One of the things that many people forget when they think of team building seminars is that part of the point of being there is to have fun. Yes, the exercises do promote new ideas and concepts, but there is a lot of fun team building games and activities to enjoy as well. Here are a few ways you can disguise learning as play for your students.
What fun team building exercises should you consider? To begin, have your students do a few ice breaker activities. These involve exercises that allow them to get to know one another. These can be simple introductions as well as name memory games and other fun games. These unifying activities help create a bond between your students that they will only strengthen as the activities continue.
Once your group has warmed up a little, it's time for some physical fun team building. These include hands on games such as group tag, parachute games, relay races, catching games, the human knot, and other activities that encourage teamwork, fast thinking, communication, and problem solving skills. Furthermore, it also does wonders for getting your group delightfully lively and bouncy.
Once you've enjoyed your physical fun team building, it's time for some verbal and mental team building exercises. These include games such as call and response games, memory games, what-if scenarios, the telephone game, word associations, and more. These games are not only a fun way to spend an afternoon—they also do wonders for promoting discussion skills, critical thinking, empathy, public speaking, and more.
Keep in mind that should any mistakes occur during these games, you should make every effort possible not to single out or chastise any single individual and promptly put a stop to any signs of the group ganging up on any single person. Rather than look at this in a negative way, it's a simple matter to simply discuss how the goal could have been reached.
These are only a few fun team building exercises to consider. You'll rapidly find that your students will begin to use the concepts they learned during these games in their everyday activities during school. Furthermore, the more you nurture these concepts, the more likely your students will be able to use them in the workplace as well, making them a valuable contributor to the group. Learn more today about how these team activities can benefit you and your students!
Do you wish your team of workers were more productive? Are the same mistakes wrecking your plans over and over again? If this sounds familiar, perhaps a bit of corporate team building is needed to help your employees establish the bond they need to work well together. These retreats are perfect for helping the group to learn how each individual contributes to your cause as a collective whole.
How does corporate team building work? In many cases, it consists of your group attending one or several sessions in which they perform several activities that help establish trust and encourage positive workforce traits such as communication, cooperation, collective problem solving, planning, calculation, tactics, and more. These are not only traits that will help them perform at their best while at the workplace; these will also help them form the bond they need to work well together.
Corporate team building exercises usually fall under two categories: physical and mental. Physical exercises typically involve a series of fun games that help in loosening up the group and keeping them on their feet and energetic. These include games such as group tag, the human knot, parachute games, catching games, relay races, and more. Along with helping them learn to plan out objectives, this form of corporate team building is also useful for teaching the group to think as a whole during stressful or busy situations.
Mental corporate team building involves a variety of games that help incorporate trust, sharing, communication, empathy, and other concepts. These include games such as the telephone game, memory games, name games, and others. You may also include activities in which the team members share a bit about themselves, such as a worst fear or a fond memory. The more the group knows about one another, the more they will be able to act as a team.
Of course, mistakes do happen. Not everyone will achieve the goal of these games on their first try. When these mistakes occur, avoid singling out the person who made the mistake. Instead, try to make them look at the situation as a group and figure out how they can improve it. Failure to do so can result in a single person being ridiculed or deeply embarrassed, which isn't the point of team building in the slightest.
Most importantly, be sure to arrange these activities in a way that allows your group to perform at their best. After all, for all they may seem to be having fun, it takes time to form the bonds and collective thinking skills that are needed for some of the more challenging corporate team building activities. By ensuring that they are working at the best of their ability, you can prevent an assortment of mistakes from happening. Learn more about corporate team building today!