Team building can be an important part of a productive workforce. While some managers may feel team-building exercises can be nothing but a waste of time, studies show the right team-building exercises can be quite valuable, bonding employees so there is less conflict and better morale while also helping workers practice working together to resolve problems. Here are five great team-building exercises that are fun and quite useful for the workplace. If you’ve never heard of these before, this could be the year to give them a try!
1. Challenge Race
Connect team members by rope and charge them with getting from the start to the finish while having to complete multiple activities along the way, anything from a crossword puzzle to a treasure hunt. This exercise is a really fun way to encourage working together and developing problem-solving skills.
2. Board Games
There is something about the tactile, close-up nature of a board game that is not like any other group activity. In fact, it can be a great idea to keep a bunch of classic board games in the office. Workers can see there is a lighter, more fun spirit to counterbalance the serious activity of meeting your production goals, and whenever there is free time, you have a great opportunity for workers to bond with each other and with management.
3. Question Day
Here is an activity that does not necessarily hone cooperative skills per se, but it’s still a lot of fun and can be a great way for workers to get to know each other. Carve out a half-hour meeting one morning for the question of the week. The manager asks the question and employees all give their answers in turn. Questions can be anything from, “If you could be a famous person in history, who would it be?” to “What was your childhood dream?” It can be very eye-opening to hear people’s answers, and debates can arise that make the activity even more fun and bring people closer together.
4. Appreciation
For appreciation, everyone gets in a circle and simply says something they appreciate about the person on their right. Once the circle is complete, you go the other way. Gratitude and appreciation feed an employee’s soul like nothing else, and this is a great way to show employees have the respect of their peers.
5. Escape Room
Escape rooms are becoming more and more popular, and it isn’t hard to see why. Escape rooms do a great job of mimicking the work environment — there are problems to solve, a deadline to beat and, as that deadline approaches, a fair amount of stress. And unlike the work environment, escape rooms are almost always fun. You can find a wide variety of rooms of different difficulty levels and to accommodate different size teams.
Try some of these great activities as soon as you can, and see if don’t you detect an immediate boost in worker morale and productivity.