It’s crucial that the employees at almost any workplace see themselves as a team building exercises.
However, in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, helping people to feel connected with one another is more challenging than ever before.
According to a Gallup poll conducted in September of 2020, 33% of workers in the United States were working remotely all the time and another 25% were doing so some of the time. Although the vaccine is now available, it’s likely that these trends will still continue on an ongoing basis for quite some time. Furthermore, even after the pandemic is behind us, many workplaces may choose to allow their employees to work remotely indefinitely anyway.
Because of this, team building exercises are more important than ever to help employers create a sense of connection among their staff. Drawing people together through fun activities, in person or virtually, will help improve communication, increase morale, and will improve productivity in any office, even if your employees are often physically distant from one another some or all of the time.
If you’re looking for some great team building activities to inspire and motivate your staff, you came to the right place. These seven ideas are fun and exciting and will help bolster a feeling of teamwork in your work environment. Read on.
- Show and Tell
Show and tell may seem to you like it’s something that’s only for little kids, but that’s not the case at all. All of us possess personal items that mean a great deal to us, and we’d all love an opportunity to share our passion for these items with others. Further, every item has a story, and through sharing those stories, we can all get to know each other a little better.
Set aside some time for show and tell once a week and ask two or three employees to be ready to present. You can also make this type of team building exercise even better by setting parameters. You can ask people to bring in an item that inspires them, most represents their work style, or something that reminds them of a challenge they’ve overcome in the past. The possibilities are endless.
- Listening and Following Directions
There are so many wonderful listening and following directions games out there, but the most simple and effective are both challenging and fun.
One great way to encourage your employees to work as a team is to pair them up and give one of them a simple drawing to view. The person with the drawing has to describe it to the other person while he or she draws it based on his or her directions. The results are rarely accurate and are always entertaining; it will undoubtedly help to foster partnerships between the pairs.
- Word Association
Word association games can tell you a lot about the other players in the game. They are a great way to take a quick break from mentally intense meetings and projects.
Ask one person to come up with a word to start the game. It can be any word at all. Then, go around the room or video chat in an orderly fashion; each person should respond with the first word that comes to mind after hearing the word before theirs. No hesitation is allowed.
You’ll be amazed at how far off-topic these words can quickly become. You’ll learn a lot about your teammates when you hear the words that come out of their mouths along the way.
- Bucket List
Sharing a bucket list with others can be a great way to find out what you really want and to get motivated to reach your goals. When you share them with co-workers, you also get the added benefit of learning about the ways that you are alike and different that you may never have known before.
Ask employees to make a list of five to ten things they want to accomplish in their lifetimes. You can ask them to keep the list work-related or you can let them include anything they’d like.
Allow everyone to share their list with one another; connections will likely be made automatically as a result. Better yet: ask participants to figure out ways they can help one or more of their co-workers to achieve the goals they’ve shared.
- Leadership Styles Quiz
Even your subordinates are all leaders in their own way. However, there are a variety of different leadership styles out there and when it comes to leading others, everyone has their own set of strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes these mesh well with one another, but sometimes they don’t.
Your employees will benefit by learning the leadership styles of others in your office. You can help them figure theirs out by having them take leadership style quizzes; there are many of these available online.
You can view here for more information on the different leadership styles and how they work in an office environment. In this team building exercise, you’ll learn as much about yourself as you will about the others around you!
- Quiz Show
If your team doesn’t know each other well at all, team building ice breakers can help. One great way to accomplish this is through offering quiz breaks that include trivia about the members of your staff.
You can facilitate this by sending out a questionnaire that asks your employees about their interests, hobbies, background, family, and favorites. Then you can create a list of multiple-choice questions to ask based on those. Everyone will learn a bit more about one another in this team building exercise and will have a lot of fun doing it.
- Play Games Together
Everyone loves a good game, and there’s no doubt that playing together or even against one another draws people together. There are so many ways you can implement game-playing within your team. You can play team video games or board games. Some groups enjoy solving murder mystery games or going on geocaching treasure hunts.
No matter what you choose, the important thing is that people are working together and are having a good time doing it. This will translate over into your work as well.
Team Building Exercises Work
Everyone needs a little break sometimes and team building exercises are a great way to offer breaks in a very productive manner. You’ll be amazed at the increase in productivity you see after a good team building session. Good supervisors know that these breaks are well worth the time they take, and they will improve the office culture immensely. Choose a few and get started. You’ll be glad that you did.
If you enjoy reading articles about helping your business and your employees to succeed, check out the Business section of our site for more!
