Happy employees can boost a company’s productivity, efficiency, and efficacy. One of the most important elements of an employee’s work life is their work relationships with other employees. It’s clear that when you enjoy working with your coworkers and have some level of personal bonding, you’re more engaged. This in turn means that you work well together, do higher quality work together, and are overall more efficient.
But building that relationship with coworkers can be difficult. There isn’t much dedicated team building during work hours and oftentimes you just want to forget all about work once you’re out of the office.
That’s why team building activities arranged by the company can make such a positive impact – that is, when done right. There are many team building activities that can actually do more harm than good because they make the participants feel awkward, embarrassed, or just flat out bored.
Instead, here are some of the best team activities to do with your coworkers to foster a real relationship while having fun!
1. A murder mystery party
Murder mysteries are an incredibly fun way to get everybody laughing, thinking, and working together. Typically, everyone gets assigned a character and learns some facts about them. They play that character and then work together with everyone else to find out who the murderer was. In the murderer’s case though, they work to stay unknown!
What’s more is that murder mystery parties can be done virtually as well, meaning that coworkers can join no matter where they are in the world.
These parties develop teamwork, collaboration, critical thinking, and problem-solving.
2. A treasure hunt
Treasure hunts are fun ways to collaborate on a common goal that have a reward at the end. Teams can chase down clues, puzzle them out to find their next destination, and enjoy the thrills of the adventure.
The mystery of the clues and final reward combined with the urgency of working against the clock makes this an excellent choice for team building. It provides improvements on critical thinking, decision making, and collaboration.
3. Team trivia
Team trivia is an informal activity where you and your coworkers make up trivia questions about each other which get sent out to everyone’s email inboxes Monday (or day of your choice). They can be answered at any point in the day and points are awarded to whoever gets the most answers right. Whoever has the highest points gets a little prize.
This is an easy way to get people involved in each other’s lives. It hones team bonding and a little bit of critical thinking as well.
4. Doing something for a good cause
The options for teambuilding with a cause are limitless. They can range from working in a soup kitchen to visiting orphanages or even building a house. If your company has an NGO that they regularly work with or are affiliated with then it will be even easier to do this.
This activity develops teamwork, communication, trust, and bonding.
5. Taboo/charades
Taboo and charades are some of the most fun games that teams can play. Teams work together to guess what one of their representatives are trying to get them to guess, and then points are awarded for every correct guess.
These games develop critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork, and communication.
6. Escape rooms
Escape rooms are games where teams are locked in a room and solve puzzles to escape. They have many different themes and stories to suit palates of all kinds, and they involve a lot of fun, teamwork, and different things to focus on. The addition of a time limit places also pressure on teams.
This activity improves teamwork, critical thinking, problem solving, and communication.
7. Compliment circles
Sufficiently self-explanatory, compliment circles are where people gather round together and pay each other compliments. It doesn’t necessarily have to be complimenting the person to your right or left – whoever is doing the complimenting can choose whoever they would like.
Compliments can range from “I loved the outfit you wore yesterday” to “your problem-solving skills are fantastic, and I really admire you”.
This exercise works on team building and closeness, but is better for teams that are already close to some degree.
8. Blind directing
Here, one person will direct another person with only their words. They can’t touch or physically guide their partner. The goal can vary – it can just be to get from point A to point B, or it can be to complete a more complicated task.
This task will improve team building, communication, problem-solving, and critical thinking.
9. Line-up
An oldie but a goodie, line-up involves getting everyone in the team to line up in order of something, like date of birth, height, star sign order, etc. This means that everyone has to ask each other what their pertinent information is and will end up learning something about everyone there.
Playing line-up improves the team’s communication and team building.
Teams made up of friends
Good and effective team building turns teams into friends. The right team building activities focus on motivating people to participate simply by being fun because then there’s no need for coercion. This means that the groaning and moaning that often accompany the announcement of these activities disappears and people actually look forward to joining in.
Team activities promote company culture, healthy friendships, and foster a more pleasant workplace environment – all of which will revolutionize employees’ work experiences.
