By: Allison Strasius By: Allison Strasius | June 27, 2022 | People, Lifestyle, Culture, Community,
The sentence, “Let’s do an icebreaker!” often strikes a sense of agitation or anxiety within someone who dreads age-old team building activities that feel more uncomfortable than they do rewarding. Office environments are evolving in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and team bonding methods should too. This list of 6 unique (and fun!) team building activities is sure to please everyone while still cultivating valuable communication, problem-solving and collaboration skills.
Nothing brings people together more than connecting over food. A group cooking class can actually serve as an ideal environment for cultivating communication and creativity. Team members must hone their instruction-following skills to execute the dish and effectively problem-solve when mistakes are (inevitably) made in the process. The best part — enjoying the final product!
Booking an escape room experience allows large groups to engage with each other and develop trust and teamwork skills. Every escape room challenges participants to piece together clues from a plotline to escape; working together showcases how individual talents valuably combine to, in the end, solve the puzzle! Virtual escape rooms are a great option for remote offices.
See also: The 5 Best Escape Rooms In Miami
Sometimes the key to effective team building is loosening up and showing your true personality a bit. After lunch, try going out as a group for some karaoke. Staff can divide themselves into smaller teams, pick their trademark song and perform it for the group. This casual, fun-spirited activity lets everyone practice collaboration and encouragement.
Getting outside never fails to lift spirits and clear the mind. Sports games in particular inspire a unique sense of camaraderie and passion amongst their spectators, making them the optimal setting for fostering such traits within a team. Teams may feel united by a common interest and actively carry that sentiment back into the office.
A PowerPoint day entails each person creating and presenting a slideshow on any topic they would like to discuss. This activity is easily adjustable to become more specific (Ex. assign each co-worker a “spirit animal”), but the general intention should be to allow individuals to express themselves and their personalities to the rest of the team. A PowerPoint day serves as an outlet for teams to get to know each other more personally; this can even be done over Zoom too.
For this scavenger hunt idea, organizers create a list of objectives for teams to complete during a set amount of time. For example, each team may have to video themselves lip syncing to a certain song or speaking with a co-worker who is bilingual in the same language as them. This game hones collaboration and creativity skills no matter the task at hand. Whicher team can complete every objective wins!
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