Team building is a critical part of creating successful relationships amongst your employees. In the past, team building activities have often been dreaded by employees due to their boring, dry nature (as well as mandated by your Human Resources department). However, team-building activities can actually be loads of fun!
Over the years, more businesses have realized the importance of team building and they have embraced activities that build communication skills and teamwork without putting their employees to sleep.
Our Top 4 Innovative Team-Building Activities
Effective team building helps people to get to know each other better, including personal facts such as their hobbies, what they like to eat, and where they live, in addition to how they work on a team, such as their communication style, their strengths and weaknesses, and more.
Team building activities are designed to build trust and camaraderie amongst team members. Also, team-building activities remind employees that the workplace isn’t just about them, but rather about the entire group’s collaboration. The group’s success is a priority, and team-building exercises bring this aspect to light.
Fun activities to build your team can be as simple as silly office games such as ice breakers, trivia about team members, or a scavenger hunt. Team building can also include more interactive activities or long-term projects, including solving puzzles or hosting a “lunch and learn.”
Team building activities can be held within the office, done during a meeting, or conducted outside the office. It’s also important to include activities that aren’t solely drinking-based or after work hours in order to accommodate all of your employees. Here are our top 4 innovative team-building activities that we recommend.
1. An In-Office Selection – Zombie Escape
Many people have seen at least one zombie TV show or movie in their lifetime, so they hopefully know just how scary zombies can be. Believe it or not, creating a “zombie escape” is a fantastic and enjoyable team-building exercise that can be done at the office.
All you need is a piece of rope, 1 key, and 5-10 puzzles or clues. How many puzzles or clues you use is dependent on how long you want the game to run. One person is selected or can volunteer to be the zombie. They can get as zombie-like as they want—braaaaaiiinnnsss! The group is “locked” in an office space and has to find a way to escape by solving clues and puzzles.
The other players will need to solve the clues or puzzles together before the zombie reaches them. The zombie volunteer has the piece of rope tied to them with a foot of leeway; every five minutes the rope is let out one foot at a time.
Eventually, the zombie will reach the human players, so the latter have to work quickly and effectively to solve the clues to “unlock” the door to escape.
2. A Remote-Friendly Option – Trivia Night
Many work environments have moved to working remotely. With the increase of out-of-office employees and teleworkers, employers have to find team-building activities that also work remotely. Thankfully, trivia is one of them.
Lots of companies have created online trivia games that can be run through a company’s Zoom or Teams conferencing platform. Either an employer can create their own list of questions or hire an outside company to be the trivia host.
The team-building activity can be limited to 30 minutes, 60 minutes, 90 minutes, or even go as long as a typical trivia session at the pub at 2 hours. If you decide to engage an outside host, they will create the questions and rules for your team members in addition to acting as MC and handling the trivia answers and scoring.
The hosts will usually write questions that are multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, identify pictures, or name that tune. Trivia requires employees to work as a team to make decisions under pressure!
3. An Outside Work Option – Escape Rooms
Escape rooms are an excellent choice for an innovative team-building activity for your employees. They create an interactive environment where you and your team members are immersed in a new reality to solve problems. You and your team members will have to improvise, think on your feet, collaborate, think strategically, and communicate to solve puzzles and clues to get out of the room.
Plus, escape rooms are a lot of fun! Escape rooms often have themes based on popular cinematic places like zombie-land or a casino. Some themes are based on movies such as Jumanji and Alice in Wonderland. Whatever theme you choose, you’re sure to have a fun time.
4. For a Good Cause – Community Service
Lastly, your team can participate in a team-building exercise that is for a good cause. The list of activities for community service is endless. Plus, you can get your employees out of the office and interacting with each other away from the more formal office environment.
Depending on your goals for the team-building exercise, you can choose a community service activity that reflects your company’s values, appeals to your team’s interests, or introduces team members to an entirely new concept.
Community service activities can involve planting trees in a park, participating in beach clean-ups, serving food at food banks, assisting with after-school sports programs, assembling care packages, and more. This can also be a great way to strengthen your company’s commitment to environmental ethics or social responsibility.
Team building activities can be innovative and fun for your team members. Gone are the days of dry and boring team-building exercises! With our top 4 picks, you have a great list of options to get your team bonding.
