5 Quick and Fun Team Building Activities You Can Do in the Office

More than anything else, your employees are your business’ most valuable asset. In fact, your awesome product or excellent service will not mean anything if there are not great people behind it.

Which is why it is important that you incorporate better team relations in your company. And the best way to do that is by organizing team building activities.

No matter the size of your company, these events are a must. That’s because team building events can make your employees happy, and happy employees are productive employees.

Importance of Team Building Activities

Taking the entire day off for you and your employees might be hard to fathom. After all, a team building may sound like a lavish expense. However, it is something that you can do without.

Keep in mind that a team that does not work well together could cost you business. Team building, on the other hand, helps build good working relationship among your employees.

It is more than just the cheesy ice breaker games. A creative and fun team building exercise pushes your employees to their limits, allows them to try something new, and lets them see their workmates in a different light.

However, it does not have to be an expensive outdoor activity. Here are five fun team building activities that you can do in the office:

1. Coin Logo

In order for the game to begin, everyone will be asked to empty their wallet or purse, bags, and pockets of coins. The employees are then instructed to place it on the table and create a logo using the coins in just two minutes.

Afterwards, they would explain their logo to the group and why it best represent themselves.

What’s cool about this activity is that it allows the employees to practice self-awareness while they get to know each other better.

If you have a large company, you can choose to have your employees form a group of at least three people. You may even group them according to unit or department. And then instruct them to create a coin logo that best represents their department or your company’s core values.

2.Classification Game

The classification game deals with the negative impact of pigeonholing or typecasting. By the end of the game, your employees should be able to (1) know their co-workers better and (2) understand the nature of individuality.

To do this, group your employees into a team of four. Each member will then introduce themselves, their hobbies, favorite activities, and more to their teammates. Once done, they will then classify themselves into sub-groups (i.e. chocolate and vanilla ice cream lovers, morning people and night owls, bookworm and couch potatoes, etc.) without any prejudice or discriminatory judgements.

The good thing about this team building exercise is that they get to understand that they can work in harmony despite their differences and personal preferences.

3. The One Question

This game answers the question, “If you could ask just one question to discover a person’s suitability for [topic], what would it be?”

Your topic could be diverse. It can be about entering a marriage, starting a business, or shifting to a new career.

The facilitator will pair the employees and then choose a topic. Each one in the pair, will then ask one question to each other. This question will help them discover whether their partner is suitable to them.

For example, the facilitator’s topic is about starting a business. The pair will then ask one question that will help determine whether they are suitable business partners.

What’s good about this activity is that the employees learn the importance of asking the right questions. It is also a great way to get them think together and talk with each other, as well as showcase their priorities regarding a topic.

4.  Hello My Name Is

On each name tag sticker, write adjectives that describe someone’s mood or personality. For example: Grumpy, jolly, or prankster. Make sure that you have enough name tag stickers for all employees.

Next, have your employees draw a name tag sticker from a box (or a hat if you are feeling fancy). Each employee is then required to wear his or her name tag and act based on the adjective that was assigned to him or her for a certain period of time.

This activity shows that whenever we define a person based on an emotion or mood (i.e. “You’re so grumpy today!”), he or she can take on that persona whether or not he or she feels grumpy.

It can be a double-edged sword, as acting happy can help you feel happy. Regardless, behavior and actions can help define our emotions.

5. Get to Know Me!

Another great team building exercise is “Get to Know Me!”

A facilitator can pair an employee to someone they do not know well or someone who sits pretty far from them. Afterwards, each pair can ask three questions to each other:

1. What is something that you are proud of your work or your personal life?
2. What is something that not a lot of people know about you?
3. Ask any random question.

Once done, each employee will then share what he or she learned about his or her partner.

This activity can be a great way for employees to know their colleagues, especially those who they seldom interact with.

Think of Team Building as an Investment

As Michelle Kaiser puts it, “Employees are the heart of every company, and investing in team building exercises enhances [sic] their roles and connections.”

In fact, team building activities can help your employees think out of the box. It allows them to rethink everyday items and find connections to things that they deemed entirely unrelated.

More importantly, the exercises mentioned above will help them to get to know their colleagues better, as well as understand the importance of individuality.