Hi
I've been asked to facilitate a 'team building' event for a newly formed team. The team is actually made up of two separate teams that have now come together as one. Some people will know each other fairly well, some won't. There will be 13 people in total, and I have been given up to two hours.
The objective I have been given is to deliver two activities. The first is simply to get the new team to get to know each other better. The second part is they will be working in 4 smaller project groups going forward, and I've been asked to do something which involves problem solving and communication. There could be a competitive element so that the four teams are competing against each other but this isn't compulsary.
Having done lots of team exercises before, I was looking for some fresh ideas.
Over to you.... :)
5 Responses
Cross a Raging Torrent
Provide some oil drums and rope. Get them to strip down to their underwear and then build a raft to cross a raging river in January. Always generates useful learnings. But be sure to have a lifeguard on standby. I found that fatalities put a damper on the whole workshop.
Twitter Race
Like a treasure hunt but using twitter, pre the hunt (you will already have put them in groups) they all have to set up a twitter account with their team name and follow you the leader (you need to set up an account prior to the hunt) divide the local area into four places – give each team a map and work out 10 questions for each team on each local area, (so 40 in total), they have to answer by tweeting back a photo so questions could be around local landmarks/ pubs etc. All teams that go out at the same time and the winner is the team that's back first – you can then have a laugh when everyone returns and you can stream the photos.
I have done it before and if you get tricky questions it will tick the problem solving box plus they have to work together and its a giggle!
Hmmmm
Personally my heart sinks when I see the rush to 'let's pretend' games style entertain them first and foremost approaches to team working.
This tends to be 'facilitator-led not needs-of-group-focused, and for me, lessens value by a huge degree.
My preference is to have simple, client group centred activities that hit real issues that real team members feel for real.
For instance the 'Now and then' activity is as simple as it gets, yet hits very powerful real team issues and results in clear actions following for the better.
Find the above activity to download and more at my website http://www.andrewgibbons.co.uk
I am happy to talk my own experiences on this and other exercises off the site if that helps.
The best email for me is a[email protected]
Team Building Activities
We use a good one called 'THE EGGCERCISE@
email for a copy – [email protected]
Getting to know the team
Try the human bingo exercise where it certainly gets them talking to each other, it's fun, relatively quick and you can make it competitive. Download a copy from our free section: http://www.abctrainingsolutions.biz/management_skills_free_download.html (scroll down to 'Team building'). You can amend the features they look for too.
Bryan