The foundation of an organization’s success rests primarily on the competence of its employees. Their dedication, interaction and communication among themselves is what drives a team’s spirit and promises a high work output and productivity. However, managing a team of an eclectic mix of individuals is hard. It is then when you have to get creative as a manager/employer to help maintain a harmonious synchronization in your team via team building activities.
But, the very mention of team building activities brings out yawns, funny looks and giggles from the employees. It is no secret that corporate team building activities are seen as boring by employees, who unwillingly participate. What’s wrong with an unwilling participation in team building events is that it fails to serve the purpose. When the employees feel forced, they hardly put their minds into the activities, thereby defeating the very purpose of conducting them.
In order to get the best out of your employees, you need to think out-of-the-box to come up with activity ideas that are equal parts fun and effective, and see a willing participation of your team members. Listed below are some out-of-the-box team building activities that actually work. Try these tactics below to help your team bond better and take your business to new heights.
1. Climbing the Corporate Ladder
Demanding meticulous planning, skill application and courage, this team activity puts the players’ understanding of themselves as a unit to test. The players are required to work together to finish the activity.
It involves climbing a steep rock wall or a giant ladder where the team that gets higher up on the wall first accumulates points. What adds to the challenge is a time restraint of 45 minutes. While it may sound easy at first, it eventually gets harder, especially for those players who have little to no experience hiking or mountain climbing.
Besides the agility of this game, it requires a strategy and co-ordination among the team members to effectively scale the ladder. Problem solving skills are also put to use to maximize the team performance. The team is supposed to work as a unit to gain points as no rewards are given for individual performance.
So this activity is not only fun, it is also engaging, thrilling and puts the teams to a good test and enables them to understand their strengths and weaknesses to be able to perform better.
2. Stranded on a Deserted Island
Putting the old question ‘what would you do if you got stuck on an island’ into practical application, this team activity is almost akin to the treasure quest game.
After a quick introduction with an exchange of key information about each other, each team chooses one player unanimously to pick an object they’d use to escape the island. After that, the whole team works together in a group, using their creativity and logical reasoning to plan and strategize how the selected object will help them escape.
The activity engages the players’ minds and pushes them to apply their problem solving and crisis handling skills and is fun to play.
3. Trip It
In order to conduct this activity, divide the teams into two equal groups. Hand them over some pens, paper sheets and the state or area map. It is essential each team has the exact same map. Ask each team to then plan a perfect road trip while deciding upon the basic requirements i.e. a list of what they have available, budget, car chosen and its mileage, meal plan, what route to take and beginning and ending destinations.
The teams are expected to work together and unanimously make decisions. They are to document their final road trip plan without running out of money or gas. The teams that lose either or both are disqualified and the competition stiffens. The team with the most effective and original plan wins. You can arrange for small awards to boost up the winning team and have other creative ones for the rest using various parameters like best team planning, most exhausting trip etc.
4. Now You See Me, Now You Don’t
Memory retention, problem solving, time management and effective communication are what this team building activity requires.
First, create a complex model structure out of building blocks, but hide it from the participants. Divide the employees into small groups, and give them all the materials to replicate your model, complete with color schemes.
Place the model in a far off spot at an equal distance from all the teams. Thereafter, call upon one participant of a team, one at a time and allow them to study the model for 10 seconds and memorize it. Once they return to their team station, they have exactly 25 seconds to communicate with the teammates about the model and how to replicate it. After a minute is over since they begin building their structure, another participant may come for another brief look and repeat the same process until they build their models. The team that builds the model closest to the original one wins.
5. Egg Drop
A part of school curriculum, the egg drop is an effective team building activity. However, unlike in school, the players won’t have access to sophisticated materials to make a perfect egg landing.
Divide the participants into groups of three or five and give each group an uncooked egg. Gather a bunch of office supplies and set them in a pile. Set the timer to 30 minutes under which the players have to use the office supplies to make an egg structure that won’t break the egg upon landing on the ground.
The activity has a wide scope for creativity and skill application. Once the timer goes off after 30 minutes, each team will test their structures by dropping the egg from the second or third floor of the office building. The team whose egg makes a safe landing takes away the winning title.
So on your next team offsite or corporate event, conduct these interesting and unique team building activities that the employees will love participating in, and strengthen your team, thereby, maximizing their productivity.
