Free Team Building Activities
Team
building activities are a
great opportunity to motivate staff, stimulate "out of the
box"
thinking and solve problems by recognizing
challenges and
building on strengths. The following is a selection of free team
building
activities that involve outdoor and indoor exercises.
Free Team Building Activities - Outdoors:
A
good activity is using sports as a means of building team unity. Bowling or any team
sport like softball, builds
good will and a sense of togetherness. You want to
pick a venue that is easily accessible by everyone involved so that
stress is
kept at low levels. After making sure everyone is comfortable with
bowling,
meet together at the alley, and do one game of normal bowling. Then,
have them
switch to their non-dominant hands and try to bowling that way or
playing
softball by swinging the bat from the other side. This will cause them
to try
to learn to work with their weaknesses.
Another
good game is
using golf as
a team building exercise. You can divide your team into groups,
have them all hit their golf balls in unison, then, after deciding
which ball
is the farthest, best choice, have them keep trying to work together to
get the
ball into the hole. The same rules of golf apply where the person with
the
lowest strokes wins, but in this case, the team with the lowest strokes
wins.
Free Team Building Activities -
Indoors:
Thinking as a group -
have each
member take out the change from their pocket. After each co-worker has
counted
their change, have them combine the money and find something to spend
it on.
This is hypothetical, so there will be nothing actually bought, but it
will
enforce decision-making and will let you gauge the way the teams work
together.
Afterwards, evaluate and assess how each team member felt, and how much
they
personally believed they could influence the outcome.
Rope Square
- the purpose of
this activity is to explore how a group works as a team on a difficult
task and how people assume and fulfill different roles in a group. Get
a piece of rope that is tied so that it forms a circle, sufficiently
long so that half the total group can hold onto it with both hands.
divide the group into two subgroups - the silent observers and the
square-formers. Lay the rope in a circle on the floor, in the middle of
the room. Ask the square forming group to stand in a circle around the
rope. the observers should stand back and watch in silence. Ask the
square-forming group to pick up the rope circle with both hands then
ask them to close their eyes and walk around in a circle a couple of
times so that they become somewhat disoriented. Then ask them to form a
perfect square with the rope( without looking). The other
group
should only observe the dynamics without commenting. Change the roles
of the groups and then debrief. Use the discussion to draw points as:
Who felt frustrated? Why? Who took the lead? Why? When?
Remember:
The intention of these free team building activities, it's not to make
the evaluation personal, but to point out
the range of qualities of members of a group and how they interact
in completing a difficult task.
Team
building Activities should be non-stressful and
fun, but managers should plan out activities with the good of the group
in
mind. Always build in a mechanism where the group can give feedback,
and
management can give constructive feedback to the group. |
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