Employees on your team might think they are on top of their game but can often forget they may have skills that need improvement. No one is perfect and everyone has abilities they can work on. This quick employee bonding activity will put your team on the track to success!

Throw Game

Time: 15-20 minutes

Purpose:

• For the group to be looking to itself (rather than their manager) for ways to improve.
• To eliminate the thought of being so good improvement isn’t needed.

Participants: 5-10 people

Materials

1. Arrange the group in a large circle with everyone standing.
2. Give the ball to anyone.
3. Ask him or her to throw the ball to anyone in the circle.
4. The catcher now throws the ball to someone else in the circle.
5. This continues as each participant always throws the ball to someone who has not had it yet.
6. The last one throws the ball back to the participant who had it first. The group has established their pattern.
7. Have them repeat the same pattern throwing the ball to the same person, in the same order as they did before. Time them.
8. If anyone drops the ball, it goes back to the first participant to start again. Time keeps ticking.
9. Announce the time, and ask them how much faster they think they can get.
10. Repeat the pattern, and time them again.
11. Give them 3 minutes to create a strategy to vastly improve their time.
12. Repeat the pattern and time them once more.

SUMMARY

• How did you feel the first time I timed you? On subsequent timings? (Nervous, energized, competitive, pressured, etc.)
• What strategies did you employ to improve your speed? How successful were they?
• What assumptions or limits did you impose on yourselves? (We had to catch with our hands [not laps, if sitting], etc.)
• How did you feel when participant X dropped the ball? (Frustrated, angry, depressed, hopeless, empathetic, etc.)
• What was the key to your success?
• What implication does this have for us back on our jobs?

The ability to adapt in a changing environment is a crucial trait for high performance teams and employees.

This activity below is a guessing game in which participants will switch teams frequently.

Guess and Switch

Time: 10-20 minutes

Purpose: Participants get comfortable with constantly changing teams and allegiances; also they will see how ineffective yes/no questions are.

Participants: 5-15 people

Materials required: None

1. Divide the group in half. The teams gather in opposite corners of the room.
2. One participant from each team leaves the room. Together, their task is to quickly pick any object in the world.
3. They return to the team opposite the one they left.
4. Each team then asks the participant questions to determine what the object is. They may ask only questions that can be answered with “yes” or “no.”
5. When a team guesses the object, they clap their hands to win the round.
6. Both participants, who originally left the room, now join the winning team.
7. Each team selects a new participant to leave the room for another round.
8. Play continues until one team captures all members or until a predetermined time limit is reached.

Summary:

• How did you feel when your team started dwindling? (Nervous, threatened, more competitive, frustrated, etc.)
• How did you feel as your team started to grow? (Excited and energized, superior, confident, glad to be part of a winning team, etc.)
• How did you feel when you had to join a different team? (Reluctant, not welcome, excited to be on the winning team, etc.)
• Did you find a pattern of questioning emerge that proved successful for the team?
• What kinds of questions could we have asked to guess the object quicker? (How is this object used? What is the object’s size and shape? And other open-ended questions.)
• What implications does this activity have for us back on the job?

Joint efforts (or the lack thereof) of a whole team can decide the success or failure of a project.

Office team games help foster better and open communication between employees themselves, and also between employees and the higher management.

They also go a long way in improving professional relations, understanding, and co-operation, and this is very much reflected in the quality of the work done.

This brain teaser is a top-tier way to work on problem solving and communication.

Your team will find that the success of this exercise is dependent on how well everyone works together and it is helpful to have casual clothing.

Also remind others to be mindful of colleagues, especially those with certain physical limitations.

Knot your Average Workday

Time: 15-30 minutes

Purpose: Promote teamwork, communication, and problem solving

Participants: 8-20 people

Materials: None

1. Instruct the participants to stand in a circle, shoulder to shoulder.
2. Tell everyone to put their right hand in the air and grab the hand of someone standing across the circle from them.
3. Now tell everyone to put their left hand in the air and grab the hand of a different person.
4. Someone needs to check that everyone is holding the hands of two different people and that no one is holding the hand of someone who’s standing directly next to them.
5. The objective of the game is to untangle everyone without breaking the circle.
6. If the chain is broken, participants will have to start over.

Summary:

This game will prove to be extremely challenging and will heavily rely on teamwork and communication, without which, participants will find it extremely difficult to successfully complete the task. Now that you’re equipped with a variety of choices, don’t be afraid to incorporate these activities in the office. Not only will you enjoy it and benefit greatly, but so will your colleagues and employees.  Don’t forget to post back and let us know which exercises you used and what you learned from them!

Employee Morale

Improving employee morale is vital to success in the workplace. If your team is feeling drained and stressed, this fun exercise is a great way to refresh and energize them. To boost morale and unleash the creative power within your team, you must identify a new project that requires each member to contribute and be creative.

Then use a collaborative leadership style to fuel the fire. It doesn’t require much time and the recommended group size is 10-20 people.

Your team’s energy can determine the success of a meeting, a workday or even your overall company. How you contribute to your professional environment is as important as what you contribute emotionally.

Focus Game

Time: 8-12 minutes

Purpose: Healthy competition and synergy

Participants: Small groups

Materials: None

1. Participants will need to form two equal lines facing each other.
2. The game starts when one line turns around, giving the second line 40 seconds to change 10 things about themselves. This can include anything from jewelry or clothing being swapped with other people, untied shoelaces, a different hairdo, or a switched watch or ring to the other hand. All changes must be something the other group can see.
3. After 40 seconds, the first group turns around and tries to find all the changes the other group made.
4. Once the changes have been recognized, the groups switch, giving each team a chance to make changes.

Summary

A typical workday can drain the energy out of your employees. Look for ways to create energy boosts throughout the day, in meetings, and throughout projects. This can be as simple as frequent short breaks, laughter, creating a very open environment where fresh ideas and creativity are rewarded.

Fun team building games are an excellent way to break your regular workflow and build some motivation in the workplace!

Team building games are a great way to get your team to:

•  connect
• work together more efficiently

Time: 8-12 minutes

Purpose: Healthy Competition and synergy.

Participants: small groups

Materials: Golf balls, straws, tape

Instructions:

1.  Each team is equipped with 12 straws and 18 inches of masking tape. They will then have ten minutes to build a container that will be capable of catching a golf ball dropped from about ten feet.
2. Each team selects a ‘Ball dropper’ – that person stands on a chair, holds a golf ball at eye level. That team places its container on the floor under where it thinks the ball will land. Each team is permitted 3 attempts.
3. The team that scores a ball into their container and it remains there wins the activity!

Teams that work well together are happier and more effective!

But finding the right exercise can be challenging; not every team is comfortable certain types of activities.

Sometimes, communication needs to be encouraged. And sometimes to be effective, communication must also be practiced. Research continues to show that team exercises can:

• improve communication and motivation among workers
• help create a more cohesive and productive work environment

When a team-building activity works out, employees end up united as a group and experience the following things:

• increasing strengths
• addressing weaknesses
• developing important problem-solving capacity
• creativity skills.

Furthermore, a good working environment makes each worker enjoy their time at the office more, and everyone knows a happy worker is a good worker.

The goal for this activity is simple.

  Now go have some fun!

Minefield team building is a game designed to improve communication game. Your group of people will be divided into pairs and follow the instructions below. Each pair will be prompted to trust each other to listen carefully; this is key to succeeding!

• Open communication provides everyone equal participation in the achievements of the business. Constructing an atmosphere of open communication is instrumental in building team morale and allows for a flow of energy, creativity and problem-solving amongst your company. It establishes an environment where all employees have a clear understanding of the companies goals and what needs to be done to accomplish these goals.
• Collaboration in the workplace has long been revered as a sign of an effective, high-functioning team. Not very long ago, success in collaboration meant breaking down cubical and office walls and pushing for employees to work together 24/7. Although this approach worked for many employees, others felt stifled.
• These qualities assist in reducing messy office politics and decrease workplace conflict, making for a healthier, happier workforce.

MINEFIELD!

Tools Needed:

Common office items and a clear space

Time:

8-12 minutes

Instructions:

1. Divide the group into pairs. One partner will be blindfolded while the other will focus on guiding their teammate from beginning to end through this dicey course without setting off any mines.
2. Use water bottles, boxes, markers, chairs, etc. to create an obstacle course of “mines” within your clear space.
3. The teammate guiding their partner is restricted from accessing the course and can only provide verbal instruction to assist their partner as they traverse through the obstacles.

Depending on the number of people you have and how difficult you want this activity to be, you can vary the number of pairs trying to complete the course at the same time so that pairs have to work harder to listen to each other and communicate clearly.

Tis’ the season to start brainstorming corporate holiday party ideas. These parties are more often mocked than appreciated, feared more than longed-for, but they are a steadfast ritual during the holiday season. These gatherings can be fun and festive if everyone is conscious in behaving well; letting too many people get wild could end in disaster.

Whether or not you’re a social butterfly, holiday parties are a great way to relax and get to know your coworkers on a different level. Some are newbies in the world of the company holiday party, while others are seasoned vets. Whichever describes you, attending can be rewarding and fruitful.

Hosting a party that shows your appreciation for a year of hard work without breaking the bank isn’t easy. So here are some simple yet effective ideas to try at your next office bash!

Organize a dessert swap.

Anyone who’s interested in participating can whip up some desserts and trade with others at the event!

Hold a Contest.

Orchestrate a competition for things such as most festive socks or ugliest sweater.

Coordinate a gift exchange.

There’s a myriad of creative ways to exchange gifts! Some familiar examples include Cobweb party (Victorian era game), White Elephant, Secret Santa, or a “musical chairs” gift exchange!

Give door prizes

Raffle off some prizes like gift cards, ornaments or smartphone docks. Be creative! You can also give out gifts under humorous perquisites, like “the first person to bring me a #2 pencil” or “person with the most keys.” Think outside the box, the whole reason you’re having is for fun!

Have Fun

The important thing is to have a great time. Some of these ideas will help get your holiday party rolling! This is a time for your employees to relax and enjoy. Be sure to show them your appreciation for all their hard work they put in throughout the year, and make sure everyone gets a gift!

Good communication is key at any company and an integral part of office dynamics. Not only does it create more efficiency and less frustration team members, but it is also helpful to your employees in forming stronger relationships.

These three elements are ideal for both the companies revenue and office morale. Fortunately, effective office communication is rather simple to achieve if you understand these basic principles:

• Improving communication between colleagues and supervisors involves effort on the part of all staff members.
• Staff members in leadership roles guide the communication practices based on how they organize the office and interact with their employees.
• Leaders must evaluate current communication efforts and identify those areas that need the most improvement.

Try this!

Chatterbox is a simple yet effective communication skills activity your team can use anytime.

Tools needed: None.

• Divide your group into pairs and have them spread apart.

• Provide the pairs with a topic to chat about.

• Each person will have a specific time (two minutes) to talk nonstop without interruption.

• Their partner will just listen, and when the specified time is up they are given a few moments (one minute) to discuss what they heard. The duo then reverses roles. The talker becomes the listener and vice versa to perform the above task.

The Results

Following these rules and guidelines will effectively ensure each participant has a fair time to speak. The listener can only digest what the speaker is saying, while the speaker is free to talk about the subject without interruption. This is a quick and simple way to develop participants into confident speakers and attentive listeners.

A quick conflict resolution activity

We are often quick to point the finger when there are group problems. You can’t build effective teams while being surrounded by people who blame others for their failures, whether at work or at home, can leave you prone to do the same.

Interestingly, odds are the reason those people pass the buck isn’t to evade responsibility, but to protect their own self-image. The truth is a lot of time and energy is wasted on finding a guilty party!

1. Have your group form a circle with everyone standing
2. Start by you pointing to someone in the circle. Continue pointing!
3. That person now points to someone else and continues pointing
4. Keep going until everyone is pointing at someone else, and the last person then points at you!
5. Stop pointing and shift your attention to the person you are pointing at. That person becomes your person of interest!
6. Explain that the objective is to watch your POI very, very closely to imitate his or her every action.
7. Now ask your group to stand perfectly still. With nobody moving unless their POI does. If your POI moves (blinks, coughs twitches etc.), he or she is to copy that exact movement and then be still again.
8. Begin the game and play for 3-5 minutes.

When you’re finished ask these questions:

• We were supposed to stand still, what happened? (Expect some blaming of who moved first to occur.)
• Who knows who started the movement? (Let some accusations occur. It will become evident that it is nearly impossible to pinpoint who really started each movement.)
• How much does it matter who started it, once it started?
• How much energy do we put into looking for scapegoats?
• How are we to blame for perpetuating particular mannerisms that inevitably become team norms? What examples do we have here at work?
• What can this imply for us when we’re back on the job?

Spark your team’s creativity and resourcefulness with this fun icebreaker!

Many think that creativity is an inborn trait rather than something that can be learned and developed. This may be so, but without a conducive environment for creativity to be expressed, how can we expect to see ideas arising from employees? The performance of today’s brands is becoming increasingly dependent on its ability to be creative.

Stimulating this character trait is one of the major focuses of any company. And while there isn’t one singled out formula to accomplish these means, there are still actions an organization can take to transform its culture into one of free-thinking and innovation.

PAPER ENTERPRISE!

Time:

• 5–6 minutes

Purpose:

• To spark ideas, creativity, and resourcefulness

Participants:

• Small groups
• This can be done with one group or multiple groups at the same time.

Materials needed:

• Sheets of paper

Instructions:

• Give a piece of paper to each group of five to ten participants.
• One person at a time stands and demonstrates a use of that piece of paper

Rules:

1. The person demonstrating cannot speak
2. Must stand while demonstrating
3. The demonstration must be original

DESIRED OUTCOME

Participants experience a myriad of ways to use a piece of paper and translate this to the multitude of ways to solve problems, use resources, motivate a team, and so on!

Effective problem solving does take some time and attention more of the latter than the former. But less time and attention than is required by a problem not well solved. What it really takes is a willingness to slow down. A problem is like a curve in the road. Take it right and you’ll find yourself in good shape for the straightaway that follows. Take it too fast and you may not be in as good shape.