Team building activities is a term that can send a divided response in an office. Some are for it, but there are also employees rolling their eyes and eager to leave as soon as the HR personnel set it to happen. If the latter situation is your case, there might be a problem with the games you planned to play, for starters.
Ideally, team-building activities should elicit a positive response from your team members. The goal of this activity should be to boost employee engagement. As its name suggests, those activities are supposed to ‘build teams.’ At the end of each team-building activity, you should have a team that is content, happy, interactive, and most of all, actively engaging positively with the company.
To that end, here’s a compilation of five team-building activities for in-person or virtual corporate experiences that can bring in one unified goal: to boost employee engagement.
1.Company Trivia
Who knows the most about your company? For this game, you can prepare at least 20 to 25 questions. Ask the questions to your teams, and anyone who knows the answer can raise their hand and say it out loud. Each employee who gives the correct answer gets a prize.
While a relatively simple game, it can also be beneficial as it is a way to provide valuable information to the entire team. If there are new employees, it’s also a good way for them to learn more about the office in a less boring fashion.
To make it extra challenging, you can also opt to ask about the small details that may go unnoticed. For instance, you can ask; What is the color of our coffee machine? What poster is at the office entrance? What is the favorite delicacy of our boss? These will test your team’s observation skills while also sparking boisterous laughter.
2.Two Truths And A Lie
In this game, each participant gives out two truths and one lie about themselves. It’s then up to the team members to decide which of those statements is the lie.
It’s hard to work with people you don’t know. More so to feel engaged and connected with them. This game is a fun way to learn more about each other in the office, applicable for physical and virtual offices.
3.Workplace Scavenger Hunt
The workplace scavenger hunt is the closest you can get to a real-life treasure hunt. For this game, divide the employees into equal groups; make this as random as possible so that employees are not limited only to those within their specific department. Each team must work together to find as many items in the office within the list given. The team who finds the most things within the specified timeframe wins a prize.
This team-building activity can help employees improve collaboration, decision-making, and critical thinking skills. It can build excitement, camaraderie, and a highly competitive air among teams.
4.Blind Retriever
This game can test how well your employees can work together, even under pressure. To play the Blind Retriever, you must split your employees into small groups. Choose one person to blindfold in every team. Those not blindfolded will have to lead the blindfolded teammate to find a specific office object.
During this game, employees can feel more comfortable with their teammates. They can loosen up and see how each one is willing to help the person blindfolded to achieve a common goal. You can do this activity with each department to strengthen their ties. After all, every department also has its respective goals to attain.
5.Solve A Puzzle
For this game, every team has to solve a puzzle. It would be best to make it as challenging as you can. Go for a 100-piece or 500-piece puzzle; the latter works well with a big team. The whole purpose of this activity is to make everyone realize how each one can contribute to the bigger picture of completing the puzzle. Even if a member only holds one piece of the puzzle, thinking their contribution isn’t as important as others, that puzzle still can’t be finished without them.
Once the timer ends, give each team a chance to reflect on their experience doing the activity. Where do they think they did wrong, hence not finishing it? Or, for the winner, what was their strategy? These are insights that everyone can also learn from.
Conclusion
Team building isn’t, by any means, a new term. It’s something that businesses have been practicing for as long as anyone could ever remember. In fact, team building could also be something you may have done even during your time as a student. Each team-building activity has its respective goals to be achieved, one of which is to better employee engagement and bring people together. You can level up your future team-building sessions if you consider trying out some of the activities above.
