Happy, productive and well-synchronized teams of employees aren’t just built overnight. Instead, diverse groups of talent are often nurtured into teams by highly effective employers.
If your mental image of team building involves cringe-worthy corporate retreats centered around “trust falls” or dangerous walks over glowing coals, you really should keep reading. Team building definitely shouldn’t be awkward or dangerous and it doesn’t need to involve a rented-out retreat center to be effective.
Team building is the single most important people investment an organization can make, writes Forbes Contributor Brian Scudamore. “It builds trust, mitigates conflict, encourages communication, and increases collaboration.”
At Corporate Essentials, we’ve worked hard to develop expertise in just what fuels culture and feeds positive relationships. Read on to learn what real organizations and researchers define as team building that actually works.
Don’t Always Make It About Productivity
While shared learning and collaboration facilitate team building, your organization should focus on some offerings that aren’t work-related.
Scudamore writes that his company, O2E Brands, spent a team building night just having fun at a country music concert. This kind of shared experience indicates that you truly care and want your culture to be fun-fueled.
Encourage Taking Breaks
Science reveals that employees who take breaks are more productive, happier and better team members. Actively educating your teams on the value of breaks matters, as does providing a break room oasis for your people to kick back with a cold brew.
Get Moving
Whether you’re getting fit together or just catching some fresh air, your teams don’t have to build their collaborative power within your office.
Providing opportunities for your employees to exercise together or play ultimate Frisbee in the park across the street isn’t just healthy; it’s also a lot of fun.
Volunteer Together
Giving back to your community can provide your teams with shared goals, common objectives and a clear statement that your organization cares about social responsibility.
Hours spent working on volunteer projects can foster goodwill within your organization and encourage relationships among your talent.
Offer Learning
No one wants to sit through mandatory, boring eight-hour training sessions. However, research reveals that your employees definitely want to learn and expand their skill sets.
Offering a variety of opportunities for growth on the clock, including both work- and non work-related topics can stimulate your employees to engage with their teams.
Let Your Managers Design Exercises
The best team-building exercise ideas could actually come from middle management. The relationships between managers and teams really matter when it comes to employee engagement.
Giving your managers the freedom to design a team bike trip or rock climbing day can be just as effective as anything cooked up by HR.
Provide Better Snacks
Your teams aren’t collaborating or getting to know each other if they’re dashing to the corner coffee shop every break they take because your office coffee tastes like sludge. Providing better snacks and beverages at work shows your employees you’re investing in their happiness and is a subtle way to encourage ongoing, informal team building.
Play Get-to-Know-You Games
While exercises like the Human Knot or Freeze Tag may involve a little bit of personal space invasion, fun games don’t have to be slightly weird. Many techniques for get-to-know-you games, like Two Truths and a Lie, can be perfectly workplace-appropriate and fun for team building.
Make Time for Recognition
Being appreciated is one of many universal human workplace motivations – research reveals that 93 percent of employees want to feel valued. This form of team building should be ongoing.
Infuse your culture with appreciation, from employee-driven awards ceremonies to much smaller gestures of value, like stocking bottles of Harmless Harvest Coconut Water in your break room.
Have a Beer or Cold Brew
Whether or not these sessions are planned, offering “ask me anything” sessions in your break room over a beer or nitro cold brew could empower your team. CollierBroderick writes that key factors of employee engagement are alignment and transparency.
Go on a Scavenger Hunt
Your employees definitely aren’t too old for a scavenger hunt that involves a little healthy competition. Wrike regularly uses scavenger hunts as a tool for employees to meet other team members and collaborate, preventing cliques and encouraging an open workforce.
Offer a Stress Management Workshop
Stressed-out employees don’t perform well or take the breaks they need and they don’t necessarily stay with their employer. By offering stress management education, from yoga and meditation classes to productivity workshops, you can avoid the dangers of a brittle workforce on the edge.
Toss Around a Beach Ball
While it may bring back memories of summer camp, the infamous “beach ball toss” is a quick and fun way to break the ice. By allowing employees to toss a beach ball and introduce themselves with fun facts, you encourage sharing and familiarity. This technique could also be applied to meetings that people will love.
Enable Face-to-Face Communication
Research by Harvard Business Review on the science of team building reveals that, while email and text are awfully convenient, they just don’t compare to face-to-face interaction as a communication tool. Redesigning your break room can provide a comfortable space for employees to interact and form relationships on both project- and non-project-related topics.
A Culture of Active Team Building
Team building isn’t about spending one weekend a year at a retreat, though this is one way to encourage shared experiences. Team building will be most effective when it’s an ongoing part of your culture.
With high-quality office snacks, a beautifully designed break room and a commitment to caring, you can empower your teams to engage, have fun and perform.
