Team Building Ideas – Icebreakers That Build Trust And Teamwork
A good icebreaker for team building is Jenga. Teams are challenged to do various tasks, including a dare. This exercise helps employees form a team identity. It can also be used to uncover what the employees’ opinions and influences are. Here are some team building ideas to get your team interacting:
Rather than giving your employees a morning coffee of their choosing to get them in the mood to work, instead, think about other ways to motivate them. Plan an outdoor team building event. Outdoor activities like rafting, camping, and scavenger hunts are great ways to engage employees in fun outdoor events. Team members can even get outside for a cause that is meaningful to them. One team at MECLABS recently organized a beach cleanup with their families. Another company, Aaron’s Inc., held a running club where employees gathered to form the largest human mattress dominoes ever, which consisted of 1200 people.
A company called MyEmployees spoofs a popular novel. The group then produces a sketch video and shows it to the rest of the company. They later learnt that by playing pranks on each other, they could blackmail each other if need be. The exercise also taught them that humor and levity can help them on projects. Lastly, TED talks are great team building ideas.
Team Building Puzzles Help To Build Trust
An exercise that challenges the participants’ skills and knowledge can help develop trust and teamwork. Involving team members in a task like solving a 500-piece puzzle is another great idea. It can help them break down their individual traits while building trust. Moreover, these activities require little time and logistics, but they require prolonged focus. Once they’ve completed the task, they’ll have gained an understanding of their coworkers better.
An icebreaker that requires quick thinking and listening skills is the Birthday Line Up activity. The players must line up according to their ages in order from their oldest to their latest birthday. During the activity, they’ll need to communicate with their body movements to identify which pairs are theirs. Ultimately, it’ll lead to a happier and more productive workplace. You’ll be amazed at how much better your team will perform if they have a fun and engaging team-building activity.
Trading cards can be a fun team building activity. Each team member should create a personal trading card with their name on it. The card can also feature a self-portrait or a nickname. In addition to creating a personal trading card, team members can hold onto a card that contains interesting information about themselves. This can spark conversations that might otherwise not happen. For instance, if team members were to trade trading cards, they would exchange them with the other team member.
Adding a little bit of humor to team building activities is always a good idea. Try putting colored sticker dots on the foreheads of the participants. Then, each team has to find the other team’s dot. As they try to find each other, they need to make sure their bridges are similar. Besides that, this is also a great way to encourage cooperation and nonverbal communication.
Finally, you could take your team to a cooking team building Milano where they work in teams to create the best food.