Three Effective Team Building Exercises That Help Build Team Morale, Communication, and Productivity

Team building exercises help identify the strengths and weaknesses within your team to improve communication and problem-solving skills amongst your staff. Promoting teamwork amongst staff can engage your employees so that they produce better outcomes and improve cash flow in the long run.

Easier said than done, right? Not if you have ActionCOACH RGV at your side. After all, happy employees are more willing to show up to work and be more productive, so why not support your staff with some effective team-building exercises?

Take action today to build a strong team of employees with these three effective team-building exercises. Grow your business to incorporate the kind of work environment they--and you--need to earn the time, money, and freedom you all deserve.

1. Human Knot (Duration: 10 - 20 Minutes)

The Human Knot game is a great way to break the ice between new hires and seasoned employees. This exercise helps improve leadership, cooperation, and time management skills. With no equipment required, it can be done indoors or outdoors and is great for groups of five to 10 people (but you must have at least four participants to play).

Assemble the participants and have them form a circle. Each person must then put their right hand up in the air, and then randomly grab the hand of someone across the circle from them. Do make sure that they are not holding hands with the people on either side of them.

As soon as this is completed, participants must then repeat this process for the left hand, ensuring that they grab a different person’s hand. Once everyone is holding hands with two different people. Now the participants need to untangle themselves to form a circle without breaking the chain of hands.

For safety purposes, remind participants that they can take their time. If the chain of hands is broken at any point, the group must then start over again from the beginning. A typical time limit for this game is 15 to 20 minutes, and if you want to make it a bit more challenging for your team, try setting a 10-minute time limit.

2. Mad Lib Mission Statement (Duration: 40 - 50 Minutes)

Though this exercise might seem like a simple icebreaker at first glance, it actually aims to cultivate a shared team identity by identifying how your employees perceive the company and what influences their perception of your brand. This activity helps align your team strategically with your brand so that they truly understand what your product or service is capable of and why you stand out compared to the competition.

Like the previous activity, this requires minimal equipment--generally a few sheets of paper and some pens. Ideally, you will have a large group of participants that you can split into small groups, but a group of at least three to six people will do just fine.

Before beginning, transform your mission statement into a Mad Libs game. Start by removing keywords and create a worksheet where the removed words are shown as blank lines. Underneath the blank lines, leave instructions on whether each word should be a noun, verb, adverb, or adjective.

Once your groups are assembled and ready to start, hand each team a copy of your Mad Lib Mission Statement for them to fill out. When everyone is finished, each team must then read the mission statement they produced with the new words. The most legitimate mission statement is the winner.

This exercise helps improve internal communication and can even help you produce an authentic mission statement that accurately embodies your company values.

3. Magic Cane/Helium Stick (Duration: 15 - 20 Minutes)

This team-building exercise is cunningly deceptive, leading most participants to believe that it will be a walk in the park. To play this game, you’ll need to supply each team with a lightweight stick or cane. Recommended group size for this activity is eight to 12 people.

When everyone is ready to begin, hand each team a magic cane (also known as helium stick). Instruct them to form two lines and face each other. They must then lower the lightweight cane to the ground using only their index fingers. Each participant must remain in contact with the cane at all times, making this seemingly simple task incredibly challenging and entertaining for all involved.

At first, teams will probably raise and drop it, but they’ll eventually get the hang of it. A vital part of the game is ensuring that everyone keeps their feet on the ground, and remember, pinching or grabbing the stick is prohibited. This exercise encourages teammates to recognize that each one of them plays a role in driving company success.

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Whether your goal is to foster an inclusive workplace, boost employee morale, or enhance your team’s overall performance, it’s undeniable that team-building exercises can help develop better communication skills amongst your staff.

As an added bonus, these improvements can also help you grow your business by enticing potential likeminded applicants attracted to your company culture.

With these effective team-building exercises at your disposal, you’ll be able to create a motivated and inspired company capable of increasing revenue as well as customer satisfaction, but as anyone in the world of business knows, there is always room for improvement.

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