Want a better return on your investment for your next meeting? Add team building to the agenda. We aren’t talking cliche “catch me while I fall backward” team-building exercises. Instead, plan genuine, effective activities that will strengthen your staff’s bond, enhance creativity, and build confidence in one another which ultimately increases creativity and productivity.
Not sure where to start? Here are five tried and true team-building exercises that are sure to enhance your next corporate meeting.
5 Creative Team Building Exercises To Consider For Your Next Meeting
1. NAPKIN BACK ENTREPRENEURS
In this game, your staff has the opportunity to think like an entrepreneur. This activity is an excellent way for your team to learn each other’s strengths and how to utilize those strengths to win!
Before the game, make a list of several problems that are open-ended. They can be business-related, real-life scenarios, something pulled from a news headline, or something entirely imaginary.
Set the stage by sharing stories of legendary entrepreneurship partnerships that have started by a chance meeting, a deep conversation, an open mind, and notes made from the back of a napkin. Here is an article with a few examples.
Split your group into teams of 3-5 people, ideally these would be members of your staff who do not work together on a regular basis. Give each team one napkin, a pen, and your list of problems to solve. Allow each team to choose a problem and figure out the solution together, only using the back of the napkin.
2. SHARK TANK
This game can be played as a stand-alone or as an extension to the Napkin Back Entrepreneur game.
To play as a stand-alone:
Split your group into teams and have them brainstorm a product only this time there are no parameters or problems to solve specified. Give them a specified time to create a company, make a business plan, design a logo, and write a pitch to share with a panel of judges. Your judges can be senior staff, one chosen department, or picked by a random drawing.
To play as an extension to Napkin Back Entrepreneur:
Give each team an opportunity to pitch their idea born from the back of their napkin before the panel of judges.
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3. OFFICE TRIVIA
Who knows what is written on the poster in the lunchroom? How about the year the company was formed? How many boxes of tissue does the company purchase in a year?
These are just a sampling of the questions you could ask in an office trivia game. Also, consider things that will build camaraderie like “How many staff members are grandparents?”, “How many went to the local college?”, etc.
This game can be done individually or as teams and can also be done quietly or noisy, gameshow style depending on the location of your meeting and the size of your group.
4. HIDDEN OBJECT DRAWING
This activity is a great way to see how your staff works together and to encourage one another’s strengths. Before you get started, have two lists of simple, well-known items like a refrigerator or football, etc. Have your guests split into groups of two and give each person in the group a different list along with a stack of paper and a pencil.
To start, one team member will be the artist and the other will be the descriptor. The descriptor is to describe the top item on his list and the artist will then draw the item, entirely from the description given from his teammate. The artist has to guess what he is drawing. The first artist to guess what he is drawing wins and the teams then switch artists and descriptors.
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5. BUCKET LIST MATCH UP
Prepare by hanging a large corkboard with ample push pins on the wall. Give each guest five pieces of paper and ask them to write one bucket list item on each one. Once they are done, have them hang their ideas on the corkboard BUT they need to look to see if there are any other ideas that resemble theirs. Similar ideas get placed together on the corkboard.
Once everyone has pinned their items, read them aloud and look for commonalities. For instance, if there are three members who want to travel to Spain, have them introduce themselves. To add layers to the relevance and further encourage camaraderie, ask if anyone in the room has traveled to Spain previously and introduce them as well.
Building fellowship between your staff members has tremendous benefits toward a healthy overall office environment but these exercises also encourage staff members to determine and lean into each other’s strengths more fully.
If you are considering an offsite meeting, our staff at Stonewall Resort would love to help you plan and execute a meeting that will give you the best return possible on your meeting investment. Learn more >>
