Team Building Activities

All work and no play can make even the most productive team inefficient after a while. If you want to keep-up your employees’ morale, then organising fun team building activities is one of the easiest ways to accomplish it.

A survey by Forbes shows how companies like Facebook, Uber and Salesforce are making the best use of workplace team building to attract new talents and to retain the existing workforce.

Team building games are not only enjoyable but can also be educational as well as help employees to enhance their skills. Most importantly, group activities can help team members to get to know each other better.

Also, since the current pandemic, employees have been working from home for almost 4 months now. They would have now adapted to working from the comforts of their homes. Hence, as offices start opening up, the HR needs to conduct team building activities, so that employees can re-adjust their working style as they resume work from office.

Team building activities can play a critical role in helping employees to accept & adapt to changes faster, thus making teamwork effective & efficient. As such, if you are looking for exciting indoor/outdoor team building ideas that everyone will enjoy, then here is a quick list to help you get started.

A] Reasons Why Team Building is Important

Why invest in team building? To put in simple words, ‘A team that works and plays together…stays together’

While team building exercises are mostly used to break through the clutter of everyday routine and to give employees a brief respite from work, when planned smartly, team building can;

• Lead to more open communication between co-workers and increase team collaboration.
• Promote trust among teams as they work towards achieving a common goal.
• Help break barriers between the leadership team and employees, allowing employees to express their ideas & opinions more freely and confidently.
• Foster learning, enabling team members to learn new skills, which can help increase productivity.
• Promote creativity, motivating team members to take on any challenge head-on, as they work together to solve problems strategically.
• Help resolve conflicts as they hear and accept diverse opinions on how to go about accomplishing a task, thereby putting aside their differences while facing a common adversary.
• Team building activities are also one of the best ways to familiarize your new employees to your company culture. Plus, a dose of healthy competition between teams can go a long way in creating a positive work environment, wherein everyone focuses on doing their best to attain a specific reward.

B] Team Building Exercises: How to Get Started?

• Create a Schedule: As a company, it is your call whether you want to make team building activities a weekly program or a monthly program. When you have a schedule, you can plan accordingly and ensure that it doesn’t interfere with work. Also, it can help your HR team to plan ahead and come up with new & exciting team building games.
• Set a Timeline: The process of planning & executing team building exercises can be time-consuming. As such, it is important to create an outline for your timeline including; when (date/day), what (the type of activity), materials needed (to play the game) and the time it will take. This will ensure that there is no hassle at the last minute.
• Stay Consistent: After a while, team activities can get tedious. You may feel that it is consuming a lot of time and money, or your employees may find it boring. But, no matter what, it is important to stay consistent to reap greater benefits. Try experimenting with new things and focus on improving your employees’ morale (or skill set) through engaging activities. This can be mutually beneficial for all.

C] Best Team Building Games and Activities

1. Blind Snakes: An ideal way to promote trust among team members; this fun team building activity involves strong leadership, strategy, and coordination. The goal of this activity is to collect as many items as possible that are strewn around the room blindfolded.Everyone is blindfolded except the last person (the chosen leader), who guides the entire team around the room with non-verbal commands (tapping, steering). Being in sync with your teammates is very important to ace this game.

2. Five of Anything: This is a simple Q&A ice-breaker game which can help team members to know about the likes, dislikes, hobbies, and interests of their colleagues. Some of the questions can be; What are the best 5 foods that you like? Or What are the 5 best films that you’ve watched? It can be five of anything, which will help spark conversation and allow them to discuss their shared interests.

3. Team Identity: This team building activity helps boost creativity and fosters cohesiveness. It is a collaborative exercise that requires each team to create an identity for themselves. This includes having a distinctive name for their team, designing a logo, coming up with a tagline, etc. Set a time limit (10-15mins) and then let them showcase their work and explain their thought-process behind creating it.

4. Guess the Logo: This is a simple indoor team building game, wherein each team is given a sheet of paper that includes logos of famous brands. Set a time limit and then all they need to do is write down the name of the brand besides the logo.

5. Team Hiking or Trekking: One of the best outdoor team building activities, take your team to a hiking/trekking trip if you want to break from the four walls of your office. The natural surrounding will do a ton of good to their overall health and mental well-being while rejuvenating their senses.

6. NewsPaper Tower: For this indoor team building exercise, you need old newspapers, which you need to distribute among the team equally. The task is to build a free-standing tower within a given time frame, let’s say 10mins. The team who builds the longest tower or the most creative tower wins. For this activity, other accessories needed are cello-tape and scissors.

7. Back-to-back Drawing: As the name suggests, divide your team into pairs and make them sit facing away from each other. Next, while one person describes an object (without giving away the answer), the other person has to draw it based on that description. The duo, whose drawing matches the description wins. This team building game needs to be played in turns, and you can set a time limit (5-10mins), so everyone gets a chance.

8. Create a Music Video: Give each team three options; dance on a song, sing a song or play musical instruments. Once they choose an option, ask them to perform and capture these moments and create a video. It is a fun team activity that is sure to boost the team’s energy leading to enjoyment & laughter.

9. Cultural Celebration/Holiday Trivia: This is one of the popular office team building activities that help improve team cohesiveness and offers your employees a chance to experience a different culture. Whether it is Christmas or Diwali or Holi, make sure to celebrate each festival in your office. Also, to make it more fun & engaging, you can host a holiday trivia quiz for the team.

10. Memory Wall: Want to archive the most memorable moments with your team? Create a memory wall in your office, wherein you and your employees can pin pictures of team outing, holiday celebrations, etc. This can be an ongoing activity, and you can also add inspiring quotes to the wall or celebrate the accomplishment of the employees and more.

11. DIY Projects: This can include anything you want; create a collage, if it is an outdoor activity challenge, then ask the team to build a bonfire, or there are other DIY arts & crafts project that you can plan for the team.

12. Host a Debate: You can’t go wrong with hosting a friendly debate between teams. The topics need to be fun; Netflix and chill or hanging out with friends? Or Vada Pav or Burger: which is the ultimate food? There is no dearth of interesting topics that you can come up with. Also, a debate can provide your employees with a new perspective on a particular subject, while making them curious to learn more.

13. Volunteer: Be it a charity marathon or volunteering for a beach clean-up, this team building program can be your way of giving back to the community. Apart from allowing team members to get to know each other outside work, your employees can feel a sense of satisfaction of being a part of a selfless service. Also, from a business perspective, it can help you to build your brand’s reputation.

Conclusion

Employees are a company’s biggest asset, and as such, employers or HR professionals need to ensure that employees are motivated, which, in turn, can help boost productivity. Team building activities are one way through which organisations can ensure that the energy level in their office is always high.

Just like a CRM software makes day-to-day work easier for all employees, fun & engaging team building games can help boost their morale and keep them physically & mentally agile. Thus, if you don’t already have a team building program for your company, then it is high time that you have one. This will bring about a positive impact on the overall work environment.

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