Team building is very important for creating a more relax work environment, which always brings better work results. Companies can have several talented and hard-working employees, but their individual brilliance won’t solve problems and decide the fate of the ongoing project. That is why good cooperation between employees in different sectors is the most important characteristic of successful companies.
WHY IS TEAM-BUILDING SO IMPORTANT?
One of the main purposes for conducting team building exercises and programs is to improve in-office communication and to enable employees to talk more openly to their colleagues as well as to company management. Team building also builds trust between team members and boosts their motivation. All these benefits combined, boost employees productivity, which has huge influence on company’s profits.
Also Read: Proven Inspiration Techniques, Which Help You Reduce The Pressure
TEAM BUILDING EXERCISES
Most entrepreneurs think about team building as an expensive field trip, with activities like camping, hiking, paintball or kart racing. If you are running a small company, and you don’t have enough funds for such activities, you can always include some in-office team building exercises in employee’s routine. Here is a short list of exercises that might be useful:
- Employee Surveys – surveys and feedback activities conduct among employees, enables them to speak freely about problems they are facing.
- Informal Addressing – good managers encourage open workplace communication. This way they are letting employees know that they are one of them and supporting them to share ideas and thoughts about work process.
- Celebrate Each other Success – collectives that are full of envy and discontent never turn into successful companies. Celebrating each other’s success and acknowledging efforts of all members of the team, turns boring and uptight offices into relaxed and more productive places.
TEAM BUILDING FIELD TRIPS
Taking your employees on field trips is the best way to make them bond, relax and share trust. These trips should be interesting for most employees and they should be follow by competitive activities, where different groups (of people who work together in an office) should compete and receive symbolic prizes for their performance. These are some suggestions for field trip games and competition you can conduct:
SCAVENGER HUNT
- It is good for: collaboration and bonding;
- It requires: hidden items and many different clues;
- Like any other scavenger hunt game, employees should be divide into several groups and search for the hidden object that may as well be the prize.
ROOM ESCAPE
- It is good for: problem solving, communication and collaboration;
- It requires: most companies purchase room escape sessions from companies who offer this kind of games;
- Employees should be divide into teams that should have from 2 to 5 members. They need to figure a way to escape the room they are in, by solving string of difficult riddles.
Also Read: 5 Things to do Within Five Years of Retirement
MASTERPIECE MURALS
- It is good for: ice-breaking, bonding and boosting creativity
- It requires: canvases, paints, brushes, cloth, etc.
- Each team member should get one canvas and draw a picture on it. These drawings should be use as separate pieces of the big mural, which can be displayed in office building later on.
PROFESSIONAL HELP
If regular team building practices don’t provide results, entrepreneurs can ask for professional help of expert psychologists. They can make psychological assessments of different teams or employees and provide entrepreneurs with list of activities, which will create the best atmosphere for employee bonding and relaxed office atmosphere.
Team building is the best way to make stronger bonds between employees who are working in the same office. Due to differences in experience, responsibilities and pay gaps, employees often don’t develop strong communication with their colleagues. Team building should be the time when everybody are equal and can talk with each other without any restrictions.