Team bonding activities are a great way to reduce stress, refresh the mind of your employees and give them a renewed sense of purpose and dedication towards achieving goals in the workplace.
The Jobberman Nigeria team recently went on a team bonding exercise You can head over to our Instagram page for a quick peek at what went down, the activities that were involved as well as how members of the teams responded.
So, if you are in search of some inspiration for team bonding activities your organisation could fall back on as you plan your team bonding outing with your employees and the various teams they fall into, here are some fresh ideas you should consider.
The Energizer: Apple-Banana-Orange
The objective of this game is to stimulate the group, reduce tension among teammates and create a friendly competitive atmosphere. Ensure all team members listen attentively to avoid missing their cue.
Description: ‘Apple’ translates into ‘Hopping forward,’ ‘Banana’ translates into ‘Hopping backwards’ while ‘Orange’ translates into ‘Doing a 180-degree turn’
Number of players: All participants
Duration: 10-12 Minutes
https://www.instagram.com/p/BudsA5NBwf7/
Communication Gone Wrong Game
The objective of this team bonding activity is to highlight how the communication process within any team can go wrong. It amplifies message delivery as they relay to factual details of incidents and reports and encourages employees to avoid grapevines, rumour mongering and gossiping in the workplace.
Description: All participant form a queue facing forward, the last person on the queue is shown a message. He/she is then expected to relay the message to the next person without uttering a single word. Instead, the message is relayed by demonstrating it via body movement and actions to the next person. At the end of the chain, both the first and last person will then vocalize the message gotten based on the original message that was delivered and the interpretation received by the last person the message was demonstrated to.
The rule here is to get the message across without using words. Some examples of the game are to say to the first person:
Game 1: I rode a bike and fell or
Game 2: I have eaten and I’m stronger
Duration: 15 Minutes
Number of players: All participants
Pipeline Game
The objective of this activity is to improve communication within the team and help develop collaborative problem-solving skills among your employees. The ability to collaborate is a skill every team should thrive on yet many seem to lack it.
Description: Each participant gets one short length of a pipe, each must work together to deliver the ball through the pipes from the start point to the finish point.
The rules here are the ball must not roll backwards, team members’ hands or fingers must not touch the ball and the ball must only fall into the allotted cup or hole at the end of the pipe.
Number of players: 3 persons from each team
Duration: 5 Minutes
https://www.instagram.com/p/BueIuRXBvIZ/
Trust Walk aka Blindfold Game
This is a fun activity to help team members trust each other. To grow trust and support system around the workplace and teams, the game highlights the importance of having and being a support system to guide you through a tough period.
Description: Three participants will be chosen randomly from each team. The first person will be blindfolded with a scarf, the second person will provide guidance through the obstacle for the blindfolded persons; while the third person will serve as a distraction for the other team.
The first player to get to the finishing line wins this round. There should be no touching to guide participants. A blindfolded person can’t go back and participants must scale through all obstacles within the allotted time.
After the game, the participants will reflect and share what they learned from this experience.
Number of participants: 3 participants per team
Duration: 10 Minutes
Final Thoughts on Team Bonding Activities
Many millennials, according to the recent Jobberman Nigeria report, identify group recreational activities as a motivating factor for them and went a step further to show how it improves communication within teams. There are so many other team bonding activities you and your team members can weave into your next team bonding outing. Some of them include:
