THINKING LEADERS

A workplace is made up of individuals that have a common goal of making a company successful. Differences in work areas, work styles and personality can cause communication problems or friction among office factions. It has been proven time and time again that when a group of individuals work together they can get far more accomplished than by working alone. Team bonding exercises can break down barriers between workers, strengthen cooperation between workers, foster the free flowing of ideas and improve overall company performance.

Most people that have never engaged in team building exercises may at first have a negative or cynical view about them. Some think that these types of activities are corny and a waste of time. Therefore, once management has decided to incorporate some good ole fashioned team bonding into the workplace, the first task is to convince all of the employees that this is a worthwhile endeavor. This requires managers to display a positive attitude about the company’s commitment to teamwork.

Good Reasons to Do Team Bonding

Achieving Common Goals

Often, workers can feel like they are just showing up at the company to put in their time. They do what is required of them, but there is no sense of a bigger purpose to their daily routine. Putting them in situations where they learn how to work within a group to achieve a common goal is a great idea. They begin to see that their efforts, combined with others, make the company successful.

Improves Company Moral

A company’s success is largely determined by the moral of its workers. When moral is high, employees put forth great effort in all aspects of their job. However, when moral is low, job performance suffers. Bad moral can directly dampen productivity, which leads to lower profits. Many companies have annual team bonding activities in order to instill a sense of high value and self-worth into their workers. People enjoy working for companies that appreciate them.

Here are some fun and highly effective team bonding exercises:

Building Blocks

Separate the group into individual teams. Using a set of children’s building blocks, the instructor creates a unique structure and puts it on display for the teams. The structure should be far enough away so that no one on any team can clearly see how it was put together. Each team designates a leader to represent them. The instructor calls each team leader over, one by one, to take a look at the structure. Leaders have a total of 10-seconds to memorize the layout of the structure. They return to their team and get another 25-seconds to explain to the rest of their team how to recreate the structure. Team members must then build the structure with their own set of blocks based on what they heard. They have 1-minute to complete this task.

If they are not successful in creating an exact replica, they elect another team leader and go through the process again. This is repeated until teams have accurately copied the original structure.

Coin Logo

Separate employees into groups of three to six people. An instructor distributes several coins to each group. There is a table that has materials such as pens, pencils, colored markers and notebooks. Each team is told that they are going to create a unique team logo. This logo will represent something about the company that is important to each team member. They are then directed to use the coins and supplied materials to create their logo. They have 10 to 20 minutes to complete the exercise.

Once every team has a logo, each team chooses a leader to represent them during the second part. Leaders present their team logo and explain to the whole group what the logo means. After the presentations, there is a general discussion about what was learned.

Puzzled Thumbs

This exercise requires simple children’s jigsaw puzzles and a stopwatch. Each team is given one puzzle. They must place the pieces face up on a table. Teams must assemble their puzzle without using their thumbs. Once done, they alert the instructor who stops the clock. Teams can repeat to better their time. Any use of thumbs causes a 1-minute penalty.

Tablecloth

Create teams of six to twelve people. Teams are given a tablecloth that has a different pattern on each side. Team members lie on their backs with feet forming a close group circle in the middle. They raise their feet into the air and the instructor drapes a tablecloth over everyone’s feet. They must then work in unison to flip the tablecloth over to the other side without dropping it. If a tablecloth is dropped, that team must start over. They have 5-minutes to complete this task.

Yurk Circle

A group of people stand in a circle, a little less than one arms length away from the next person. They are instructed to hold hands. Each person is told that they are either an “in” or an “out” for the purpose of this exercise. All “in” designated persons should be standing next to an “out” designated person.

On cue, the “in” people are told to lean in towards the center of the circle as far as they can. The “out” people are told to lean backwards from the circle as far as they can. The entire group is forced to work together in order to maintain their balance. This fun exercise builds trust.

by Joe Shervell
article was supplied by www.phoenix-training.co.uk
Contributing Columnist

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