Team building should go beyond just a few events every year. It should be an ongoing effort to improve communication, foster camaraderie and build relationships. Big offsite activities can create a huge impact in uniting a team, but it is the day-to-day interactions between colleagues that play a critical role in fostering teamwork.
Without further ado, here are some team building exercises that you can incorporate into your everyday office life!
Myers-Briggs Personality Test
There must be hundreds of different personality tests out there, but the Myers-Briggs has to be one of the most accurate and detailed ones. What's more – it's completely free!
Ask your team to take the test and let them know that it will be discussed in one of your meetings. You'll be surprised to find how much people actually enjoy hearing about each other's little personality quirks! This test also helps colleagues to understand each other's working habits and in turn improve the team's efficiency.
Get your Myer-Briggs test done here! Our whole team at Culturally has done it
Giving Recognition
According to a study done by Reward Gateway, 70% of employees think that their motivation and morale would improve if managers and bosses expressed their appreciation and thanks more often.
So even if it's just for a few minutes every week, gather your team together and give recognition to someone for saving the day, reaching a new milestone, or even just fixing that coffee machine again!
Peer Recommendation
Encouraging employees to be active participants in recognizing each other can be a powerful motivational tool. So open up an avenue where employees can share instances when someone has been extra helpful or has gone beyond their call of duty!
Make sure the acknowledged employee knows the source of information – having employees 'recognize’ one another also has the additional benefits of bringing them closer together and fostering camaraderie!
Develop Team Traditions
After hours drinks, team lunches and celebrating each other's birthdays – all these are little things when compared to a team building event that takes weeks of planning, but they help to create an environment and culture that fosters team spirit and communication.
No matter how trivial they might seem, team traditions can do wonders in creating a cohesive and close-knitted team.
Create a 'Brainstorm Box’
It doesn't have to be a box literally, but create a shared document for everyone in the team to access and see the company's long and short-term goals, as well as contribute ideas on ways to achieving them and improve work processes.
An open platform where employees can speak and share ideas will not just help everyone feel heard, but they can also cooperate and build on one another's ideas!
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Just like how you won't get a six-pack by working out twice a year, your team probably won't see each other as friends outside of the workplace if you only dedicate two days out of a year to team building! For more fun, out-of-the-ordinary activities that will bring your team closer together, click here!