An organisation is its people. And when these people fall out, the company has to incur a lot of challenges. For an organisation to run smoothly, its employees need to work together and be in sync.
A team means a group of people working towards the same goals independently as well as cooperatively. When people bring their diverse skills to the table and work as a team, great things are achieved. In fact, 75% of employers view teamwork and collaboration as very important to their organisation.
Therefore, to help teams strengthen the bond and improve relationships among themselves, I have listed down 12 team building activities for work. Apart from providing your employees a great time, these team building activities for work will also inculcate skills in them that they can use both in their professional as well as personal life.
OBJECTIVE: A very popular and effective team building exercise, this activity is good for small groups. It helps develop communication, interpretation and leadership skills.
HOW TO PLAY: Pair people into groups of two and have them sitting back-to-back. Provide one person with a picture and the other with a paper and pen. Ask the person with the picture to describe it to their partner without actually saying what's in the picture.
RESULT: It helps build leadership skills in the person who is directing the person with the pen and paper to draw the picture. The way she gives direction will result in how well the "artist" understands and draws the picture perfectly. It also depends on the communication between the team members and how clearly do they understand and interpret each other.
OBJECTIVE: The objective is to help people working in groups acquire skills like problem solving, creativity and robust communication.
TOOLS: A tarp or piece of clothing the size of a tablecloth.
HOW TO PLAY: A creative game, here you ask a group of 6-10 people to huddle around and stand on top of a tarp. The challenge is that they have to flip the tarp so they are standing on the other side of the cloth. The only condition is that they can only use their feet! They can't get off the cloth or let their feet touch the ground.
RESULT: It forces the group to think of creative ways to work as a team and solve the problem without getting off the sheet. This is a great team building game that urges the team members to make sure no one is getting off the sheet. This ensures that in a non-game situation too, they include everyone in the group and make everyone responsible for reaching the ultimate goal of the task.
OBJECTIVE: It urges people to look at things from a positive perspective and turn it into a learning experience.
HOW TO PLAY: Winner/loser is a great ice breaker game too. Divide employees into groups of two. After this, one of the team members shares a negative life experience with their partner. Now, the other team member retells the same story while highlighting the positive aspects of the experience. Partners should switch roles after talking about each issue.
RESULT: By the end of the game, each member will have found the silver lining to their life experiences which they probably did not wish to relive. This will teach them to view at the hardships of life (both professional and personal) from a positive perspective and learn from it.
OBJECTIVE: The objective is to let employees get out of their comfort zone and work as a team. It also helps with working with new team members.
HOW TO PLAY: Conducted exclusively at Hubspot, this fun game is an excellent example of team bonding. What you have to do is that on a single night, you have to invite a group of people from different teams to dinner at a restaurant or at someone's place. The expenses will be incurred by the company. The mystery is that before the dinner, employees are only informed about the date and time of dinner. Then on the day of the dinner, an email is sent to everyone with the name of the restaurant and who they'll be going with.
RESULT: It enables people to step out of their comfort zone and meet new people. It helps them to understand about the work with other departments and different teams do. In a workplace scenario, it will prepare employees to work with people from diverse teams whom they haven't met before.
Also, an evening of free food and laughter, who doesn't love that?
OBJECTIVE: Builds trust and collaboration among team members. The nature of the game also focuses on developing communication and active listening.
TOOLS: Numerous soft objects without rough edges (cups, balloons, soft toys), few blindfolds.
HOW TO PLAY: In an open space, place random objects or "mines" across the floor. Divide people into groups of two and put the blindfold on one of them. The other person has to direct his partner to go from one side of the space to the other without stepping on any of the objects. The person directing can only give verbal directions and the one who's blindfolded isn't allowed to speak at all.
Hold the competition between 5-6 teams and the one who reaches the finish line without stepping on any of the "mines" the earliest wins the game.
RESULT: It is a great team building activity to foster trust between your employees. Because one of the members is blind and cannot talk, he/she has to put his entire trust and confidence into his partner. In fact, it is also a great activity for people who are not open to collaboration. It also increases concentration and urges your employees to pay attention.
OBJECTIVE: The main objective of this activity is to understand how individual role plays an essential role in a team's overall success. Other skills to be developed are problem solving, strategising and sharpening memory.
TOOLS: Building blocks, lego, popsicle sticks.
HOW TO PLAY: Before the activity begins, build a sculpture using blocks and hide it from all the teams. Divide the teams into groups of 2-8 each and provide them with equal but enough building material. Ask one member from each team to come and "sneak a peek" at the sculpture for about 10 seconds. Then they go back to their teams and get 25 seconds to instruct their teams on how to rebuild the exact same sculpture. After 25 seconds, another member from each team is sent to sneak a peek at the sculpture. The process continues until one of the teams successfully builds a replica of the original sculpture.
RESULT: By the end, the team will realise how every team member's participation is essential to achieve success. That when they work together as a team, new strategies are developed to solve the problem at hand and the role that trust and communication plays in that.
OBJECTIVE: One of the best team building activities for work, human knot urges employees to communicate and cooperate. The objective is to solve the problem in a set time, therefore cultivating skills like problem solving and time management.
HOW TO PLAY: A great exercise for a large group of employees, divide employees into groups of 6-12. Ask them to form a circle facing each other. Tell them to put their right hand in the air and grab someone's hand from across the circle. Then, ask everyone to put out their left hand and again grab someone's hand from the circle. Set a timer for them and ask them to untangle the "knot" within the set time. The first one to untangle, wins.
RESULT: The teams work to think of creative ways to complete the activity within a fixed time period. This enables them to organise their work in a way that teaches them to get the work done on time.
OBJECTIVE: A classic example of team building, scavenger hunt is great for team bonding. The objective is to build a sense of teamwork and camaraderie among employees. Other skills that can be acquired are problem solving and strategizing.
TOOLS: Mobile phones, pen and paper.
HOW TO PLAY: Divide employees into groups of 4 or more. Assign groups with a fun list of items with different point values assigned for each task. Set a time limit to complete them. These activities can range from taking selfies with strangers, quiz up questions about the company, preparing a dish with ingredients available in the break room. You can also design a treasure hunt which you can space around the area near your office.
OBJECTIVE: This simple team building exercise instills qualities like leadership, communication, collaboration and problem solving skills.
HOW TO PLAY: Pair participants into teams of 8-12 and ask them to stand side-by-side. Now ask them to stand in order of their birthday (month and day). The catch to this simple game is that employees have to complete the entire task without talking to each other. They must use signs and symbols to get into order. The team who is able to get into order successfully the earliest wins.
RESULT: This game is highly effective if you want to foster great communication and interpretation among your employees. Consequently, it also gives every employee to hone their leadership skills while giving out directions to their team members on how to solve the task.
OBJECTIVE: Gets people to interact with colleagues they haven't met before. The purpose of this game is to make people aware of how they stereotype and categorise people based on characteristics.
HOW TO PLAY: Write the names of famous personalities (celebrities), characters (comics, cartoons) or professions (football, swimming, golf) on sticky or post it notes. Place the note on each person's forehead but don't tell them who they'll represent. After this, ask them to go around the room and mingle with people to ask and answer questions. They have to treat each other in the stereotypical way based on the label that they have been tagged with. Once team members figure out who they are, they can exit and let the rest continue.
RESULT: The game highlights on both how people treat us and we treat them based on stereotypes and characteristics. It is also a great ice breaker game for people who haven't met yet to interact and get to know each other.
OBJECTIVE: Develops a number of skills like strategy, negotiation, problem solving. It also tests your employees' communication and leadership skills.
HOW TO PLAY: Split people into groups of four or less. Give every group a different jigsaw puzzle with the same difficulty level. The catch of this game is that some pieces of the puzzle will be mixed at random with puzzles of other groups. Their task is to complete their puzzle by negotiating, trading or bartering team members or puzzle pieces with other teams. However they do it, the group must arrive at a consensus before making any decisions. The team who completes their puzzle first, wins this team building activity.
RESULT: This game will focus mainly on how well do teams work together. Because there has to complete agreement before making every decision, this activity will give room to robust communication, discussions and diverse strategies. This will ensure communication and cooperation. In addition, barter puzzle will advance your employees' negotiation and as a result, communication skills.
OBJECTIVE: To challenge preconceived judgements, help introverts mingle with others and just get to know each other.
HOW TO PLAY: To make the game interesting, conduct the game with at least 8-10 people. Sit them around in a circle facing each other. Ask everyone to state three facts about themselves out of which one has to be a lie. The rest of the people have to figure out which one is the lie and which two the true facts.
RESULT: This game has no winner or loser. It's just a fun activity to make people realise how their judgement of someone can be completely wrong. It shows employees who they shouldn't judge peers based on what they think about them or what they may have heard about them. Moreover, it also gives introverts a platform to share their stories and meet new people.