Team building exercises can be used in a variety of different ways. Whether you want to help establish teamwork at school, encourage thinking out of the box at the workplace, or simply help a crowd get to know one another better, these activities are perfect for establishing trust and companionship. Here are a few suggestions regarding team building activities.
What are team building exercises? Essentially they are physical and mental activities that help the group learn to think as a collective whole. Regardless of your age, you can always come away from a team building session with a new lesson about cooperation and communication. Best of all, these activities also encourage the fun of disguising learning as play.
Some examples of fun physical team building exercises include games that incorporate the entire group without singling any one person out. These include group tag, relay races, parachute games, human knots, and more. These are a great way for groups of all ages to get on their feet and moving. Along with leaving your group feeling energetic and happy, these games also do wonders for establishing trust, teamwork, and mutual understanding.
However, communication games are also highly encouraged. These include activities such as the telephone game, word associations, name games, memory games, and even simple storytelling, such as describing a favorite childhood memory or a much loved pet. These games do more than just help the group work as a whole; they also allow members to bond with one another and establish trust, empathy, and sound communication.
With this in mind, it's easy to see why team building games are popular with schools and corporations. Not only do they establish group thinking skills that they will continue to use for the rest of their lives, but they also aid enormously in helping a specific group learn how to trust and work with one another. This is a good way to boost productivity and overall satisfaction in the workplace.
Keep in mind, however, that not all team building games are for everyone. While a popular one includes allowing the group to catch a team member as he or she falls backwards, it's not a good idea to include this activity until the group has established a firm bond. Otherwise you run the risk of not only causing someone deep embarrassment, but actual physical harm as well. While mistakes are inevitable during team building games, it's important to mark them as learning experiences and not to dwell on them, lest they encourage resentment among team members. Learn more team building today!
Are your employees having trouble working together? Whether you're sensing a lot of conflict in the office or you just want to let your employees get to know one another better, team building workshops are an idea solution to your problem. Here are a few ways team building workshops can benefit you.
Team building workshops typically begin with an ice breaker. This part of the session consists of the instructor giving a brief speech regarding the purpose of the workshop. There are also question and answer sessions, introductory periods, and a few warm up exercises to get everyone in the right mindset. These activities often consist of call and response games.
What happens next during team building workshops often depends on the instructor's preferences. There may be physical games, such as the human knot or relay races. Some speakers prefer to have a survival game, which puts the group in a hypothetical situation where they must depend on one another to get out of a nasty situation, such as a plane crash or a camping trip gone wrong. Employees are given a list of supplies and options to consider with the intent of reaching a common goal.
Regardless of what activities you choose for your team building workshop, the point is to have fun while learning the underlying lessons. For example, games such as the human knot teach strategy, planning, and communication, while survival games teach just how valuable groups can be. As inevitable complications and conflicts arise, your group will be able to learn how to work them out calmly and effectively, thus improving their skills at thinking under pressure, speaking up, and taking initiative.
Should the unthinkable occur and you discover that conflict has risen to the point where the group can't move forward, it's time to stop and examine the situation. Avoid pointing out any single individual. Instead, have the group explain the situation and assist them in figuring out a conclusion that will benefit everyone. While conflicts such as these are definitely unpleasant, they often result in the group learning more than they would have if the workshop went well. The point of team building workshops isn't to simply have your team excel perfectly at all the games—they exist to help identify underlying problems and solve them.
These are only a few ways that team building workshops can benefit your company. As your employees return to work, you'll notice right away just how beneficial these seemingly trivial games were for boosting their confidence in themselves and one another. Learn more about team building workshops today!