Team building games and activities are exercises meant to boost your team’s effectiveness in project completion. They are important as they help build teamwork, collaboration, creativity, and improve communication. Here are the top four team building activities, in office and out of the office, you can schedule for your team.
Top 4 In-Office team building activities
Here are some favorite team building activities that can be carry out in the workplace.
a) Pencil Drop
In this game, you need strings, pencils, and bottles. Tie two bits of strings to a pencil and the other ends to the waist of two participants. While facing each other, the two stretch the pencil to waist level and attempt to lower it into the bottle.
b) The Barter Puzzle
This game puts a premium on speed, negotiation, cooperation, and decision-making within the groups. A group is asked to solve a jigsaw puzzle, and the winner is the group that takes the shortest time.
The catch is that the puzzle pieces are mixed with other group’s pieces. It takes a combination of trading, negotiation, and other tactics to piece them all together. However, they have to be group decisions, not an individual’s, so it takes plenty of group consensus and problem solving. The goal is to build a team bond.
c) Helium Stick
Nothing spells fun and frustration than Helium Stick or Magic Cane, a game that stresses teamwork to complete the mission. Divide the participants into two lines of 4-6 participants facing each other, with a stick placed between them.
The goal is to use their index fingertips to lower the stick to the ground without dropping it. It may sound like a simple task, but the fingers create upward pressure whenever they try to prevent it dropping.
d) What’s in the Room
This is one of the more serious activities that a business owner would prefer as it mixes fun and business. Your opponents select an object, and your team prepares a marketing plan for selling it.
You have to go all-in as you create its logo, brand name, catchphrase, and other strategies to enhance sales. The team with the most creative package wins. After that, you can hold discussions to educate the other teams on improving their projects.
If your colleagues prefer it, there are virtual team building games such as Gold Rush, The Heist, and Prison Break.
On the other hand, one of the most vivid ways of team building and enhancing morale is using digital signage. You can create engaging videos and graphics that create a personal connection with the employee. As a result, workers will feel like valued members of a team and an integral part of the company.
Top 4 Out-of-Office team building activities
You can use these as icebreakers to improve participants’ mood, and strengthen team bonds.
i) Escape room
This escape game can stretch across multiple activities, such as finding lost gold and breaking out of prison. You can group participants into teams of eight, so they can try out different adventures all at once.
The challenging obstacles force teams to collaborate and communicate effectively to solve puzzles and clues to beat the time.
ii) Human knot
The game has a way of bringing out the best in people’s creativity and communication skills. Team members stand shoulder-to-shoulder in a circle while facing inside the circle. After that, they stretch their right hand and grab someone else’s arm across the circle.
They do the same with their left hand without grabbing the hand of someone next to them. Moreover, they should hold the hands of two different people.
When that’s done, the goal is to untangle everyone in the group without breaking up the circle.
iii) Egg Drop
Strategy and creativity are at the heart of this oldie team building game. A team’s collaboration and creative problem solving tactics are severely put to the test in this game. The team places an uncooked egg in packaging that ensures the egg stays intact after a 2-4 story building drop.
The teams are free to use the following items to break the fall:
- Balloons
- Tape
- Newspapers
- Plastic
- Rubber bands
- Straws
The team that keeps its egg intact wins. Increasing the height of the drop acts as the tiebreaker.
iv) Scavenger Hunt
Finally, this timeless classic team building activity is bound to draw lots of fun. Even though you could play this indoors, the recommended location is outdoors. You can use any number of participants, and the larger the location, the better.
After hiding several items within the play area, divide the employees into equal-sized groups. Hand them a list of items they should search and bring back within a specified time. The winner will be the group that manages to bring back the most number of items within the set time.
The game forces the team members to enter collaborations and be creative, especially when there is a riddle.
Do team-building exercises work?
To sum up, one of the best ways to build morale in the workplace is conducting a team building exercise. According to a Salesforce study, 97% of executives and employers believe non-alignment of team members can influence the outcome of a project or task. Team-building exercises are a sure-fire way of increasing productivity and teamwork.
Infographic Provided By in person team building activities Company, TeamBonding
