Having a solid team at work may just be the secret ingredient to success. Team building improves productivity, increases motivation within your workforce and sparks passion through communication. Team building also promotes trust, problem solving and decision making as a group. In conclusion, teamwork is essential for any kind of business, and investing in team building exercises helps avoid many uncomfortable conversations. Every business should take some time to think about this. Here are 5 tips on effective team building, including ideas for fun group activities.

Turn your team building into something fun

People learn the most when they're having fun and enjoying the experience. Make sure your team building comes naturally, through something engaging and inclusive. Many employees and office hoovers might feel sceptical about "team building". Hence, it's important to get everyone involved in something that converts even the most grumpy and anti-social employee. Think of something light-hearted, an icebreaker to start the process of bonding as a team. If you can manage to get your employees smiling and laughing, you've opened the door for communication and teamwork.

Team building exercise suggestion: Sing along - divide your team into groups of 3-4. Give each group 1 word. The group that can sing most songs using that 1 word wins some kind of privilege.

Host random brainstorming sessions

Bring together different employees, from different departments, with different skills. Mixing up your team to try and find solutions can be pleasantly surprising. Get your team building going with an actual challenge or a "fake" project. The brainstorming can lead to solutions or results which can be used internally at your office, or for future business purposes. You never know what might happen when you pair unlikely partners and see how they work together. The secret is to learn from each other and enjoy working with one another. You need to challenge your comfort zone, and get your team to do the same.

Team building exercise suggestion: Sell it without mentioning it - divide your team into groups of 3-4. Give each group 1 product. Each group must sell their "product" as a team without mentioning it's name, while others guess what it is. The best sales team wins lunch "on the house".

Invest in employee personality profile assessments

An Employee Personality Profile (EPP) assessment is a questionnaire-style test conducted by professionalHuman Resources & Personnel Consultants. This assessment measures personality traits that provide valuable insights into an employee's work style and how they are likely to interact with co-workers, management and customers. This will help you assess your employees and their roles in order to establish their strengths and weaknesses. More importantly, these assessments help you improve relations within your team. Furthermore, you'll also understand how you can develop your employees' hidden talents.

Team building exercise suggestion: The egg drop challenge. Divide your team into production groups of around 10. Each group must create an egg packaging which does not break the egg when dropped. Supply your groups with limited resources to overcome creative differences. This exercise will improve leadership and delegation skills. Winners get to make an omelet!

Take your team building outdoors

Increase your team's heart rate and get your employees moving together outdoors. Getting everyone to partake in some physical exercise together helps the team bond and increase dopamine levels. Healthy minds live in healthy bodies, so don't be afraid to break a sweat. Great outdoor exercises for teams can include paintball, laser tag, zip lining and scuba diving. Wouldn't it be fun to spend some time outside, together, improving team spirit?

Team building exercise suggestion: Survival of the smartest. Divide your team into groups of 4-5 members. Each group is given a hypothetical (life-threatening) situation. Each team also gets a list of items, from which they can only choose 3. This improves problem-solving and leadership skills, testing the (hypothetical) survival of the team. The team most likely to survive should get a well-deserved round of drinks after work.

Work on something important together as a team
It's important for employees and colleagues to feel like they are part of something bigger. Something meaningful. People need to feel involved in the business, and this means taking ownership of results. Work on a creative task collectively, including everyone, to truly make everyone feel like they are making a difference. This can be the naming of a new product or a collective discussion followed by a group decision to make a big change inside the office. When people feel like they have a say in how things are done, they commit better and want to be part of the everyday business developments.

Team building exercise suggestion: The negotiation circle. Divide your team into two and draw a circle large enough to fit both groups. The goal is to use negotiation skills and verbal powers to get members from the opposite team to leave the circle. Both teams have 10 minutes to think of a strategy and then each team member gets a chance to negotiate, influence and discuss to win.

Ready to create a stronger and even better team?

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However, if you're ready to jump right into the fun stuff, check out these 13 Team Building Activities.
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