Investing resources and time in team building activities is key for a more productive and cohesive workplace. It would help if you created an effective team-building exercise that is enjoyable and effective in teaching your staff team spirit. Here are tips for creating a team-building exercise:
Schedule the Exercise During Work Hours
Schedule the team building exercise during work hours since employees do not typically want to spend their free time on weekends or in the evening. Put aside an hour or two for the exercise on a weekday. You can also provide food or snacks to increase the number of employees willing to participate. Including food makes the exercise fun and enticing.
Place Emphasis on Key Areas of Development
When developing a team-building exercise, consider the areas where you need to improve as a workforce. These could include:
- Communication
- Time management
- Task allocation among employees
- New employee training
- Problem-solving
Cultivating these skill areas can improve the ability of your team members to perform their best. It also promotes a healthy workplace where your employees feel valued for what they have to offer.
Take Suggestions and Feedback
Request your employees to give ideas for the kind of team building exercises they prefer. Employees are motivated to participate in activities that they suggested, increasing participation rates.
Consider previous feedback when planning your team-building exercises. Paying attention to your employees’ feedback and recommendations helps you plan more successful exercises. You can also develop safe, remote, post-covid team building activities that are engaging and helpful to your employees.
Design Collaborative Activities
Aim to create exercises that promote collaboration rather than competition among employees. Dividing employees into competing teams turns the activities into competitions. You have to make sure that you develop exercises that help employees build rapport with each other.
Make sure your exercises promote cross-functional teamwork in your company. Design your tasks to encourage employees to work together towards a common goal.
Go Offsite
Leaving the office encourages interaction among staff members on the roadway. To get workers excited, reserve a location outside of your company.
Include Volunteer Activities
Identify ways your team-building activities could involve working on a project that benefits the community. Employees often feel good about spending time on activities that are helpful to others in society.
A volunteer project is a great way to get your employees involved in charity and feel positive about the company’s image and values. It teaches them about teamwork while they solve real problems.
Some volunteer activities to try could include visiting a local nursing home or animal shelter and doing chores. In these environments, employees can feel fulfilled and learn essential skills about teamwork.
Make It Accessible to Everyone
Make sure to choose activities that fit all employees regarding health sensitivities and physical conditions. Some employees may be comfortable with specific activities, while others may not. Confirm that all the employees can enjoy the activities you plan on holding.
Include simple physical activities for everyone, like a group hike or a trip to a rock-climbing facility. If members of your team are physically disabled, design activities that can be completed with minimal physical effort.
Shuffle Your Team Members
Plan to shuffle your team members in different activities to help them interact with each other. When employees choose the team members they want in their groups, some may feel left out.
Maintain the same arrangement in several outdoor team-building activities. After a few events, shuffle the teams to avoid monotony and encourage employees from different departments to engage with each other.
Gather Feedback
Make sure to create a plan to reach out to all the team members and thank them for participating in the activities. You could prepare thank-you notes and a template for the participants to give feedback about the activities.
Feedback is helpful when you plan your next corporate reunion or team-building exercises. You can reinforce the strengths of previous team-building exercises and learn from previous mistakes.
Create Team Building Activities
Develop effective team building activities if you plan to create a more productive and cohesive team plan. Come up with enjoyable activities that encourage team spirit among your employees. Make sure that the activities foster collaboration rather than competition among your team. As an outcome, your team interacts and gains experience working together to achieve a common objective.
