Work Team-Building Ideas
A cohesive, functioning team is imperative to the health and success of a business. Good teamwork leads to higher production rates, increased office morale and faster, better results. When there is a clash of personalities, insecurities or unhealthy competition between team members, goals fail to be met punctually and increasing ire leads to a toxic work atmosphere that isn't conducive to the business moving forward. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to increase office morale and ensure better teamwork.
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Retreats
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Plan a retreat. Sometimes it helps to take your employees out of the office environment and into a more relaxed atmosphere where they can open up more to one another. A retreat is a good way to accomplish this. Your team can travel with you to a destination of your choice, where accommodations and food are paid for by the company. By taking your team to a location away from the stresses of commutes, family and 9-to-5 office hours, its members will have fewer distractions and more of an incentive to get to know one another. Examples of retreat locations include beach resorts, cabin rentals at nearby state parks and golf and spa weekend getaways.
Games
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Get your team members involved by having them participate in games. If a retreat is too expensive for the company's budget, games are a cheaper alternative and they can be played in the workplace. Games encourage dialogue between team members and persuade them to open up and trust one another more. A good game to start with is "icebreakers," where team members take turns going around in a circle naming interesting facts about themselves, and each member must remember and recite the team's facts and which members they correspond to.
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Volunteering
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Volunteering for a local cause is a good way to get your employees tangibly working as a team outside the office. Find a local animal shelter, homeless shelter or food bank, and donate either a weekend or an afternoon of office time to helping out. Not only will your team members probably feel like they accomplished something for a good cause, but they will also let their guards down and get to know and trust one another away from the competitive atmosphere of the office.
Work Party
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Celebrate meeting a specific company goal or objective by throwing a party for your team. Work parties demonstrate to your employees that their input and time are valuable to the business and that the accomplishment of the goal was a team effort that's being rewarded. If your business has no team objectives to accomplish, throw a party in honor of a holiday, such as Christmas or Thanksgiving. Some employees might try to take food back to their desks and be alone, but dissuade them from doing so by encouraging socializing and mingling.
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References
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