Being part of a team means that you have to communicate with those around you constantly and even championship level teams like the Golden State Warriors have breakdowns in their communication every now and then. Is your team prepared enough to handle it when that happens? However you answer that question, we've collected some of our favorite team-building and communication strengthening activities below.
Scavenger Hunt
Time: > 1 hour Number of Participants: Two or more small groups Tools Needed: Pen and Paper How it Works: Break the group into teams of two or more. Make a list of tasks that each team to complete as a group. Tasks can include taking a picture of a building or object around the office, take a group picture in front of a landmark, recording the group singing to a stranger, etc. Give the list to each team, along with a deadline by which they must complete all tasks. Whichever team completes the most tasks the quickest, wins! Assign points to each task based on difficulty to increase the variance!
Why it Works: Great team bonding exercise that helps break up office cliques by encouraging people to work with colleagues from other teams, departments, or just social circles. Having to communicate with new people is an opportunity to sharpen those skills even further!
FitPros Gridiron Games
Time: About 1 hour (plan for prep and awards) Number of Participants: Two or more individuals or small groups Tools Needed: A great attitude and competitive spirit How it Works: Fitness Challenge - think Spartan Race, adapted to the workplace!
Why it Works: Great team bonding exercise that encourages competition and sportsmanship while getting your team out of their seats, moving around, and bettering their health & wellness. Best of all, it's fun for participants AND spectators.
FitPros Cooking Demo
Time: About 1 hour Number of Participants: Unlimited (You'll have to provide a headcount ahead of time) Tools Needed: Positive attitude and an appetite How it Works: FitPros brings a Chef to your office to lead your team in creating amazing food for them to enjoy. FitPros and the Chef will provide the ingredients and tools
Why it Works: Teams get to learn new recipes, build a better foundation for cooking, assist one another in creating amazing dishes, and spend time building a stronger bond and chemistry with one another.
Trust Walk
Time: About 15-30 minutes Number of Participants: At least 1 pair of individuals Tools Needed: Blindfold How it Works: Split your group into pairs and have one person from each pair put on a blindfold. The person that is NOT blindfolded will verbally navigate their partner around a designated area (the degree of difficulty is up to your discretion). After a predetermined amount of time, each pair should switch roles.
Why it Works: One partner will have to figure out how to best communicate obstacles and challenges to the other partner who will have to trust their partner's instructions. Knowing that you can trust your teammates frees you to make decisions without wondering if you have support.
Group Self-Care
Time: About 1 hour (plan for prep and awards) Number of Participants: Unlimited Tools Needed: Dedicated time How it Works: Sometimes the team just needs some time to relax and recharge and it's becoming more and more evident that health and wellness levels are tied to productivity. With this in mind, you can either go out (as a team, of course) to the spa or bring the spa to your office. If you want to bring the spa to your company FitPros has multiple options to help make this happen including chair massage, aromatherapy, acupuncture, etc.
Why it Works: Putting your team in a low-stress, relaxing environment helps them recharge their energy which increases productivity. Doing it together provides a nice bonding experience in a non-work environment that allows people to open up about their lives outside of work. Building empathy amongst the team can only help team chemistry.