The Best Team Building Exercises For Your Workplace

Usually most effective at the very start of a session, the purpose of this exercise is to promote conversation and relationship and provide a better alternative to the sometimes awkward generic ice breakers. Address the team and ask them to stand in order of their date of birth. Immediately the team is required to talk to eachother and problem solve as a group to find the correct order and will almost certainly end up next to someone who they might not know too well. Complete the exercise by going along the line and asking for each person's date of birth to make sure they have the right order, follow this up with by asking for an interesting fact about them. If a person looks unsure over their interesting fact, a good example for a fact could be simply asking what they think of their name or when they were born. 

As classic as it is infamous in the team building world, the trust fall remains a truly great tool for promoting trust as well as installing a more feel good atmosphere in the group. The exercise involves pairing the team up and asking them to fall completely back into the arms of their partner. Not only does it promote trust in the team, this exercise has proven to be decisive in helping to create stronger and more worthwhile bonds between groups that use it regularly. 

An exercise that is totally effortless to set up and available in any room with any size, Winner/Loser is a game that revolves around improving morale and installing a more positive outlook towards complicate or challenging situations, whether it be in or outside of the workplace. Pairing up the group, the team will take turns in running through a negative experience they went through either inside or outside of work. They will then go through the same situation only this time they will focus on the positive aspects of it and then measure how they feel after looking back on the two different outlooks. Regularly employing this strategy will instill a far greater sense of optimistic and positive outlook on the challenges everyday life brings. 

Readily available both inside and outside the workplace and with near endless possibilities for whatever you need, a scavenger hunt is the perfect exercise when you want to target several different aspects of team building. Giving the team a list of a certain amount of 'goals' it's also a great way of introducing rewards and incentives into your workplace environment. The goals on a scavenger hunt can vary from anything like taking a selfie with someone to finding a very specific piece of stationary located in the workplace. 

Using a decently open bit of space, pair up the team and ask one of them to blindfold the other. Set up a certain amount of 'mines' across the floor and ask the blindfolded person to get across the minefield without touching any of the mines. Their partner is obviously free to instruct and help them in whatever way they choose to, the endless possibilities available to how you approach this will help to install a fun competitive element to the game, whilst simultaneously aiding the team's communication skills. There is also plenty of pros in terms of trust building for the group and even the chance to introduce reward systems if you decide to include it. 

Another classic that plenty are going to be familiar with, don't be afraid with this game to really ask for some wacky originality with the responses you get from it. Usually best when done in a circle, go around the team and ask every member to think of a funny/interesting/quirky fact about themselves (it must be true!) and one lie that would be on a similar level to the fact. Ask the team which one they think is the lie before returning to the team member for the answer. This exercise encourages plenty of conversation between team members, breaks down any barriers they might have had due to shy or nervousness and helps generate that happy atmosphere every successful team requires.