Team Building Exercises and Games

You may have noticed how suddenly the HR department seems to be running helter skelter to organize some activities, what they are doing is organizing some team-building activities. One may ask why companies waste so much time in team building, isn’t there already a team in place that seems to be working well? Look closer at any team and you will notice undercurrents of differences, professional, creative or personal. This is not a healthy work place environment especially in today’s competitive poaching corporate world. If some members of the team are not happy and if some are a bit too bossy and controlling, there is going to be an explosion in the making. Team building activates help professionals to bond with each other and the company and hence makes them more productive.

Team building exercises and games are formed keeping in mind that it is supposed to be fun and effective. The bottom line is that without realizing, these members of a team are coming together for a particular task, which is fun, and it helps in bonding. Team building exercises and games can be played in pairs or in small to medium sized groups. Team building exercises can be done in boardrooms or if you want in parks or gardens under the pretense of a picnic. Every team building activity should have a facilitator who is quite important as it depends on that person to make these team-building activities fun and effective. Remember that at the end of every team building exercise you should gather the group and ask them what their views are and what they learned from it and how they can implement these in the work environment.

Here are a few popular team building exercises and games:

Helium Stick – this game comes off as being simple but it isn’t quite that. This game is ideal for medium sized groups of about 20 people. What you will need is a helium stick – a thing and long rod. Form two rows of people and ask them to lower the helium stick with their index fingers only. This is tricky because the helium stick isn’t as easy to lower as one would think. This is where creativity and team spirit comes into the picture. Also you will see the resilience of the group, as most would be inclined to give up after the first 10 minutes. The whole activity will take about half an hour.

Mine Field - this is a team building activity that uses communication and trust. This game is perfect for groups of any size and type. This game is best suited to the outdoors. You need to set up a field with obstacles that need to be avoided. Form pairs and have one person in the pair blind folded and the other will be required to give directions and guide his blind folded partner through the field. The whole activity should take about 20 minutes to set-up, 10 minutes for a brief, 30 minutes for the activity and 5 minutes for planning between pairs. So in all it should take about 90 minutes.

Great Egg Drop – this is an activity that is filled with laughs but is the most effective for those in the marketing or advertising field. What needs to be done is that groups of people of about 10 members per group need to prepare an egg from breaking when it is dropped. They need to be creative in finding the best method to prevent breaking of the egg and what to use. They also need to develop a jingle to promote their device that will prevent the egg from breaking. This exercise helps people with creative differences to come together in a task; it is also a lesson in leadership and delegation. This entire exercise is best suited for the outdoors and takes about an hour and a half.