Team building activities are ideal for building bonds between groups and encouraging team work. This concept is also beneficial within employee motivation as well as personal development and it is great in breaking the ice. It is also very useful for people who work together to also play together as a good way to show as a boss that you are not as uptight as you seem and for employees to show that you value your team.
Many of the exercises that are done can also be adapted to cater for young people or children so you could even use this as a unique way to bond with the family and spice up a Saturday afternoon for example.
Your employees will be motivated and will benefit significantly from well-run team building games, exercises and activities. These can also be used as a warm-up or energiser before a meeting, conference call and especially training. These team building games and activities are also useful in serious business project meetings, where they can help delegates to see things differently and use different thinking styles.
You should always ensure that team-building activities comply with equality and discrimination policy and law in respect of gender, race, disability and age. One of the main reasons for team building activities is the fact they are shown to improve respect for others and to promote integrity, honesty, compassion and courage. You may know someone at your work that seems quite moody or quiet and never seems to ask for any help so on a day out team building you could find out about that person. You could well find that they are lovely and have just been feeling overwhelmed, and this may encourage a friendship which could benefit you both in the future.
Have a suggestion box of ideas for a day out and encourage all your colleagues to join in. Pick out teams by choosing names out of a hat so you do not get the same people teaming up as this will encourage new relationships at work.
Some ideas for team building could be:
All Aboard
A classic team building activity in which a group is challenged to physically support one another in an endeavour to occupy an ever diminishing space.
Multi-Way Tug-of-War
This is a fun, physically demanding, competitive team activity in which several teams pull against each other, requiring communication and tactics as well as strength to outmanoeuvre and win.
Balloon Activities
These are group activities that can be done with balloons and they encourage gentle, fun physical movement, people getting to know one another, trust and working together.
Article written by Max Dean representing http://www.teamwear-direct.co.uk/ who cater for all your sportswear requirements, from football and rugby, to cricket and cycling.