose and be properly planned to make a genuine impact. Try to make these activities a fun and unforgettable experience for your team so that they’ll remember what they learned as a happy and nurturing experience.
These were just a few activities that you can try, there’s a lot more out there that will ensure a fun and learning experience for your team so remember to be creative and think outside the box!
