What Are The Best Team Building Activities For Work?

When we talk about team building, people often ask for practical activities they can implement immediately to build their team. We’re going to share these right away, including a key strategy to bring positivity back into the team. Let’s dive in. 

Importance of Building a Team

Building a team is crucial because everything starts with it. Whether it’s starting a project, doing a homework assignment, or even in a crisis, having a team is fundamental. While it’s easy to be good individually, it’s challenging to be good together, and being good together is essential for achieving big things. Here are some tips and tricks to build a strong team.

How to Get People to Like Each Other

To get people to work well together, they need to like each other. Here are some remarkable points:

1. Similarity: People like those who are similar to them.
2. Familiarity: People like those they know.
3. Proximity: People like those they are near.
4. Trust: People like those they trust.

Knowing each other is the first step to discovering similarities, which fosters liking and trust. Removing barriers, working closely, and spending time together are crucial. Here are some exercises to build these connections.

How to Do the Positive Comments Exercise

This exercise involves the team standing in a circle, where each person gives a positive comment to the person next to them. For example, you might say to John, “I really notice that you are always supportive and care about the team. I respect you and want to say thank you.” This exercise helps people realize how highly they are thought of, fostering connection and trust within the team.

How to Connect with Your Team by Sharing Personal Histories

Inspired by Patrick Lencioni, this exercise involves sharing relevant personal histories in a group setting. Each person shares something about their background that helps others understand them better. For example, a project manager who is strict with finances might share a personal story about witnessing financial struggles in his family, helping the team understand his behavior better and reducing friction.

Benefits of Doing Hard Things with Your Team

Teams grow stronger by tackling hard tasks together. This can be work-related or through activities like rock climbing or obstacle courses. Doing difficult things together reduces internal friction and builds reliance on one another.

Benefits of Spending Time Together as a Team

Spending time together, even in informal settings like lunch, helps build relationships. For example, a project manager and superintendent who didn’t get along improved their relationship by having weekly lunches, eventually building trust and working better together.

5 Key Behaviors & 4 Stages of a Team

Successful teams exhibit five key behaviors:

1. Building Trust
2. Engaging in Healthy Conflict
3. Making Decisions Together
4. Holding Each Other Accountable
5. Performing Well Together

Teams go through four stages:

1. Forming: Coming together.
2. Storming: Experiencing friction.
3. Norming: Starting to synchronize.
4. Performing: Achieving high performance.

In the storming phase, team building activities are essential to pull the team together. As the team moves to the norming phase, they start trusting and following each other more, and in the performing stage, they focus on the goal rather than just the leader.

Helpful Resources for Building Trust in Teams

To further help you build a strong team, I will link you to resources and outlines of these processes below. I hope you find them as remarkable and useful as I have. Enjoy building your team!