Team Building Activity: Share the Spotlight

In this team building activity you get to support everyone on your staff by allowing them to share the spotlight. Gather your group and ask each person to share something they really enjoy doing in the workplace and that reflects their talents and interests. Ask them to talk about something meaningful to them rather than tasks they just happen to do well. Ask people to keep it brief so that everyone has a chance to share.

As each person talks, the rest of the group listens. When each person is done, have them break into small groups and answer the following questions:

• How might we use the meaningful skills of each person?
• What do each person's skills add to the organization?
• How do meaningful skills affect teams?

After ten or fifteen minutes, gather everyone together and have each group share their answers with the rest of the participants. The goal in this activity is to help people explore how each individual's talents are important to creating a well-functioning team.

Take care,

Guy
Team Building

Team Building Tip: Your Tone of Voice

Nothing kills team building quicker than a leader or co-worker who talks to people in a loud, obnoxious, harsh, negative or demeaning way. Try not to be the leader who wonders why his (or her) team doesn't perform well and then browbeats them into submission. The goal in effective team building is to help people grow, succeed and feel great about themselves and the organization without raising your voice.

Team Building Activity: Guess Who I Am

This team building activity is about people connecting with each other by asking open-ended questions. Ask people to get into pairs to work with each other. Then walk them through the following steps:

1. Have them choose an interviewer and interviewee.
2. Remind the participants that the goal in this activity is to find out who the person really is, not their work persona, but what's really important to them and makes them tick.
3. The interviewer is allowed to ask any open-ended question that comes to mind (remind people to keep it clean and respectful). After asking the question, the interviewer listens to the answer without interrupting or commenting in any way. Once the interviewee is done answering the question fully then the interviewer can move on to the next question.
4. Start the activity and allow ten minutes for the interview.

After the interview, debrief by asking the following questions:

• What did you notice about this activity?
• What did you learn about the person?
• What worked in the activity, what didn't?
• How does this apply to team building?

The goal in this activity is for people to experience what it's like to get to know someone on a deeper level. The activity builds team cohesiveness by encouraging people to bond more meaningfully and move beyond superficial interactions. The debriefing part helps people focus on the team building aspect. You may also expand this activity by having the people switch roles.

Take care,

Guy
Team Building

101 Team Building Ideas

An article I wrote sharing 101 team building ideas.

Team Building Tip: Invite the Difficult People

A lot of workplaces implement team building and then continue to ignore the "difficult" people. Team building activities are an excellent opportunity to emphasize positive behaviors and invite a resistant person into the fold. Oftentimes, people behave negatively and appear difficult because they don't feel they're part of the team.

Take care,

Guy
Team Building

Team Building and Your Beliefs

An article I wrote on how what you believe about team building affects your ability to implement it in your workplace.

Team Building Indoors

A lot of team building is practiced outdoors through physical activities that encourage people to bond and interact in a lively way. Don't forget to also focus on deeper team building skills like communication and empathy. Deeper skills can be developed in quiet indoor activities and interactions that don't require physical prowess. All it takes is people being willing to talk meaningfully with each other, learn positive behaviors and build genuine relationships.

Team Building Tip: Include Leadership

There are many team building situations where leaders send their staff to workshops or training but don't attend themselves. The key to effective team building is to start from the top down. That way you can create a culture of team building and lead by example. Your employees will also see that you're committed to making it happen.

Take care,

Guy
Team Building

Team Building Activity - The Caterpillar

In this team building activity you'll focus on people working together on a common, unexpected and unfamiliar goal. Ask participants to get in a line behind each other with their hands on the shoulders of the person in front to form a caterpillar. Now divide the group into two and ask half of the people to face one direction and the other to face in the other. You'll end up with a caterpillar with two heads and with the two halves of its body facing in opposite directions.

Set up, beforehand, an obstacle course that the group, as a caterpillar, has to navigate. Without telling the group what to do or how to move, instruct them to navigate the obstacle course in any way they see fit. Set a time limit ( it helps to walk through the course beforehand to see how long it takes and then add a minute to that time). Make sure you don't give them any instructions on how they should move, just let them do it any way they want.

During the activity, participants will interact to navigate the obstacle course. When you've called time, have everyone gather together and discuss the following questions:

• What did people do to make things easier?
• What were the challenges that needed to be overcome?
• How did they plan how to get through the obstacle course?
• What worked well in the activity?
• What would they do differently to make things go better?
• What does this all have to do with team building?

The idea is to get people thinking about how they behave when they're in an unexpected situation that disrupts their routine. Team building is often about how people behave when things get tough rather than when everything is going well. Make sure you allow ample time for people to debrief and share their insights on how this activity applies to team building.

Take care,

Guy
Team Building

The Secret to Great Team Building

The secret to great team building is to focus on long-term behaviors. That means doing more than just the occasional company retreat, picnic or plaque on the wall. A deeper team building program will help people learn skills and behaviors that help them get along with each other. Think in terms of creating a program where people meet weekly to do activities and learn practical skills. The idea is to gradually build a new company culture.

Take care,

Guy
Team Building

Team Building Activity - Find the Person Like You

This team building activity is designed to help people think about the that bring them together and create a positive team. Ask the participants in your group to think about what they are like as people. This can include any defining characteristic as long as it genuinely reflects who they are. Emphasize the idea that they should think of characteristics that reflect their true selves, not what they think people want to hear or what their image is. Give them five minutes to think.

Have everyone stand up and walk around the room asking other people open-ended questions and trying to identify the person who is most like them in the group. Allow for 15 or 20 minutes of people circulating and asking each other questions. When they're done have them go back to their original seats and ask them the following questions:

• What characteristics does the person who is like you possess that would make them a great part of a team?
• What other characteristics did you notice in people who weren't like you that might play a part in an effective team? 

The idea in this team building activity is for people to realize that teams are made up of people who aren't always the same as them and who aren't always on the same page. It also helps people highlight and support the things they have in common, the major point being that teams work better when we look for commonalities and ways we can work together. When people are done discussing the two questions ask the following one:

• How would you use the knowledge you've acquired in this activity to build a stronger team?

Write down the participants' ideas and discuss.

Take care,

Guy
Team Building

Practical Team Building Tips for Leaders

An article I wrote for leaders looking for practical team building tips.

Team Building is Up to You

An article I wrote on how team building succeeds based on your actions.

Focus Your Team Building on the Long-Term

A lot of leaders and organizations will provide some team building activities for a day and then return to business as usual. The hidden secret to effective team building is that it doesn't work unless you practice it long-term. The reason for this is that you can't change people's behavior in one event, it takes sustained effort. Consider providing ongoing and consistent team building activities that help you and and your employees learn positive behaviors.

Take care,

Guy

5 Ways to Tell If You're Ready for Team Building

An article I wrote to help you tell if you're ready for team building.

Team Building and the Difficult Employee

There is often an employee who is considered difficult and people don't want to include him or her in any team building activities. One of the reasons that people behave in negative ways is that they don't feel like they belong in the workplace. Team building offers an opportunity to have the person share experiences and thoughts with others in the group. It helps create an atmosphere where people feel safe to talk about things and can let go of negative behaviors.

Take care,

Guy
Team Building

Team Building Activity - Use Your Noodle

Use Your Noodle is a team building activity that helps people work together. Have a group of five or six people use a box of spaghetti and tape or string to build anything they want. Give them up to half an hour to build. Emphasize that it doesn't matter what they build and that they can choose anything they want.

When the group is done, ask debriefing questions to focus on the team building aspect, such as:

• What was the feeling in your group?
• What was each person's contribution?
• How was it decided what to build?
• How was the interaction in the group?
• How was the communication in the group?
• What was the level of commitment of each group member?
• How were tasks assigned?
• What was done to give equal importance to all voices?
• What would you do differently?
• Having experienced this activity, what are the elements that lead to team success?

The idea in this team building activity is to have people work together and then think carefully about the interpersonal dynamics in their group. As they process their thoughts and actions they'll think about what it takes to form and maintain a high-functioning team. You can move on from this discussion to having each group write down suggestions for how to build a strong team. You can then merge the ideas and use them as guidelines for effective team building.

Take care,

Guy
Team Building

5 Key Reasons Why Team Building Doesn't Work

An article I wrote about why team building doesn't work in many organizations.

Team Building Activity - Who Are You?

In this team building activity you have everyone walk around the room and stop to ask other people the question, "Who are you?" Instruct people to listen closely to what the other person says and retain as much detail as possible.

Let people walk around and ask each other, "Who are you?" for ten or fifteen minutes. Then have everyone go back to their seats.

Debrief by asking people to share what they found interesting or notable about what other people said. Then ask the group what any of this has to do with team building. You'll find that people will talk about how team building is about building rapport and getting to know people.

Praise the group for their participation. If you wish you can ask them how they would apply this kind of exercise to their day to day operations.

Take care,

Guy
Team Building

10 Common Sense Team Building Tips

An article I wrote that gives you ten practical team building tips.

What's the Difference Between Team Building and Team Bonding

An article I wrote examining the difference between team building and team bonding.

Team Building Tip - Build Relationships

The reason short-term team bonding events (which are often called team building) don't produce lasting results is that they don't change behaviors. For team building to take root in your organization it takes time and effort and a focus on helping people develop deeper relationships.