It should be no surprise that teamwork is vital in the office. As communication, cooperation and trust are needed for a group of people to come together to efficiently complete tasks, effective teamwork can increase both productivity and improve performance among employees. Other benefits of teamwork include:
- Higher morale
- Higher retention rate
- Improved learning
- Heightened creativity
- Better conflict resolution
- Better capitalization of strengths
Teamwork can mean the difference between a business’ long-term success and it’s faltering. Across every working environment, individuals benefit when decision-makers decide to invest in teamwork. If working together effectively is your ONE Thing around the office, the five activities below can help get everyone on the same page.
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Initiate Productive Q&A Sessions with the PingPong App
Communication is a cornerstone of teamwork. The app PingPong is designed to help teams communicate better by giving them a forum for Q&As. The team lead can pose questions to solicit responses, or others can note their questions when they’re unclear about a point that’s being made. Because everything is done in real time, PingPong is a useful tool during meetings to make sure everyone fully understands concepts and priorities of a new project.
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Use the Book Zoom to Improve Problem Solving as a Group
In the book Zoom, there are 30 pages of illustration that tell a story – and no words. To improve problem solving as a group, hand out a single page to each employee. (If you don’t have 30 employees start with the first page and hand them out until everyone has one.)
Each person should only look at their page and no one else’s picture. After taking a few minutes to memorize the illustration, employees can then begin talking. The goal is to recompile the pages of the book in order through clear communication. Participants have to figure out what the story is about and how it progresses. The activity will help improve communication and get everyone working together to solve a problem.
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Create a Company Commercial
Split employees up into teams of 4-6 people. Now give all teams a set amount of time to write and shoot a short 1-2 minute commercial about the company. To make things interesting you can give the teams additional rules, such as incorporating a line of dialog or certain object.
This is a fun workplace activity that will allow employees to flex their creative muscles, work together toward a single goal and reveal their thoughts about what makes the company unique. Who knows, the commercials could end up being so good you’ll want to feature them on your website or social media accounts.
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Get through a Mine Field to Build Trust
The team at MindTools has found that playing the game mine field is an effective way to build trust. All you need is a large, open area and objects to serve as “mines”. The obstacles (mines) should be placed throughout the area and spaced far enough apart so that people can walk through them.
Now everyone needs to partner up. Focus on pairing up employees that need to work on their trust or need to become more familiar with each other. One person in the pair will be blindfolded and their partner will verbally guide them through the mine field. By the end of the activity people will be communicating better and will hopefully trust each other more.
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Head to the Laser Tag Arena
Have everyone suit up for a little bit of fun at your local laser tag arena. The great thing about this activity is it puts everyone on an equal playing field. Employees can also team up together to be the last ones standing. Some centers have even developed laser tag games specifically for corporate clients that want to improve teamwork in the office.
In addition to providing a few hours of entertainment and exercise, laser tag games help build relationships and trust while getting people to work together to complete unfamiliar tasks. All of this happens in an environment where communication is absolutely essential but difficult.
How has your office improved teamwork? What activities seem the most effective at building relationships and communication among team members? Share your experiences and ideas with us on Facebook or in the comments section!