Team Building Activities For Improving Your Work Place

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Learn about effective and interesting ways to implement Team Building Activities For Improving Your Work Place to increase your productivity.

Mention Team Building Activities For Improving Your Work Place in almost any office or company; you’ll likely get long faces and old-fashioned heckling. You practically have to bribe them and close down the bars in order to get them to attend.  But, team building is an important tool that will help any organization remain competitive in this fiercely global marketplace.

Team Building Activities for Improving Your Work Place

The changing nature of the workforce itself is resulting in the increasing need for team building. Team building activities for improving your work place is a critical process to address the workforce needs.

At an ever increasing rate, company resources are being allocated with scarce margin for error. When a position is identified and approved, it can still  take weeks, even months, before the hire is in place. The appropriate interviewing department(s) can add additional personnel and get them through the processes, but it takes time.

This means existing teams need to be efficient and effective at working with each other. There’s no secret that strategic relationships are one of the factors, to defining the culture in the work place.

I’m not saying you need to be best friends with everyone in the office…I’m just saying when you nurture relationships past the professional greeting you start building a stronger team.

Think of this…

If someone asks for your help; are you more inclined to help someone you have a relationship with compared to just another face in the office. If you don’t have a relationship with someone your answer might be…

I’m too busy right now…

The need for team building activities for improving your work place has become critical because resources are so very scarce. Any issue that is out of the norm, but demands significant resources—is to create teams out of existing resources.

Specialists from an assortment of departments within the company are asked to dedicate their time to complete various projects.

The people chosen to form these teams depends upon the nature of the project itself. Different projects will demand different skills and personnel. People must constantly immerse themselves in these teams and bring their particular skill set and experience to the table. These individuals form teams to help solve the “big picture” issues.

Strategic relationships are key to these initiatives

Team building activities for work places are a crucial aspect in having the quality personnel in place. When special projects arise throughout the year these people are called upon. It’s impossible to just throw together various people with different skills and expect result. When teams are built, they cooperate and come up with a solution to a problem.

Team building training gives employees the tools they need to better work together. They are able to handle high stress, demanding projects, and complete them on time.

Employee training needs to be continuous and updated & practiced regularly. This is necessary in order to keep people effective during projects. A training specialist professional should conduct all team building training. They have the skills and experience necessary to improve group productivity.

Adventure Team Building

Adventure team building activities for improving your work place is a great way to infuse your company with new life. A breath of fresh air, if you will!

This type of team building activity incorporates many of the elements you find in traditional corporate events. But accomplishes them through outdoor activities and more adventuresome games.

Many companies offer adventure team building activities to serve a wide range of functions. A wide range of activities is usually offered so you can choose the one that will provide the best value. Such as to strengthen the values that are core to your business. Some events can last for a few hours, while others might last a few days. These event can accommodate up to 500 people at a time.

It’s just plain fun

And you won’t believe how many activities from which you can choose. Some include:

• archery
• rock climbing
• kayaking
• raft building
• zip wires
• mountain biking
• sailing
• night walks
• fishing
• horse riding
• mountain expeditions
• kite building and flying
• barbecues
• camping
• backwoods skills

If your company requires events that will really offer a change of pace to your team. Adventure team building activities for improving your work place is perfect to get them out of the office. Adventure team building activities for improving your work place allows learning new skills through a variety of different means.

Team building  activities can invigorate a group of people and help them bond better than any other experience.

Perhaps better than any other corporate event, adventure team building improves:

• communication problems

• strengthens leadership skills

• helps with problem-solving, decision-making and teamwork

Adventure team building activities for improving your work place events are held in a wide variety of locations and venues. So you can choose what works best for your company. Resorts, conference centers, and parks are just some of the places where adventure team building can take place. And many organizations can custom-build a corporate adventure for you that is designed to develop the specific skills required.

Adventure team building is also an excellent way to celebrate a success story and reward your team for a job well done.

This will help to continue the success, boost future team performance, and increase morale. Whether you choose a helicopter ride or a camping experience in the woods. When everyone in the office feels motivated, energized, and excited about work, more success is definitely on the horizon.

Adventure Team Building Options

adventureassoc.com/programs/team-building

theoutdooradventurecenter.com/team-building-adventure-center

camelbackmountainadventures.com/groups/team-building/

Let’s take a step back are define “Team”

What is a Team?

Simply put, a team is “a group of people working towards a common goal.” Therefore, Team building activities for improving your work place is a process that enables a group of people in a business environment to reach their goals using the existing team resources.

It refers to the selection and motivation of your staff towards your organization’s development and establishing a team feeling among them. There are several factors that contribute to business team building:

• Building trust between the team members

• Clarifying the team goals

• Effective communications

• Identifying issues which hamper the team from reaching its goals

• Addressing issues, removing the obstructions, and enabling the goals to be achieve

The primary skills required for business team building are identifying and recognizing the right issues and dealing with them in an appropriate manner. Our personal and business lives are increasingly involved with people of diverse backgrounds and we are expected to get along with them instantly. Therefore, there is a need to adapt to these changes as swiftly as possible.

Team Engagement

Picture yourself entering a corporate meeting, team meeting, or business meeting. There you are:

Sitting in the room, while someone in the “expert” or “boss” chair speaks to you or at you.

Not aligned with that person’s mission or vision.

Feeling apart from the process.

Lacking energy and the desire for being there.

Hearing what is going wrong and what you or your team or department needs to change or improve.

How are you feeling?

Are you feeling a great connection to the meeting? Feeling enthusiastic about being in attendance at the meeting? Fully present at the meeting? Deeply tuned in and listening with your heart and your head? Inspired to co-create, participate, and contribute? Or, are you ready to fall asleep, or count the minutes of what you feel is wasted time?

Does this sound like a team to you?

Team Building Activities for Improving Your Work Place – The Environment

In a business where the composition of the team continuously changes, such as in a project environment, business team building would entail developing the skills of individuals to become effective team members. There is a need to change the skills and abilities of an individual to operate efficiently with the team, assimilate properly with the team or within multiple teams.

In an environment where the team membership is unchanging, such as in a management team, the relations between the team members have a bearing on the performance of the team. If a team member leaves or another joins, it greatly affects the dynamics of the team and there is a need to foster healthy relationships between them.

Team Building Activities for Improving Your Work Place – Vital to Your Success

The key to the success of any business is effective teamwork. The more cohesive a team,and the more harmonious the team environment in which people work together, the better the results you achieve.

A fractured business team is a serious handicap for any organization. Business team building activities for improving your work place is vital for success because it is not natural for people to come together in a new group and hit it off immediately. Business team building starts with a common vision and a common goal, leading to functioning together to promote the best qualities of each member of the business team.

Some of the advantages of business team building are:

• Implementing complex plans and strategies as work is split into different areas of responsibility, enabling the team to tackle complex problems more efficiently as a group than as individuals.

• Networking together, the business team can come up with creative solutions. Brainstorming leads to solutions that would probably not evolve as quickly without the team.

• Business team building is a necessity because teams are more enduring than individuals are. If one person of the team leaves, it may make the project difficult for some time, but it won’t cripple it.

One of the greatest challenges in organizing team building activities for improving your work place events is the need to instill creativity in the activities implemented. It is a fact that coming up with fresh ideas yourself is painful and time consuming. What’s more, team building activities have to be aligned with the corporate objectives of holding the event in the first place.

Nevertheless, if you already have some idea of what you want to achieve, you can then check out the following creative team building ideas and even expound from them. This makes your task easier and also provides you with some basis to work with.

Team Building Activities

Joining Instructions – An ice-breaking activity

Get people into groups between three to ten people. In team clusters, instruct all teams to work together to join several parts of their body parts together. For instance, four hands, two wrists, six knees and one thumb. The first team to complete the exercise will shout “joined” to the activity facilitators. It is up to the event organizer to come up with increasingly challenging commands for the teams and also to tabulate scores for a winner.

The Personality Tree – Team bonding and personality determination

In groups between three and five, distribute pens or markers with paper to each team member. Next, get them to draw a tree depicting the roots, trunk, branches, leaves, buds, flowers, thorns and fruits. Each area of the tree symbolizes the following personality areas:

Root: beliefs or influence
Thorns: challenges
Leaves: sources of information
Branches: connections and relationships
Fruit: achievements
Buds: ambition and ideas
Truck: stability
Flowers: strengths and specialties

In a team, discuss all these areas with one another, taking care not to be judgmental but instead provide constructive inputs. As a team building event organizer, you are free to customize the exercise with other elements such as birds and bees, or other items such as dead branches and leaves.

Collecting Autographs – Team building, association and creativity

Draw a grid of boxes on a piece of paper and develop copies of it to be distributed to each of the team members. Give everyone a pen of different color, and get them to draw a matchstick image of themselves on the first box with their signatures at the bottom. Then, within a time span of 5 minutes, let everyone go around the room collecting autographs and matchstick drawings from others. It’s best that each person get to know one another better before moving on. Stop the exercise at the end of 5 minutes and single out the person with the highest number of signatures. Get him or her to describe each person that the signature resembles on his or her sheet. You will be surprised at the answers!

Wrap-Up

An effective team building event is one that includes open communication, promotes active interaction and interdependence, presents a challenge that requires a concerted effort, provides learning experiences, and illustrates cohesion and cooperation.

Team building events are a great way to renew morale and enthusiasm at work, and bring everyone together for some constructive fun outside of the office. Team building activities are as varied as the individuals who participate in them, and can be adjusted easily to accommodate groups of different sizes, incorporate themes specific to your company, and more.

The primary purposes of team building events will also vary slightly depending on your circumstances and priorities, however in general they serve to reinforce the essential elements of good teamwork including:

• building or repairing interpersonal relationships
• trust and communication
• uniting individuals who contribute different skills in working towards a common goal
• having a clearly defined goal and plan for reaching it
• problem solving and staying focused in the face of obstacles
• functioning as part of a greater whole

While the fundamentals of team building are essential to achieving success, it is easy to lose sight of these principles as we go about our daily work routine. Team members may be at odds with one another, or unclear about their particular role within in the organization. For these reasons and more, it is important to periodically, if not regularly, take the time to remind everyone of your shared commitment and goals, the strategies you are implementing together in order to achieve those goals, and your current success rate.

Conclusion

By addressing these ongoing issues together you may be able to pinpoint specific areas to work on with an organizational consultant. However, organizing some team building events will help strengthen your team at a basic level, whether you choose to combine them with a more targeted problem solving approach, or not. Team building activities tend to concentrate on reviewing and practicing the elements of teamwork in ways that are fun, humorous and engaging, and therefore help dissipate tensions and stress from work, renew relationships, and remind everyone of what a great team they make. A combination of bonding exercises, opportunity to play, and participating in a group problem solving activity of some kind, a team building event offers a range of benefits.

From helping to maintain a more harmonious work environment, to ensuring individuals are confident of their place within the organization, and improving productivity in general, investing in team building using the many creative approaches available is worthwhile for many reasons. It takes some work to ensure a team is functioning as a cohesive whole and achieving their full potential, both as individuals and together. Show your team you believe in their capabilities, taking steps to address problems and celebrate successes together. Take the time to make sure your team is capable of accomplishing all they can, and create a forward-thinking organization with a shared focus on future success.

To your success,