Best Team Building Games For Coworkers

воскресенье 15 марта22.08.2017admin

Play these three team-building games to help your staff develop great. Remember, coworkers are the number one thing employees like about.

If your team has difficulty working together, it’s an issue you need to address quickly. When there is tension in the office, it’s hard to do any productive work, and the company will have trouble reaching its organisational goals. While you can’t control whether employees like each other or not, you can take steps to improve morale and help employees work together despite their differences.

This is where team-building comes into play. If you've never heard of this, The Balance defines the term as 'the process of turning a group of individual employees into a cohesive team, a group of people organised to work together interdependently and cooperatively to meet the needs of their customers by accomplishing their purpose and goals'. Simply put, it refers to various activities undertaken to motivate team members and increase the overall performance of the team.

The activities can help increase motivation and productivity, foster problem solving, boost morale, encourage creativity and improve communication. They can also help to reduce stress and tension at your office and improve employee relationships. It becomes apparent that everything from small ice breakers to office-wide activities can have a positive impact on your business.

Now, let’s take a look at the best team-building activities you can try with your team.

1. Paintball

Who doesn’t love paintball? Some people might enjoy it more than others, but it’s a great, physical team-building exercise. Some might say it’s just rolling around and getting shot with paint, but it’s actually a great way of building trust and commitment while creating a strong team ethic. If you have never tried it, this is the perfect opportunity. You just need to convince the rest of the team members.

Duration: Can take up to 2 or 4 hours

What it requires: Equal number of people to form 2 groups or against each other

2. Egg Drop

It’s a classic game that can be engaging, but messy. For this, you will need to split the group into 2-3 teams of reasonable size. The task is to build a contraption that can keep the egg intact from a 2-4 storey drop. Tools that can be provided include newspapers, straws, tape, plastic, balloons, and rubber bands. Give the teams 30 min-1hour to create the device. After this time, each team will take turns dropping their contraptions from the 2nd storey while everyone else stays at the bottom level to observe - and make sure there is no cheating.

Duration: Takes up to 1-2 hours

What it requires: Lots of eggs

3. Tied Up in Knots

The aim of this activity is for a team to try and get out of a human knot and begins with the group standing in a circle facing each other. Everyone reaches in with their right hand to shake the hand of someone else in the circle. Keeping their right hands clasped, then everyone reaches in with their left hand and shakes the hands of a different member of the circle. Without letting go of either hand, the group tries to ‘unknot’ themselves. It might seem crazy, but after a few seconds, they’ll realise that by stepping over, ducking under and turning around, they will be able to unfold mess they have created.

Duration: As long as it takes to get out of the human knot

What it requires: Great deal of communication and teamwork

4. Talking in Circles

Place everyone in a circle around a long piece of string that is tied at its end to form a circle. Now the team must create shapes with the string: a square, a triangle, a figure eight, a rectangle, etc. Repeat the game but with everyone’s eye shut. Despite the difficulty this activity can be quite fun because you get to laugh at your own mistakes – and each others, of course. Also, you get to find out who’s more likely to cheat by keeping their eyes open.

Duration: It stops when the team members get tired

What it requires: A lot of communication and teamwork

5. Pizza Making

Pizza making acts as a great ice-breaker. It’s perfect for new team members because it allows them to work together and get to know each other over a light-hearted activity. The participants can decide who brings the ingredients and divide the costs. If you want, you can invite your boss to help out! Besides, who doesn’t love pizza?

Duration: 15 to 20 minutes

What it requires: A chef apron and an oven to make pizza

6. Zorbing

Zorbing is an adventure sport that involves you rolling downhill in a transparent plastic ball. These ‘hamster balls’ can be really fun and a great idea for a corporate day out, especially in summer. Even though it looks dangerous, zorbing is the exact opposite. There is land zorbing, zorb fighting, zorb football, rollerball zorbing and water zorbing. Your team will just need to pick.

Duration: Varies depending on the chosen zorbing activity

What it requires: A team of any size willing to try out zorbing activities

7. The Trust Fall

Most people are familiar with the trust fall. This requires a volunteer standing on a platform with his/her back turned towards a group of co-workers. Some people like this activity but some others don’t because it involves lots of physical contact with co-workers. Apart from this, there is also the possibility of getting injured, but if anything like that happens, you will be able to tell whether you can trust your colleagues or not.

Duration: It lasts as long as there are volunteers for the fall…and the catch

What it requires: A volunteer who has put a lot of trust in his/her colleagues

8. Two Truths and a Lie

Have each member introduce themselves by stating their name plus two truths about themselves and one lie. After each person makes their statements, allow for a quick open conversation where everyone questions each other about their statements. The idea is to convince the other members that your lie is actually a truth while guessing the truths/lies of the others. After the questions, vote as a group on each member’s statements. Points are awarded for each lie guessed correctly or for tricking other members with your own lie. This activity is great because it helps you find out how much you know about your colleagues and vice versa.

Duration: 30-60 minutes to complete

What it requires: Lots of group interaction and communication

9. Helium Stick

It’s a quick game that great as an ice-breaker or short coffee break. You will need to form two lines facing each other and lay a long, thin rod across the group’s index fingers. The goal is to lower the stick to the ground while keeping everyone’s fingers touching the stick. The challenge is to keep the rod still and prevent it from going up. The upwards pressure of everyone’s fingers causes the stick to go up instead of down. Once everyone relaxes they can easily lower the stick to the ground.

Duration: Up to 10 minutes

What it requires: A leader to coordinate the team

10. Mini Olympic Games

If you are thinking about organising a corporate group event, an excellent idea is to hold your own Olympic Games. It should give you an opportunity to get out of your comfort zone, test your physical abilities, teamwork and ability to motivate other members of your team. There are many indoor and outdoor activities you can choose for your Olympic Games. Here are a couple of ideas:

Indoor games - paper plane folding and throwing, hoopla, basketball, obstacle course, simple gymnastics displays, etc.

Outdoor games - running or swimming races, high jump and/or long jump, rhythmic gymnastics, garden tarts, etc.

Duration: Can range from 1.5 to 4 hours, depending on the team’s preference

What it requires: Enthusiasm and teamwork

Since it’s impossible to control everything, there are always going to be problems within your team. However, if you want to improve your company culture, creative activities and exercises like the ones listed in this article, can encourage participation and positivity, steer your team in the right direction and away from conflict. A productive team is a happy team and colleagues should always try to get on with each other.

So, what do you say? Would you consider participating in any team-building activities? Which one(s) do you want to try out? Let us know in the comments section below!

Want your remote team to start working together like a seasoned squad? Use these virtual team building activities and tools for better results.

How do employees who never see each other in-person become “teams”? Creating a productive environment and building a team culture is a challenge remote managers face every day. Many companies still fear that remote employees are not as successful as traditional ones, and many remote employees struggle to prove themselves at work.

However, there are many indicators that support the opposite theory. Research from MIT Sloan Review shows that well-managed remote teams outperform traditional ones. Another study by Aon Consulting shows distributed workers as more productive overall, some up to 43 percent.

The question, then, is really one of management. How can managers maintain a productive work environment and grow strong bonds within their teams? They have to get creative with virtual team building activities tailored to remote workers.

Building culture within your remote teams: thinking beyond water coolers and table tennis

Remote managers have to think outside the box. Virtual team management involves dealing with a team of people who work from home offices, coffee shops, and libraries. You have to bring them together with creative methods. As Wade Foster says in a blog for Zapier, who has a remote team, “…your culture has to be built around more than ping-pong tables.” Building a team culture takes time and effort with remote teams.

1. Encourage an environment of open dialogue and shared ideas

Managers who proactively encourage communication will have the most success at building culture. If you’re using a service like Slack or other remote working tools, share your ideas with the group every day. Work-related or not.

Create a channel within Slack for “sharing ideas.” Whenever a group member comes across a work-related article, an inspiring video, or just an interesting thought, they can post it in the channel and start a discussion.

2. Meet in-person at least once a year for an event or retreat

Regardless of managing a 100 percent remote team, it’s still important to meet in-person at least once a year. Research from Harvard Business Review shows that face-to-face contact is the most effective form of communication. Plan a retreat or event that keeps your connections strong for the long-run.

3. Donate to a cause that matches your team’s overall values

People like to work for businesses that support important causes. It unifies your team and makes their bonds stronger.

Zapier makes a point to sponsor events in their employees’ hometowns. “I imagine as the team grows we’ll be fortunate to help foster many local communities around the globe. By doing this, team members feel more like there is a local presence in their hometown,” says Wade Foster.

They’ve sponsored dev/como, several James Carr runs, and Startup Weekend Columbia every year.

4. Build trust, stay accountable and get work done

A team culture is strongest when every member is dedicated to doing good work. They should be reliable, accountable, and willing to work hard. Trust is built by teams who know they have each other to count on and encourage every day.

5. Have frequent team meetings and chats via online tools

It’s difficult to manage a team when communicating via emails and text messages. Video is your number-one substitute for face-to-face meetings. Schedule video conferences to go over important projects, update teams on progress, and cover any material that’s best done visually.

6. Pat each other on the back for a job well-done

Acknowledgment is a key factor in employee happiness and personal confidence. Working remotely doesn’t offer the same opportunities to shake hands and give a pat on the back. It requires a bit more creativity (and frequency) to show recognition.

Point out accomplishments when engagement is at a high point. Video conferences, phone conferences, and lastly chat rooms like Slack are the best options (in descending order).

7. Ask for one-on-one time every few weeks

Managers of remote teams have a responsibility to keep in touch with everyone. Not just the whole team, but individuals. Having a one-on-one conversation will help foster trust. It shows that the managers care enough to develop strong relationships on an individual basis.

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Elevate your existing virtual teams to peak performance with proven team building techniques that are immediately applicable and tailored to enhance your team’s current capabilities. Learn more about business consulting, or subscribe to our Virtual Manager training courses.

Help team members feel included: building a sense of community between remote workers

Every person handles remote work environments differently. Some may love working alone from the comforts of home; some may feel a bit out of touch spending every day by themselves. Either way, feeling included is paramount to team building. Strong relationships grow from a sense of community and belonging.

1. Don’t stop the chit chat—make your water cooler a bountiful well

Small talk is something we take for granted at the office. We don’t realize how essential it is to feel like part of a team. It allows people to get to know one another, share stories, tell jokes, and grow trust.

Remote teams only get to communicate virtually. That’s why keeping in touch and using your communication services to their full extent is important. Encourage your teams to have unlimited freedom to talk and chat throughout the day.

2. Encourage team members to share pictures, videos, GIFs, and music

The best virtual team building activities are acts of sharing. Office space allows employees to gather around a desk and watch a funny video or GIF when they please. Remote teams should have these experiences, too.

Zapier loves to use GIFs as responses to comments in Slack throughout the day. “Being able to drop a relevant GIF or meme seconds after a timely Slack comment is one of the more spectacularly amusing things that happens in our little digital office place,” says Foster.

3. Schedule meetings to discuss personal goals (chat room, conference call, or video)

Goal setting is a cornerstone for successful teams, regardless of physical location. Set aside time to discuss goals during a phone conference every week. Everyone shares their goals for the week, where they stand on current projects, and what to do next.

4. Throw an online movie night and chat outside of work

Remote teams should get to know each other “outside of the office.” Fun virtual team building activities allow them to experience something together, such as watching a movie. Hold a video conference and watch each other’s reactions during the funniest or scariest scenes.

5. Share published content about your industry and spark discussion

Slack, HipChat and Trello are great tools for sharing content that’s relative. Maybe it’s a resourceful blog post, magazine article, SlideShare presentation, or a video on YouTube. Upload it and share with the team.

Build a sense of community with existing virtual teams to peak performance with proven team building techniques that are immediately applicable and tailored to enhance your team’s current capabilities. Learn more about business consulting, or subscribe to our Virtual Manager training courses.

Tools to use for virtual team building activities and productive work

1. Constant communication: Slack and HipChat

Every remote team needs a central communication hub. Tools like these are like instant messenger programs and chat rooms combined, and allows you to see who’s online, and talk about specific projects or clients. It’s where everyone signs in for the day, says good morning, shares updates, and chats between tasks. It’s an essential piece of team building on a day-to-day basis. It keeps teams in touch and makes the day much more enjoyable.

2. Collaboration on projects: Basecamp and Trello

Having a tool that helps remote workers collaborate is priceless. They can brainstorm ideas, get things down “on paper”, and customize their workflows on the spot. Once one task is complete, the whole team gets updated, and the next person in line starts their portion of the project. You can help employees be accountable and stay on top of their schedules with Hubstaff , an easy way to track time and manage payroll.

3. Video calls and conferences: Skype (and now Slack!)

Video helps build better relationships within distributed teams and offers opportunities to engage on a personal level. It brings the group together on a regular basis and gives a stronger sense of community when seeing the faces of their team members.

4. Sharing documents: Dropbox and Google Drive

All the documents and presentations a team works on should be easily accessible. Dropbox and Google Drive make this possible. Cloud computing and storage makes file sharing simple for remote teams. No more sending emails with downloadable attachments.

5. Giving perks and rewards: Uncover

Uncover is a unique tool. It allows managers and fellow employees to hand out “perks” and “rewards” for hitting milestones. You can give access to Spotify, Amazon gift cards, Uber rides, and WholeFoods credits. It’s a useful tool for virtual team building activities that focus on giving rewards and makes it easy for managers to show recognition.

6. Social sharing: Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook

The three main social media sites for employees are LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Gaining visibility over these channels requires support from fellow team members. Sharing content, commenting on videos, retweeting—all of these actions show support in a public space.

How to keep it fun: virtual team building activities that turn work into play

1. Mapping out locations

Maps are an excellent way to visualize where team members live and work. If the team is distributed across the country (or the globe), each map marker represents where a team member resides. Send out maps to new employees with all the accessories to mark up the map in the appropriate locations.

2. Video Charades and Pictionary

Once in awhile, it’s fun to plan a game like charades virtually. It’s the same rules as playing in the office with a group of people, but instead, it’s through a camera lens. These games help build friendship and foster teamwork in a light and funny way.

3. Digital coffee talk (on you)

Use Venmo to buy your team a coffee at their local coffee shop. Once every few weeks, send everyone out to a local place and set up shop for a video conference.

4. Virtual walk-throughs of workspaces

People in offices know what their colleagues’ desks look like. They see the pictures, the quotations, the tack boards, and all the little trinkets that make a person’s workspace their own. Why not do that virtually? When a new member arrives, have them give the team a virtual tour of their home office space (and possibly meet their pets in the process).

5. Building story narratives in five minutes

An easy and fun game to play is building plot lines with your team. Via Slack, one person gives a basic premise of the story, and it goes around to every person until you end up with a hilarious story. It’s one of the virtual team building activities that takes a matter of minutes and gives everyone a good laugh.

6. Matching favorite quotes with funny pictures

Create memes is always a goofy game to play. You can run a competition for the best combination of quotations and pictures by taking a vote at the end of the day. Set parameters so nothing gets too inappropriate.

7. Pairing up with team members for an hour or two

Pair-ups are an easy way to get your members to know each other. You can share screens via Join.me and work together on a project throughout the day. The goal would be to pair up with every person in the group at least once over a matter of time.

Let’s hear your opinion: do you have any thoughts about building remote teamwork? Share your stories and experiences in the comments!

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