Team Bonding Workshops
Team building workshops have become a major thing in the last couple of years. There is a reason why it is so popular in major organizations all over the world. What is your favorite team bonding workshop?
Creating bonds through team building is very beneficial to businesses and organizations. The benefits include increased communication, planning skills, employee motivation, and employee collaboration. These bonding activities can help people see each other in different ways and that allows them to connect on a different wavelength. In addition, team-building activities can really help foster long-term team building through connections, processing, and deeper discussions.
Our top reasons why you should start team building activities within your organization:
Socializing and getting to know one another
Teamwork and boosting team performance
Celebration, fun, and motivational
Collaboration
Enhances company culture
Create something to look forward to
Unlocks leadership potential
Improves employee engagement and morale.
Below are some team building games and activities that you may find useful and fun.
Bang Bang
Having fun and energizing your team is a great way to kick off the team building experience. Bang Bang is a simple and effective team building game that is fun and encourages quick reactions – perfect for both new and established teams! Start by electing a sheriff and having the rest of the group stand in a circle around them. The sheriff spins around and points at one person in the circle and says “bang!” That person then crouches as quickly as possible. The two people on either side of the person crouching must quickly point at each other and shout the other’s name. Whoever does not react quick enough is eliminated.
Count Up
Simple tasks that require team focus, cohesion, and awareness are great for any group working on team building. In Count Up, one team has to come together and count up to twenty with their eyes closed and without any other communication. People cannot say more than one number at a time, and if two people speak at the same time, the group must start over. Though it seems simple, this team building exercise can really demonstrate the power of effective teamwork and is a great opener for a team building workshop.
Follow the Leader
When performing an online team building, simple activities are often the best strategy in ensuring participation and removing frustration. Follow the Leader is a great team building exercise suitable for online and offline teams. In virtual settings, put Teams, Zoom, or Google Meet into gallery view and invite people to perform an action in the frame of their screen that other participants have to follow. Then the leader appoints someone else by saying their name and that new person says thanks and then starts their movement and gets their 15 seconds of fame. Being a little silly is encouraged and this team building exercise often results in laughter and energy as a result! Read More Here.
Snowball
Fun team building games are a great way to start any group development process. Bonus points if they wake and energize the team! Snowball is a great activity for getting people out of their seats and moving around while also breaking the ice. Start by asking a question relevant to your group and ask each participant to write an answer on a piece of paper. Once that’s done, invite everyone to crumple their paper and come to the center of the room to have a snowball fight! After a few minutes, ask everyone to keep a snowball and find the person who wrote the answer. Not only does this team building exercise invite energy into the room, but it encourages people to get to know each other.
Get to know you games for new teams
Starting the team building process can be difficult, especially if you’re working with a new team where no one knows each other. The team building activities in this section are focused on helping teams build trust and develop bonds by getting to know one another a little more. Even if your team has been around for a while, learning more about one another and building deeper bonds are useful for both team cohesion and group happiness.
Best and Worst
Team Building activities are most effective when you ignite the passion of everyone in the group and bring up talking points where you enable people to share something about themselves with the team. Best and Worst asks each participant to ask one question about the best and worst thing they want to learn from the group. For example, “What’s the best recipe you know?” or “What’s the worst injury you’ve ever had?” After putting all the questions in a hat and choosing a random pair, invite the group to share their answers and related stories.
Coat of Arms
Team building activities that encourage groups to go deeper can be great for supercharging your team development process and can allow for already established teams to learn more about each other. In Coat of Arms, each team member begins by drawing a personal coat of arms and then shares it with their partner. The partner interprets the coat of arms and then presents it to the rest of the group. This getting to know your partner activity taps into group creativity and is a fun way of helping your team bond. Click here to learn more about this team building activity.
Conclusion
Team bonding exercises and team building activities can really foster a better work environment by having fun. All work and no play leads to negative feelings about the work. These team bonding activities can lead to happy employees so have some fun with your team. Make sure to schedule something once a month, once a quarter, or once a year. Take your teams out and let loose. Make sure to always have a debriefing period after each activity to foster communication. Ask questions like how did it feel, what made it work well, what skills did you use, what was challenging, etc.
Vanessa Van Edwards is a writer and motivational speaker. Vanessa shares tangible skills to improve interpersonal communication and leadership, including her insights on how people work. At Alic Consulting we take pride in our annual team building company picnics. We meet with all of our employees regarding whether they work in the same industry or on different teams. This helps us create a good atmosphere and offers employees to connect on a more personal level. We encourage you to create these connections, you will strengthen their personal relationships and the core of your company.
