The effectiveness of teamwork cannot be stressed enough, especially when this team consists out of several excellent team players! The results a team can achieve will always exceed the results of a single person! Teamwork allows us to adjust weaknesses of the individuals and to combine individual strengths for the sake of the team!
Teamwork definition
Teamwork is cooperative work that is being executed by a group of people that have built a team in order to bundle their strengths. Furthermore it is the capability to recognize all the different abilities and strengths of all team members and apply these to reach the team’s objectives!
Whereas a healthy in-house competition among the employees is good for the company’s growth it does not support effective teamwork, especially not when the employees are competing for promotions. The working climate suffers drastically in such a competitive environment, whereas it still allows the company to achieve its objectives. However, smart companies have realized a long time ago that they can accomplish even more objectives and goals by supporting teamwork and implementing team building exercises to advance the positive effects of teamwork. The ideal environment for team building exercises is when the employees are given some time to come together and to discover each other´s strengths and can build a bond with each other.
Team building exercises
Team building exercises are being applied to form a team and to strengthen the relationships between the team members, with the final attempt to build the foundation of excellent teamwork! The following teamwork exercises shall help us to build a team and increase the teamwork within this team! The importance of quarterly team building exercises is huge as it allows employees to build strong bonds with each other and the organization, which increases the company’s productivity and reduces work pressure.
Team building exercise #1: High rope course
The high rope course is surely one of the most commonly known team building exercise that exists. Rope courses can meet a number of very important developmental team building goals because the courses require individuals to integrate themselves into a team in order to successfully overcome their fears, anxieties and to master the course! Furthermore, it helps teams to explore the fundamentals of trust, craftsmanship, problem-solving behavior and group interaction!
High rope course
An excursion to a high rope course can have several positive team building effects, such as:
- increasing trust in each other
- increasing awareness of the importance of teamwork
- increasing self-esteem
Team-building exercise #2: The masterpiece
Another very effective team building exercise for the workplace is called “the masterpiece”. First, you should build several teams with up to four team members. Each team will be given random pieces of stationary, which can be different from team to team. The objective of every team is to create something original by using their creativeness and implementing all different kinds of suggestions by the team members. The final goal for every team is to build a masterpiece out of the item.
Team building exercise #3: Tug of war
Tug of war
Another popular team building exercise is the game: tug of war! Simply put: build two equipollent teams and let them compete with each other! This team building exercise involves brute strength from each side in order to pull the tug war rope. Every team should consist out of 5-10 people. The team that manages to pull the other team members over the center line wins this competition. Important: allow your employees to wear some sort of protective gloves in order to reduce the risk of blisters on one’s hands.
Teamwork quotes
It’s easy to get good players. Getting them to play together, that’s the hard part. ~ Casey Stengel
Find more excellent teamwork quotes here!
Photos by ralphbijker, michaelcardus and toffehoff
What are your favorite team building exercises?
2 Comments
Healthy competition is good but not trusting the guy sitting next to you at your Monday morning meeting is not. Your comment “smart companies have realized a long time ago that they can accomplish even more objectives and goals by supporting teamwork and implementing team building exercises to advance the positive effects of teamwork”, and build a successful company. Companies today need to have employees that are not afraid of change or fear of being creative. Teambuilding activities allows every person to grow and learn from each other. We all need employees and management that are not afraid to think out side that box!
That was well said, Kevin! Sometimes I have the feeling that thinking outside the box is oppressed by so many companies. Maybe out of fear, maybe out of ignorance?! Who knows.