Managers expect high-quality work from their staff. Some employees embrace their duties and show pride in their work product. Others lack quality as a priority. Organizing team-building activities that focus on the importance of quality will reinforce this value for all employees in the workplace.

Telephone Charades

Telephone charades teaches the value of clear communication and the impact this has on quality in the workplace while building relationships between team members. Pull six people from the group to participate. The rest of the group should watch the activity. Ask the participants to line up, facing the spectators, and then turn left. Each participant now looks at the back of the person in front of them. Show the person at the back of the line a charades clue. "Skydiving" or "first date" are examples. The participant taps the shoulder of the person in front of him, who turns around while the first person acts out the clue. After three minutes, the person watching the charade needs to tap the next person’s shoulder and act out his idea of what the charade is. This process continues until the end. The last person guesses what the original clue is.

After the activity, discuss the importance of understanding quality expectations in the workplace. Talk about how asking questions facilitates high quality output. If the participants in the activity were allowed to ask questions, they would have better understood the clue.

Great Egg Drop

Great egg drop illustrates the need to think each activity through and anticipate potential quality issues before proceeding. Separate everyone into groups of four people. Give each group a package of straws, masking tape, a paper bag, a cardboard box, scissors and one egg. Each group needs to use the materials supplied to design a package that will allow the egg to drop a distance of eight feet without breaking. Give the groups 30 minutes to work on their design. After all of the groups finish, hold an egg drop off with each group dropping their egg from a distance eight feet in the air. Discuss which designs protected the eggs and which did not. Show the importance of using a high quality design to protect the egg and the importance of doing high-quality work on the job.

Paper Tower

Paper tower demonstrates the need for quality in the production process. Separate the employees into teams of four people and give each group one sheet of paper and ten paperclips. Each group needs to design a freestanding tower using only the materials given. The tallest tower wins. Give the groups 15 minutes to work on their towers. After the time is up, take a picture of the towers and measure them. The tower must be able to stand on its own in order to qualify. Discuss why one tower might stand on its own and another fall down. Point out the importance of quality in producing the towers.