Top 3 Team Building Exercises
The best teams are truly those where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Managing the personalities that make up any given team is something that takes conscious effort but if done correctly it is well worth the rewards of what a talented, driven team can do. Exercises that build teamwork can be used by any business large or small, with potential areas of improvement being interpersonal familiarity, communication, morale, and motivation. The idea is for everyone to perform the (typically fun) activities and build teamwork as a side-effect. Not all team building exercises are created equally however, so below are listed the top 3 examples that have been shown to deliver results for companies.
Having a scavenger hunt is a very versatile and effective exercise that is great at building teamwork. Companies can integrate components of the project the team is assigned to into the scavenger hunt to get even better results. The scavenger hunt can also get people’s blood flowing, which increases energy and typically also creative capabilities. For teams convening in a new territory a scavenger hunt is the perfect exercise to build teamwork while also helping employees become familiar with the new territory at the same time. And lastly, who doesn’t enjoy scavenger hunts? So you know the employees will have fun.
Two truths and a lie is a classic exercise that teamwork experts say gets high favorability from employees in almost all industries. The exercise starts by having each employee write down two truths about themselves and a lie. Then there is a period of socializing where there is actually 2 things going on: the employees seek to get to know each other better and they build teamwork at the same time. After the socializing, the employees read out either what they wrote down themselves, or what a different employee wrote, and then everyone has to guess which statement is the written statements is a falsehood. Prizes for who guesses the most lies correctly are optional but can add further motivation.
The infamous egg drop is perfect whether the industry you are in has an engineering component or not. The team is split up into a number of sub groups and all sub groups are tasked with constructing a container that will protect an egg from breaking when being dropped from a designated height/location. This exercise is perfect for building teamwork, creativity, and problem-solving. Rules are generally given related to what materials can be used in construction; and different members of the team can see who focuses on the rules and who focuses on the goal.