Teamwork Activities to Help Boost Team Spirit and Productivity

An effective teamwork activity is one that boosts morale, improves productivity and communication, and helps strengthen the relationships between team members. While there are plenty of fun, engaging activities that teams can participate in, it’s important to have a particular goal in mind when organizing teamwork activities. Without a goal in mind, teams may enjoy the day yet go back to their everyday jobs without improving on any aspect of their productivity or communication.

Are you up for this challenge? This post can help get you there! Even the most simple games can be a part of a larger team goal. Did you know that even a simple “get to know you” game such as Two Truths and a Lie can actually help strengthen a team? Who knew? I’ve compiled a handful of fun activities that focus on strengthening different aspects of a successful team.

If you’re ready to dive right in, Udemy has many different courses on team building for managers that will give you all the knowledge you need to know to succeed.

Communication

Without effective communication, how can a team ever complete anything together? If your team is suffering because team members don’t feel comfortable consulting with each other to make an important decision, it’s time to introduce some ice breakers.

• Two Truths and a Lie: Each team member is given a small slip of paper, on which they write two true facts about themselves and one false fact, in no particular order. This game works best if each member writes down two true facts that are a bit bizarre, and a false fact that seems believable. Once everyone has written down these three things, take turns reading them out loud to the group. If time permits, allow team members to mingle after everyone has read their statements out loud and allow one question to be asked per statement. After everyone has asked their questions, gather back together in a circle. One by one, each person will re-read each of their statements, and after each statement is read out loud the rest of the group will vote on which one they think is the lie. This is a fun way to learn interesting facts about your co-workers while engaging in conversation.

Decision Making

After all, decision making is one of the biggest aspects of being part of a team. Two heads are better than one, so more than two heads have to be even better than that, right? Unfortunately, coming to a decision that everyone agrees upon can prove to be a difficult task. In order to ease the burden, team members can practice coming to a conclusion together with games that require easier decisions.

• Survival Scenario: Let’s say your team was all on an airplane together that crashed into the ocean (hypothetically). They manage to find a lifeboat that can fit every single person as well as ten different items – and luckily an island is not too far off in the distance. Assuming that your team had access to any item in the world that they would need to survive on that island (except electronics! the island has no electricity), your team must work together to determine what ten items they would want to have and why. This game requires effective communication, problem solving skills and team decision making.

Problem Solving

This activity is one that kills two birds with one stone. From start to finish, teams need to know how to collaborate efficiently in order to reach a particular goal. In many cases, they’ll need to look at the problem from all angles and offer their own opinions to come to a conclusion.

• Design Your Own Activity: A manager or leader tells each team that they need to work on communication, or making decisions, or solving problems, etc. Their objective is to create a team building activity that focuses on one of these aspects. The teams are given an hour to construct the premise of the game, the rules of the game and what the desired outcome should be. This activity isn’t restricted to problem solving skills; it helps increase communication skills, time management skills as well as creativity – all important parts of the daily process as a team.

Creativity

A creative mind is not only found in the mind of an artist. Business men, lawyers and politicians all have to be creative in their own way. Solving problems requires innovative thinking and a fresh look on outdated ideas. Stimulate creativity with a fun exercise that takes less than a half hour!

• Your team has just inherited a building filled to the brim with cardboard boxes (or whatever object you choose). The objective is to come up with 10-20 uses for that object, whether they’re practical or not. You don’t have to keep the object in the form that it was found in! You can cut and warp and bend the object if necessary, but only if you could truly do it in real life. This game encourages thinking outside of the box and seeing things in a new light.

Outcomes of Successful Teamwork Activities

Team building exercises shouldn’t only be implemented once or twice a year. In order for these activities to be effective, they must be a semi-regular part of the workplace. Whoever is leading these activities should begin by elaborating on the overall goal that is meant to be achieved by the exercise (whether it be communication, decision making, problem solving, creativity, etc), and then follow-up on that goal afterwards. If team activities happen at least once a month, there is a greater chance that the positive effects will begin to show in the real work that is being done.

Once team members know how to work with each other effectively, productivity and happiness both increase in the office. Who doesn’t want a successful, happy team? If you’re looking for more tips and tricks on leading an engaging a team, Udemy’s course on building a successful team will give you all of that and more!

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