Our Favourite Team Building Exercises | WEB ROI
WEB ROI's Favourite Team Building Exercises
When you think about team-building exercises you may think about the typical games you play while at a conference. They are more like ice breakers than team building activities. In today’s day and age, you don’t have to play the old spaghetti and marshmallow game, you can be more creative and even bring in some technology. Team building is so critical to us, it is our sixth core value: Work Hard and Play Hard Together.
The Benefits of Team Building Exercises
In the traditional office environment, we spend 40 hours or more with our co-workers. Now as a business that works entirely remotely - we still spend at least 40 hours a week engaging in the same work with each other. The benefits of investing time and resources into team building are extensive.
- Facilitates collaborative and motivated work culture
- Promote agile problem solving and decision making
- Fosters responsive and meaningful communication
- Promotes creativity and out-of-the-box thinking
- Enhances productivity
- Boosts employee morale
- Better work and organizational performance
These activities promote a positive work culture by bringing individuals together. When teams work together individual strengths get brought together to creatively problem solve. These activities increase productivity, and if simple activities are completed during morning meetings you can keep everyone awake!
The Purposes of Team Building Exercises
Team building activities have numerous benefits, and each team-building exercise has a purpose. Different activities work on different aspects of creating a well-rounded team. When you set up team building activities think about these different purposes and ensure that you include several activities that touch upon these purposes.
- Communication: these activities work on building communication between the team in a positive and nurturing way.
- Get to Know You: these activities are used as a way to get to know different members of the team, usually in a fun and interactive way.
- Creative Problem Solving: These activities help team members work together to come to a solution using different strengths and problem-solving techniques.
- Building Trust: A well-rounded team must trust each other; with trust, a team can effectively work together.
- Importance of Everyone: These activities help the team understand the strengths of each team member, and how each member plays an important role in building an effective team.
Partaking in activities that touch upon these different purposes will help to build a well-rounded team that enjoys working together. The following are some activities that we enjoy doing, with some activities touching upon different purposes of team building.
Much like most teams, our team-building exercises have changed. Working from home has been an adjustment and along with it, we have had to adjust our bonding time as well. Our team-building exercises used to look like potlucks, lunch and games, card games and escapes rooms. Now, we practice safety measures and participate in different forms of team bonding which are listed below.
COVID Safe Team Building Activities
Weekly Check Out Meetings
One of the things we do weekly is a check out meeting. While working in an office, many teams can communicate with each other on a different level, take coffee breaks, visit each other's offices etc. But while working from home and especially working during a difficult time, our breaks and team communication look a little different.
To combat this, our team does weekly check out meetings. Every Friday around 3 pm the whole team gets together and talks about everything that is not work-related. So, all those coffee breaks, office visits and other activities you have with your coworkers during the week are just condensed into one Friday afternoon virtual hang-out meeting.
This is very important to our team and allows for a good break in the busy work week and a nice way to end the week as well.
Hike and Lunch
Every month our team tries to do a social outing, something outdoors where we can socially distance ourselves and still have a great bonding experience. Our team partook in a hike and lunch event one of the months where the weather was nice!
Communication was a big part of this experience; the team was better able to get to know one another while building trust in a new environment.
Backyard Meetings with a Twist
One great way that our team can get together, socially distant and have a good time is having backyard meetings with a twist! Now, you may be wondering what is the twist? Well, during these get-togethers we roast marshmallows, carve pumpkins, have snacks and discuss work and non-work-related things.
This is a great way to get the team together safely while doing something fun. Although some work things are still incorporated in this, for the most part, the team finds ways to play games and have a great time.
Joke of the Day
Every day we take the time to tell a few jokes. They are usually of the dad variety, and they result in a lot of eye rolls and back and forth banter.
Jokes are a great way to start off your day. You get endorphins pumping and you start the day off on a positive note which will carry on throughout the day.
When We Can Meet In Person Again - Return to Some Favourites
Potlucks
Food is the greatest way to unite people. Sharing and eating food is universal, we all must eat to survive. Coming together to eat over a meal is the most uniting act that groups of people can do. Sharing a meal provides us with the ability to share our culture, heritage and a bit of ourselves. Through food, we can provide nourishment for others and take the time to communicate with each other and learn about the other members of the group.
When we take a step back and think about our greatest moments you would find that most of those memories are connected to sharing food with family and friends. Having the ability to share food with your coworkers is an easy way to share some time together and learn about each other. Also, who wouldn’t want to spend an hour eating delicious food?
Lunch & Games
Along with having a potluck and coming together over a meal, you can take it a step further and introduce some quick games. Whether it is a potluck or everyone takes time to spend their lunch hour together, introducing games is a fun way to interact and start to team build.
The games don’t have to be complicated, nor do they have to belong. They should just be fun and allow your team to interact with each other in a positive way. Some of our favourite games are simple, fast and fun. There is also the challenge of taking down the boss in a classic game of Settlers of Catan!
Online Games
As a team, we like to play online games. The concept is simple, set up the game (either online or through a game counsel), connect your phone to the game room and you are on the way to a great time. Some of our favourite online game sources are Jackbox Games, with games such as Drawful and Fibbage. There are plenty of free online game resources that use the same process for gameplay.
Table/Wall Games
These games are your classic game room games, from pool, darts and table tennis. If you are fortunate to have one of these games, use it to your advantage. Set up a tournament, with or without prizes you are sure to develop an amazing team.
Our office has a dartboard that fosters some healthy competition between our team. That large boardroom table we all have, set up a net and start up a game of table tennis.
The sky is the limit when it comes to games. There are numerous online resources that provide you with free gaming platforms. With a simple deck of cards and a creative mind, you can get a quick card game going. There are no excuses, a table and a net and you can get a table tennis tournament going.
Escape Rooms
An escape room is usually about an hour-long, where you are totally immersed in a movie-like setting. From being in space to the wild wild west, there is an array of themes to choose from. The concept is to work together as a team to solve a series of puzzles and riddles.
In solving the puzzles and riddles, everyone gets to stretch their creative mind and put their problem-solving skills into practice. An escape room helps your team forge relationships. The problem-solving skills that your team learns outside of work can help them while problem-solving at work. An escape room also helps you identify unique skills that you wouldn’t otherwise see while at work.
Puzzles and Brain Teasers
We all know the benefits of doing puzzles and brain teasers. They help keep your mind sharp, and they are good for your mental health. When you do a puzzle or brain teaser as an individual you stretch the mind and keep yourself busy. You start to learn and activate new ways of thinking and problem solving that can be beneficial to your work-related tasks. When you want to give your team some time away from work-related tasks, give them a brain teaser. It will stretch their mind and they will come back to work with a fresh take on the task at hand.
Take it up a notch and get the whole team working on the same puzzle or brain teaser. This activity will showcase different ways of thinking and problem solving and will be a great way to learn about each other’s strengths. Which can later be utilized when solving work-related problems.
Charity Events
A part of our company culture is to give back to the community, and we take this opportunity to do it as a team as well. On the surface, charity events don’t seem to be a team-building activity but when you take a deeper look at our culture you will see that it can be.
Employee satisfaction is not only based on an employee’s personal success at the company. Today, employee satisfaction includes things like; work-life balance, positive work relationships, fulfillment by the type of work and even a company’s corporate social responsibility. If an employee feels that the company they work for is socially responsibly they are more satisfied.
Next time an opportunity for charitable giving arises bring the whole team along. Whether it’s a run to raise money, a bowling event or simply giving blood do it as a team to build positive relationships.
Other Team Building Activities
There are other team-building exercises that you and your team can do. These are just a few that the WEB ROI team enjoys doing. Remember that team building activities are an excellent way to bring your team together. They can range from being a silly activity that brings joy back into the office, or a problem-solving activity that gets your team working together.
All activities have a purpose, and they can help your team grow together. If you want to stay tuned to some of our team building activities follow us on Facebook and Instagram. We love to work as a team and enjoy time as a team. After all, we spend a lot of time together, so we want to create a positive work environment and positive work relationships.
Sources:
https://blog.cake.hr/top-50-team-building-games-employees-love-play/
https://www.wrike.com/blog/team-building-games/
https://wheniwork.com/blog/team-building-games
https://www.huddle.com/blog/team-building-exercises/
https://smallbiztrends.com/2019/01/escape-room-team-building.html
