Most of us spend a lot of our lives at work so it makes sense that you would want to find a job that you love and a company that you enjoy working for.
Your salary is important, of course, but so is workplace happiness and a feeling that you are valued and belong, and it is a lot easier to stay working for an employer that empathizes with your needs rather than being somewhere that feels like a grind.
A great way of building that much-valued team spirit is to get involved with some events that bring everyone closer together. Here are some team-building ideas that could put a smile on everyone’s face and make you look forward to another day at the office.
- Get everyone talking
Once you find out more about why a positive workplace culture is such a good thing for employer and employees alike, you will want to work on creating some events that encourage your team to bond and think collectively rather than individually.
A good ice-breaker activity to start the ball rolling with is the classic team-building activity of campfire stories. Your team sit around in a circle to recreate a campfire scenario and then take turns to share stories and experiences with their colleagues. It is meant to be informal and you can have a set of topics to get everyone talking, such as favorite destination, or what they first day at work was like.
Campfire stories help everyone to get to know a bit more about each other and encourages more of a community spirit.
- Solve a problem creatively
Many brilliant ideas have been scribbled down on the back of something with a view to expanding on the inspirational thought afterward.
You can use this entrepreneurial approach for a team-building exercise. Divide your team into a minimum of two players and then think about some problems that need solving, such as how to make a certain product work better. Give each team a napkin and tell them that they have to write the solution to that problem on the back of the napkin. It can be a flow chart, a sketch or any other way to illustrate a solution, and you can then share these ideas to see if you can pick a winner.
- Your own version of a reality TV show
This team game involves coming up with an idea for a new product and then pitching it to the other teams involved in the game. You can take turns being the entrepreneur or the investor and you can have a lot of fun with this concept
Collaboration and the chance for some unconventional thinking all help to create a team exercise that often gets everyone talking.
- A quick exercise that always helps break the ice
Some people can feel a bit awkward about corporate activities like team building and if you want a simple exercise to get over that initial hesitation a quick round of office trivia might do the trick. All you have to do is think of some work-based trivia questions, like how many posters are there in the reception area and how many people work in a department.
They are not meant to be challenging or sophisticated questions as the idea is just to get everyone involved, which will happen because everyone will be sure they know the answer to most of the questions.
- Away from the usual environment
As much as team exercises can be successful in the workplace it can also be good to get everyone away from their usual environment for an off-site event. You can mix things up with a series of events that encourage professional development and strategizing, combined with some fun events and socializing too.
Look for a venue where employees can mix with each other in a casual setting and can enjoy some free time as well as getting involved in group activities.
Mixing business with pleasure does work well if you do it in the right setting.
- A game of tasks
Team-building exercises have to be fun if you are going to be able to get everyone onboard and up for the challenge. A good exercise that should tick the right boxes is where you divide people into small groups and give them a set of tasks to complete indoors and outside, within a certain amount of time. For example, you could say that to score points you need to get a selfie with a stranger or find a certain object that has been hidden in the building somewhere.
Whatever tasks you give them, each team should enjoy working together to try and score as many points as possible.
- Building trust
Another popular exercise to try is based on an imaginary minefield. Find an open space where you can place some random objects like bottles and balls and then have one person, who is blindfolded, negotiate that minefield using instructions from team members as their guide so that they avoiding stepping on any of the objects.
With the focus on trust and communication, it is a simple but effective game that encourages teamwork.
- Try an escape room experience
There has been a massive growth in escape room experiences and these venues can offer an excellent opportunity for team-building, plus the venues have done all the hard work for you by creating the challenges that need to be solved. See if you can find an escape room venue that is near to your workplace and put together teams that consist of the sort of problem solving and analytical skills that are often required to successfully complete the mission before time runs out.
There are plenty of ways to encourage greater collaboration and a stronger sense of belonging with team-building exercises and there is little doubt that if your business has a team of people who love coming to work, it can be positive for everyone and great for morale as well as performance.
