Is Teambuilding Really Necessary…and How Do You Do It?
If you’ve worked for a major corporation in the last ten years, you’ve probably been wrangled into participating in some sort of team-building activity or event. (Some of you are rolling your eyes about now.) Admittedly, team-building events can be a bore, but do they serve a purpose? As a boss, community leader, or coach, should you be incorporating these activities in your game plan? Let’s take a look at the concept of team-building, explore the benefits, and find a few options that might work for you.
Benefits of Team-Building Activities…
As a community leader, teacher, and football coach, I’m frequently looking for innovative ideas to get my people on the same page or amped up about a new idea. I’ll be the first to tell you I’ve had some great successes in this arena… right alongside some epic failures! A failed initiative can get you down for sure, but I’ve seen too many benefits of effective team-building events to give up.
In my experience, team-building workshops encourage comradery, which after the pandemic is at an all-time low. I’ve been told by many of my Gen Z colleagues that they’re “here to do their job and go home, not to make friends.” The current idea is that there needs to be a compartmentalization of friendships. While you don’t need to be chummy with all your workmates, you spend a lot of time with these people, so it’s beneficial to at least know how your colleagues operate.
- Team-building activities help leaders and team members see things from a new perspective. Understanding how your colleagues think, their preferred learning style, or their personality profile (and learning how to use that information) increases the efficacy of your communication, the speed at which you work, and your outcomes.
- Team-building activities get everyone on the same page, which saves time and reduces conflict in the long run.
- These events allow people to let loose and display a different side of their personality.
- Team-building activities also provide ample information to leaders about how workers perform under stress, how they cooperate with other team members, how they process emotions, and how they handle success.
Let’s Build Community!
Hopefully, I’ve convinced you to step out on a limb and incorporate a few team-building activities into your calendar now. Here are a few that I’ve had good luck with and a few tips for choosing the appropriate activity for your crew.
Let’s Roam Team-Building Events
Let’s Roam is a fantastic website for leaders. I’ve personally used their scavenger hunts and escape room features with my teams. They specialize in fun and innovative team-building events that range from virtual game nights to customized scavenger hunts. They offer in-office games, curated holiday events, team competitions, and much more. From small groups to corporations with hundreds of employees, Let’s Roam has perfectly coordinated events for pretty much every situation!
Describe Yourself in Craft
This one sounds a little cheesy, but it’s hands-down one of the fastest ways to learn about your team (and for them to learn about themselves). It takes team members to a place of deep conversation without making it awkward, and I’m surprised at how well it works every time I use it. Plus, you get a little encouragement too, and who doesn’t need a little encouragement?
The game has three phases:
Phase 1: Set out a bag of basic craft supplies on each team’s table. It consists of scissors, glue sticks, construction paper, crayons or markers, and tape. The moderator will tell each person to use the supplies to create an object that represents them. That’s all the instruction they get.
Phase 2: Each person will hold up their object in front of them and tell their teammates what they’ve created, and how it represents them.
Phase 3: Each person will hold up their object. Their teammates will go around the table eacy telling that person what they’ve learned about them and what positive attributes they believe they bring to the team.
Team of Squares
Team of Squares is a fantastic team-building activity that works on communication as well as divulging how your colleagues follow instructions, deal with frustration, and handle failure. It also gives you information on body language, spatial awareness, and humility.
Here’s the gist: Divide your squad into teams of five around large tables. Each player receives a packet with three shapes in it. All players open their envelopes collectively and begin.
The goal is to form 5 squares of equal size, one in front of each player. The pieces are jumbled up, so players will have to exchange pieces with each other for everyone to make an equal-sized square.
- Players may not signal with their hands or speak at all.
- Players may not place their pieces in another player’s space or take pieces from another player.
- Players can only offer a piece to a teammate, and that teammate can accept it.
- Pieces cannot fold or overlap.
- The first team to complete all five squares without talking wins.
Some teams will fail completely. Others will struggle not to talk. Some individuals will be fuming! Others resort to giggles. Some give up. Others are determined to win. Inevitably, one humble team member will figure out the secret— give all the pieces to the person with the best skills. That person puts the squares together and offers them back to each team member until everybody has one.
It takes a bit of prep, but you can find the templates here!
Peaky Builders
Another successful game that focuses on communication is Peaky Builders. For this one, you will divide your crew into groups of 5-7. Then, have each group elect a team leader. You’ll supply your team with basic building blocks. This could include toothpicks, popsicle sticks, construction paper, toilet paper rolls, LEGOS, Lincoln Logs, or an erector set.
You’ll give each team leader 10 seconds to study a structure that you want their team to build. The team leader then does his/her best to instruct the team on how to build the structure without using the name or listed keywords. For instance, the leader instructs his team to build a rendition of the Eiffel Tower, but he can’t use the words “tower, Eiffel, Paris, or France.”
Give it a shot…
Teambuilding is a daunting task, but typically (once you convince everyone to participate) they end up enjoying it. You have to know your squad and choose activities that align with their age group, socioeconomic status (if going outside the office), and interests. For instance, it probably won’t serve you to take a group of art gallery curators on a day of kayaking, a ropes course, or a kickball game.
Try to find activities that encourage teamwork (obviously) and that reveal characteristics that may be helpful for leaders and coworkers to know about each other. Most importantly, bring food, and have fun!
Ryan is a professional travel and relationship writer, originally out of Arkansas. Educated as a health and physical education teacher, he sold all his possessions, uprooted, and went on sabbatical in 2020 to go exploring! He's spent the last four years traveling the world, living and working in more than forty countries. At his side, is his wife of 19 years and fellow travel writer, Abby. Aside from being a sports fanatic and Jesus lover, he's uncle extraordinaire to 14 of the greatest creations on Earth. His passion is sharing cultural finds and encouraging men to experience a more fulfilling life by loving, serving, and understanding their partners better. Ryan is often published on Adventures From Scratch where he shares his relationship advice and family adventure tips, and on Let's Roam, where he details his travel experiences. You can find more from Ryan on he and his wife's YouTube Channel- LostAmongLocals.
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Ryan Davishttps://befunbekind.com/author/ryan-davis/
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Ryan Davishttps://befunbekind.com/author/ryan-davis/
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Ryan Davishttps://befunbekind.com/author/ryan-davis/
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Ryan Davishttps://befunbekind.com/author/ryan-davis/
