Team building is probably a term you’ve heard over and over again since elementary school. You may have done team-building exercises in the classroom where you and a classmate had to work together to accomplish something.

These exercises either ended with everyone in the classroom getting in a disagreement, or it was a true bonding moment for you and your classmates which was your teacher’s intention.

Believe it or not, team building is still relevant today and not just in a school classroom. You can use it in your business to boost morale, build camaraderie, and establish trust amongst your team.

Why is team building important?

Maybe you thought it was lame in school, but team building can be a great way for your employees to take a break from work and build deeper relationships with one another.

When you take time to facilitate team-building activities, you’re investing in your team and company culture.

Working in a business is similar to how a sports team functions. For a sports team, like baseball or football, to work well together, the players have to know how to communicate with one another. Practice helps them learn each team member’s strengths and weaknesses. It also builds trust and teaches the team how to work together. 

One player might be an all-star player, but one player cannot carry an entire team. If a team was fielded with no experience playing with one another, they would be lost, frustrated, and confused. While they may excel individually, they will not succeed as a team.

Just like a sports team, your team in the office should build trust and learn how to highlight one another’s strengths while helping each other with their weaknesses. It also helps your team feel a sense of camaraderie and unity. This is especially important during the pandemic when many people feel isolated and alone. 

Team building is one of the best ways to encourage teamwork. Just like sports teams need practice, so does your team.

Team-Building Activities and Your Team

When is the best time to do team-building activities?

They don’t have to take long, but they are great ways to kickoff meetings, take a small break in the middle of the workday, or meet your team outside of the office.

Here are some great ways to orchestrate team-building activities for you and your team.

Team-Building Activities to Kickoff a Meeting or Training Sessions

Engage with your team using brain teasers.

Starting a meeting can be intimidating or awkward at times. How do you get the conversation rolling? Maybe your team is tired, unenthusiastic, or in need of a break.

Whatever it is, a great way to kick off a meeting and raise the energy in the room is to start with an activity that engages your team and gets their creative juices flowing.

You could start with a brain teaser. There are dozens of brain teasers online that you can choose from. You can even pick ones that are relevant to your industry.

Start with an icebreaker.

Icebreakers are called icebreakers because they “break the ice.” It’s a great way to interact with your team. They’re more likely to engage with a small, fun activity than if you were to start off the meeting with business.

Icebreakers are also a great way for your team to get to know one another on a personal level.

Just like brain teasers, there are thousands of icebreaker activities you can choose from that will fit your company culture but also encourage your team to engage and learn more about one another.

An example of a fun icebreaker is two truths and a lie. This is where one person shares three facts about themselves, but one of them is a lie. The rest of the room has to guess which statement is a lie.

It’s a great way for your team to learn something new about one another and encourages interactions between your team that may never happen on a regular workday.

Facilitate brainstorming sessions.

If you want a more work-focused activity, you can still encourage your team to interact and have fun.

Think about what your meeting is about and how to incorporate a brainstorming session. This could look like having your team write down their goals for the year on a notecard and sharing with the team or having your team brainstorm ideas for a new campaign you’re launching.

Give everyone a schedule before the meeting and have them come with ideas and questions about what topic you want to discuss.

Day-to-Day Team-Building Activities

Have your team take a personality test.

Have your team take a personality test. This can be a DISC test, Myers-Briggs test, or whatever other one that you feel like your team would appreciate.

Then, ask some questions:

• What are the traits that you resonated with?
• What are traits you didn’t resonate with?
• What did you learn about yourself?

This gives your team the opportunity to understand one another and know how to communicate with people who think differently. It will boost communication and understanding.

Create an encouragement wall.

Create an encouragement wall where people can post words of affirmation. 

You can do this with sticky notes or create a bulletin board. People can either leave notes anonymously or sign their names.

This will make others feel seen and appreciated. It’s difficult to give credit to everyone in a business due to deadlines, busyness, and your ability to only be in one place at a time. 

This board will allow everyone to read about the great things everyone is doing on the team.

Start a book club or a lunch-and-learn.

Promote learning new things in the workplace and learning new things together. Host a luncheon maybe once a quarter and dedicate this time to learning. 

You could invite a speaker to come in and share wisdom, or you could have one of your business leaders or employees speak.

You could also start a book club that meets once a month. Take time to learn, whether it’s topics that correlate with your industry or not. You could do a blend of both.

Organizing learning opportunities shows your team that your business values growth and cares about each individual.

Outside of the Office

Not all of your team-building has to happen within the office. There are plenty of fun activities that you and your team can do outside of the office.

Think of holiday-related activities. Have a Valentine’s Day party where team members exchange words of affirmation for other members of the team. Or, this Memorial Day, give the team an opportunity to honor someone they know who served in the military.

Many of CCA’s partners have found ways to serve in the community as a volunteer team. From building houses for Habitat for Humanity to building food boxes for the local food pantry, there are many volunteer opportunities near you.

How CCA Can Help

Start implementing team-building activities in your business today. It will transform your company culture, establish trust, encourage communication, and boost employee retention rates.

At Corporate Chaplains of America, we work with businesses nationwide to provide teams in the workplace with the support they need to get through life’s ups and downs. 

When you invest in professional and emotional support for your employees, you show that you care for them as human beings, not simply as employees.

At CCA, our team is dedicated to you and your team. Your chaplain is a trusted confidant that your team can go to no matter what.

Our chaplains are available 24/7 for you and your team. When your employees have someone to talk to, it can make an unsteady time seem a little steadier. Your team needs that support, and our team can be that for them. Contact Corporate Chaplains of America today to learn how to support your team as you seek to grow a thriving, healthy work culture for your team.