A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. The same could be said for any team in the corporate environment. A team needs to be unified and focused. The members need to be able to collaborate and focus on their goals, as well as understanding the corporate strategy and vision.
Sometimes a mere explanation is not enough – often it requires an experiential approach to get that team to act as an effective unit. That is where corporate team building comes in. Corporate team building stands out as a matter of close attention; it could be right what any team lacked while building strategies and setting goals. The impact of professional guidelines tends to be invaluable. However, mention this concept to most employees and the usual result is groans and yawns – finding corporate team building activities ideas that excite teams can be a challenge.
For human resources teams and senior management who are in search of corporate team building activities ideas that will achieve the goals of enhancing collaboration and communication among team members, as well as encouraging team members to become ‘brand ambassadors’ here are some great ideas.
For those companies that want to allow team members to engage in team-building exercises during office hours then indoor activities are the way to go. These exercises can last anywhere from minutes to hours.
One of the simplest of indoor team-building exercises is one that encourages trust and a shared vision of what it means to be part of the organization. This is the tried and proven ‘Campfire Stories’ approach. during this exercise team members are asked to share a personal story of workplace experience. The exercise can be enhanced by asking each team member to pick a topic from a ‘hat’.
Topics like ‘trust’, ‘shared ideals’, ‘friendship’, ‘values’, ‘reward’ and ‘fun’ can enhance and humanize the process, as well as steering the conversation in the direction of company vision and values. While stories are being told other participants should note (sticky notes are great) other trigger words that relate to the story being told. Once all the sticky notes have been gathered guide the group towards refining the most important of these words and lead a discussion of how these words should influence their day to day working life.
Back of the Napkin. Most people have heard the story of how a group of friends is at the bar and someone sketches a business idea on the back of a napkin. The next thing everyone is a millionaire. Use this idea to encourage innovative thinking and teamwork. It is best used in groups of up to 24 people. Divide the group into teams of between two and four.
The workshop leader should have already come up with some problems. They can be work-related (product ideas) or other external challenges. Participants are provided with a napkin and a fine marker. They must provide a succinct solution through the use of flowcharts or other graphics such as graphs. The limited space encourages clear and focused thinking and teamwork.
Motivating teams to ‘think big’ and visualize success are two results that every human resource team wants to see Encouraged during team building activities. Among the best corporate team building activities, ideas are those which have an element of fun. The ‘Magazine Cover’ concept is one of those. Participants are divided into teams that are tasked with designing a magazine cover which promotes a big idea or positions an imaginary achievement.
They will have to think of headlines, provide images and perhaps headers for some other sub-stories which are contained in this fictional magazine. The exercise encourages team members to visualize success, motivates future performance and encourages teams to see the ‘bigger picture’.
Corporate team building need not be boring, in fact, if handled correctly activities can be fun. When that happens but-in is almost automatic – and that in itself is a form of team building.
