How2Day: Team-Building Activities for the Workplace

Team building in the workplace can have a profound impact on employee performance. Team-building activities help employees work together as a cohesive unit to achieve goals and objectives. Employers that implement activities in the workplace that encourage collaborative problem solving and group decision-making not only boost employee morale, but also strengthen employee effectiveness, especially in a team environment.

Team-building activities should be work appropriate. Activities should not be too personal or offensive to participants. Rules of each activity should be well defined and its objectives made clear. Team-building activities are designed to provoke discussion between participants and to be relevant to the work environment. Effective team-building activities allow employees to correlate the project's objectives with the day-to-day tasks they face on the job. For example, an activity that encourages a team effort may also encourage employees to use the same effort while assisting clients.

An icebreaker is an activity that warms employees up to the idea of participating in an exercise with co-workers. Icebreakers encourage interaction and cooperation between employees while remaining light-hearted and fun. For example, an icebreaker may request that each participant reveal a unique or fun fact about themselves. The activity will give each employee a chance to speak and hold the spotlight for a brief moment, even if they decide not to participate in additional team-building exercises moving forward.

Games make for fun and interesting team-building activities. They encourage competition without conflict or opposition. Games that mock television game shows such as Jeopardy or Family Feud are effective team-building activities. Also, games that require employees to work together to build something are productive. For example, a "building" game objective could be to build a structure using a deck of cards. The structure would be judged on height, sturdiness and creativity. Each participant would be responsible for some portion of the structure's design and organization.

Team-building quizzes are a way to prepare participants for the proposed training or meeting as well as review what the participants have learned throughout the session. Employees can work in groups to answer as many questions as they can about an objective related to their work environment. For example, a group of sales representatives may be asked to complete a quiz about common sales techniques or the sales methods they utilize on the job. Once the meeting or training session has ended, the representatives are given the same quiz to see how their scores have improved.

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