Team-Building Exercises 2

[DoubleD]

Does anyone have examples of Team-Building exercises? I'm managing a diverse group of individuals with disparate jobs. I'd like to build a more cohesive unit and promote communication and comradery. As well as showing the associates how much we appreciate them. I have the following ideas so far:

Mini-golf
Lunch (on the company)
Serve breakfast to the group
Weekly Trivia (Soda for the winner, once a month winner gets some bigger prize.) Random winner selected from correct entries
Pictionary or Cranium during lunch break
Drinks after work

Ideas can be at work as well as outside work activities.

Pain is stress leaving the body.

DoubleD

 

[rosieb]

I think Stat1c's right, anything which makes people socialise. In my experience, the best teams are those who voluntarily socialise outside work. Of course, it's the chicken and egg situation.

Rosie
"Never express yourself more clearly than you think" (Niels Bohr)

 

[shortone]

MDXer - movie day?! Very cool idea! Are you in the NJ area? Any openings ? Working for a government agency, our management normally changes every election, depending upon which party wins. We used to go to local baseball games, have team meetings (but employee(s) of the month were recognized by management, which produced hard feelings among those who didn't receive anything), golf outings, etc.,which were really fun, but we don't do them anymore with the new regime. Now people are leaving in droves a couple of our managers downstairs are keeping a pictorial log of those who have "jumped ship" (at least 10 folks in the last year!). We'd love to have one of our spare offices or cubes outfitted for a once or twice-a-week visit from a massage therapist. Maybe not a team building exercise in itself, but everyone would be more relaxed.

It's nice to hear that everyone is not in the same position as our office....

JayeD
"I'm sure of two things: there IS a God, and I'm NOT Him!" - R. Williams

 

[medic]

DoubleD,

Does anyone have examples of Team-Building exercises?

It's still good to try the old reliable stuffs like parlor games, and outdoor activities. Always put in teamwork and cooperation as main ingredient of these activities and there you go. I can still remember one of my favorites -- Participants were put in an "electric", 5-foot fenced enclosure. The goal was to get everybody out (without getting 'electrocuted'). ;-)

 

[SQLSister]

I've always found the best team buildng exercise is to:

a. Treat your team with respect, expect the same from all team members
b. Give them the tools and information they need to do their jobs, (Also keep them informed of things that may not directly affect them but which will make them feel disrespected if you don't tell them - an example is if you go to a meeting with a major customer, tell them about it even if it doesn't directly impact the project)
c. Don't play favorites
d. Get rid of anyone who isn't a team player (you will have to try to counsel them first, but many of these people are unwilling to change.)

Questions about posting. See faq183-874

 

[stormbind]

The food ideas are very risky imo: give everyone pastry and discover one has a gluten allegy. Try chocolate and you isolate another one. Didn't take the time to find out who was vegetarian? Free food does make the team as a whole happier, but odds are that at least one member will feel very left out.

Games are a safer bet imo. If this takes place during working hours (rarely, obviously) then nobody fails to show and it is doubly appreciated

P.S. I have never organised a team-building event, but I have been to a few and those that pit one team against another have best results. (vs. another department or another regional office strikes me as being optimal).

--Glen

Memoria mihi benigna erit qui eam perscribam

 

[kalistoh]

A very simple team-building exercise, from my personal experience, is appraisal & encouragement.

It costs nothing but if done correctly, makes you, either as an individual or as a team, feel like you've accomplished something great.

she who destroys the light

 

[aquias]

Team Building, if you have such a diverse group, finding one solution to appeal to everyone will be difficult.

And there have been several great solutions, SQLSister is correct on one very big thing to ensure. Try to keep and hire people who want to work as a team and find that comradery.

Specific things to do? Social events, I'm not a big fan of asking people to give up large amounts of time for camps. But there are some very good ideas here...

1. Competition - From LAN games to projects. This will generally bring people closer together, even if they're competing against each other.

2. Things like Happy hour, lunches, and breakfast will help build a team atmosphere. One of my favorite things to do as a manager is to "shut down" the department once a month and take everyone out to lunch.

3. Weekly meetings. I know, I know, people hate meetings. But keep it informal, once a week where everyone gets five minutes to give major updates to projects and gain feedback from someone with a different perspective.

4. Make people with different jobs work together. Take a developer work with the network engineer to come up with new ways to communicate with the rest of the company.

5. Food days, but not just any food days. Have people who wish to participate sign up, then run a rotating schedule where each person takes a turn bringing in food (encourage home made food, it tends to brign out people's flair).

 

[NickFerrar]

I'd agree the regular smaller things (boss brings in Pizza or doughnuts every other friday or something) mean more to me than a once every 6 months big thing. I've enjoyed go-karting and paintball etc. at my company but I never feel it builds team spirit of a sense of appreciation.

After-hours drinks is a bit dodgy, we go out once a month as a team but without the boss to let off steam, last thing I'd want is to watch what I have to say when I'm relaxing in a social atmosphere.

As for giving presentations - no thanks, I don't care how light-hearted they're supposed to be.

 

[aquias]

Happy Hour depends on the manager. My staff will generally invite me to Happy Hours and the like. But I have a pretty open door policy with them and I'm one of the least proffessional people I know (If they have a problem with me, I generally hear it at work).

 

[LesleyW]

Aquias -

I'm one of the least proffessional people I know

Um, I hope you don't go putting that on your CV! I don't think it reads quite as you intend it.

 

[aquias]

Depends on what you envision when I say least proffessional, it is open ended and you can interpet it how you wish.

But, for me, it seems to work. I'm preparing to hire and have four of my former guys looking for me to hire them.

 

[chiph]

Maybe he was commenting on your spelling?


That's what gets a large number of people knocked out from consideration.

Chip H.


____________________________________________________________________
If you want to get the best response to a question, please read FAQ222-2244 first

 

[aquias]

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....I don't take the time to spellcheck this stuff and I'm the worst speller I know!

 

[LesleyW]

chiph - I'd now like to pick on your spelling.. "she" has an s at the beginning

 

[rliebsch]

two words:
NERF GUNS.

Seriously. Call it a Real Time Real life version of Quake/Doom/UT.

I used to have 2 of these nerf guns that held 40 roounds each and were fully automatic. RULED.

Robert Liebsch
Stone Yamashita Partners

http://www.stoneyamashita.com/

 

[rliebsch]

But seriously,

I think praise and mentorship are the best. Work together.
It all comes down to skills and trust, so build both in your teams, and your teams will build it within your org.

I still like the nerf gun idea.

Robert Liebsch
Stone Yamashita Partners

http://www.stoneyamashita.com/

 

[lionelhill]

Surprised this thread is still alive. But for what it's worth, my thought for team-builders:

Try to remember that not everyone is the same as you. Don't be hurt if their idea of fun isn't yours, if they don't like playing your games or eating your food. Does it matter? Try to think of their feelings, and they will appreciate it.

 

[jcrater]

My company has done many of these suggestions (bowling, lunch, bar, etc), but in reality they don't do much for team building.

What usually happens is that the teams are always the same: People naturally team up with those that they work closest with, so no intermingling occurs.

I don't like the classroom team-building exercises where you're randomly mixed with other folks, but I admit that they seem to work well as far as building more of a "cohesive unit" among the group.

 

[Dollie]

A few things that can easily be to be sure you create a team stays a team instead of separating...

Always remember that a pat on the back is always preferable to a kick in the kiester. Rewards for little things done will go miles, such as a cash reward on the spot, or getting to leave work early (paid). Peer awards also work well. If my co-worker does something to help me that is well beyond the scope of their job, they get an "Above and Beyond" cash award. It works better than we had anticipated.

When hiring, think of your staff before you think of yourself. Will the new person fit in with the rest of the department? Will they be able to contribute something new to the department? Also run a mental check and see if anyone in the department could feel threatened in some way by the new hire. Run an interception play if necessary.

Small offices must do things like these because their team must rely on each other. Large offices would do well to act like a small office: Build teams, not individuals.

We have attitude adjustments at the neighborhood pub, we're all going to a ballgame (tonight actually), we have pot lucks with different themes, and we do silly random things occasionally.

The "It" nerf ball floats around, whoever has it is "It". Hard to not crack a smile when a green ball comes bouncing into your office and you see someone running off yelling "You're It!".

We also "welcome" people to the office Cubeville by honing our skills at shooting rubber bands off the ceiling into neighboring cubes. If you get the angle just right....

Yes, we all buckle down and do the work required of us, but I like to have a bit of fun and I like to be sure everyone's involved. I haven't heard any complaints about any of it in over 7 years, but I also have a great boss who assembled a fantastic team.

 

[infinitelo]

Cross training is a good way to build teamwork.
The goal is not to have everyone be experts in every
department but some small exposure helps.

if it is to be it's up to me