The latest trend in corporate world is of conducting team building exercises at a regular interval. HR departments of established organizations are devoting quite a good amount of time in organizing and managing corporate team building exercises. The necessity of conducting team building activities stems from undercurrents of differences, personal, creative and professional. The competition is very tough in corporate environment and management is putting its best efforts in retaining its most important resources, human resources. Under the light of such competitiveness, it is imperative for organizations to foster a sense of belonging and bonding in the internal setup. Team building exercises prove to be of immense help in helping employees to bond with each other and the company and consequently make them more productive.
Team building exercise and games are fun and effective. The best part of these activities is that members come together for a particular task and try to perform it in a best possible way. Team building activities are suitable for both small sized as well as medium sized groups. The exercises can be done indoors as well as outdoors in places like gardens, parks or camps. The role of person conducting the exercises is very important as it’s his duty to make the experience fun and effective. The lessons learned from team building activities can be effectively implemented in actual work environment.
A number of things can be experimented and included in team building activities. Exercises can be either social or physical in nature. Quite a large number of companies focus on sport activates that are carried out all year long. Sports like table tennis, cricket or football can help in developing team spirit and responsibilities.
Fun is an integral part of team building activities. All work and no play can damage the efficiency of the staff members so it’s essential to organize fun team building exercises on a regular basis. There are plenty of fun exercises that help in breaking the ice among the members and facilitate the process of knowing each other in an orderly fashion. One such popular game is ‘the genie game’ where a member is supposed to have found the genie and he can grant three wishes. Further on, participants can discuss these wishes with other group members. It looks like a very plain and simple exercise but tell a lot about other person like his attributes, wishes, desires, humor and things he feel scared about. Some other popular team building exercises are Mine Field, Helium Stick and Great Egg Drop etc.
On the other hand activities like planning, problem solving, marketing plan etc can also be formed to effectively introduce members to the operations apart from making them aware about new ways of functioning.
There is no dearth of corporate team building exercises. Even small presentations and tasks can be wonderful activities that will stimulate creativity and innovation. The idea is to make the members know each other’s properly and also to enhance their participation and creativity. These exercises prove extremely useful to the members in knowing strengths, skills and attributes of other participants. Identification of unique skills can be effectively used to the best advantage of the teams.