How efficient is your team? While the answer depends on a variety of factors, the most critical may be how well your team members work together. Effective collaboration not only affects productivity directly but also impacts employee satisfaction. In a recent Slack survey, employees ranked being part of a “community” at work as one of the most important workplace values. Show
Team bonding is one element of building a company culture that keeps individual workers engaged and productive while improving the way your teams work. Collaborative tools and flexible workspace design can contribute to a more efficient team dynamic, but there are also simpler solutions for quick team building, such as team-building activities. Some may view traditional team building games as disruptive and ineffective—especially when they are used without context or strategy. Yet when the right team-building exercise is used at the right time, it can help your team learn more about each other and work more effectively together. These games don’t have to take up a lot of time either; the following 5-minute team-building activities can quickly create a closer work community. In order to help you better target your time, these team-building exercises have been organized by their focus. Whether you’re looking to improve your team’s communication or boost creativity to generate new ideas, you’ll find a five-minute team building activity below to fit your needs. 5-minute team building activities to improve communicationCommunication is at the heart of any team’s productivity—or lack of productivity. These quick games are designed to get your small groups or large groups talking, which is especially important for your company’s newest hires. 1. Four Walls Communication ActivityThis quick activity is all about learning how each team member prefers to communicate, allowing for better collaboration, and less miscommunication in future interactions. It’s a simple activity that requires only a few sheets of paper but can have a dramatic and immediate effect on your team’s collaboration and productivity. Materials: Paper, tape to stick the paper to walls 2. Team Birthday LineupA classic for a reason, this team-building exercise requires your team to communicate with each other without the use of words. The challenge is for them to find creative ways to share the information needed to complete the task. Materials: None 3. Penny For Your ThoughtsThis sharing game is often used as an icebreaker and provides a unique way for your team members to learn more about each other. As one of many 5-minute team building activities for work, “Penny For Your Thoughts” can reveal commonalities between employees for further team bonding. Materials: Jar of pennies that are no more than 15 years old 5-minute team-building activities to identify strengthsTeam building activities that involve a range of tasks can help team members better understand their individual strengths and how those strengths contribute to the larger group. The following 5-minute team-building activities help your employees identify and use their best talents as a team. 4. ReplicationThis five-minute team-building exercise brings both communication and strength-identification to your team’s bonding time. To successfully complete the challenge, team members will need to work together using their various skills in different roles. Materials: A completed Lego structure, plus enough sets of Lego pieces for each group to recreate the structure 5. Spider WebIn this game, the team must work together to get all individual employees through the challenge. The twist is that selecting the various roles for the team will be very important to the team’s success in defeating the Spider Web. Materials: String and tape 5-minute team-building activities to encourage creativitySometimes being productive as a team means coming up with creative new ideas. The team-building games below will have your team looking at both problems and opportunities in new ways, within the five-minute time limit. 6. Scrambled PuzzlesJigsaw puzzles are just the background for this selection from our 5-minute team building activities. The real test will require your team members to apply problem-solving techniques and show flexibility in addressing an unexpected challenge. Materials: One 100-piece jigsaw puzzle for each small group 7. Helium StickAnother simple 5-minute team building activities for the workplace, this exercise is all about overcoming the initial frustration of a challenge to find the right solution—all while working together as a team. Materials: A thin stick/dowel rod for each group of six
to ten employees 8. Paper TowerPaper Tower is another fun game that can be used to spark innovation and creativity in your team. The simple materials and constraints of this exercise mean employees will need to look at everyday items in new ways to be successful. Materials: 18-20 pieces of letter-size paper per team Team bonding time sometimes has a bad reputation among employees, but they don’t have to be dull or pointless. With the right emphasis, these 5-minute team-building activities can be fun games that both break up the workday and support greater productivity for your team. If you are looking for even more ideas to make your team more efficient through a more positive work environment, you can also check out our list of 40 employee engagement ideas to try. The teamwork and team dynamics of your workplace, developed through exercises like these, is just one part of your employer brand. Contact CareerArc today to learn how to develop your employer brand even further so that you can both retain and attract top talent. What are the best team building activities for a small group?Team-building activities for small groups. Human Knot. Human Knot is a great game for encouraging your employees to work together to solve a problem. ... . Blind Retriever. ... . Perfect Square. ... . Two Truths, One Lie. ... . Egg Drop. ... . Office debates. ... . Team lunch. ... . Spectrum mapping.. What is the best team building activity?Examples of team building exercises are the Human Knot, Scavenger Hunts, and Profile Bingo. These activities are similar to team building games and fun group activities, and are a way to improve team cooperation in the workplace. These exercises include both indoor team activities and outdoor team building activities.
What are common team building activities?Team building activities and games. Zombie Escape. For: Creative Problem Solving & Collaboration Exercise. ... . Battle of the Airbands. For: Team Bonding. ... . A Shrinking Vessel. For: Creative Problem Solving. ... . Back-to-Back Drawing. For: Communication Skills. ... . Office Trivia. ... . Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower. ... . Community Service. ... . Salt and Pepper.. What is a fun group activity?Group activities for adults aim to bring folks together for socialization and fun. For example, scavenger hunts, board games, and happy hours. These ideas can work for team building outings, friendly gatherings and other social activities.
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