Q. Hi! Our company is planning for its annual dinner soon, and I want to make it a bit fun and useful for our team. Can you recommend some team-building activities that I can incorporate into this event? Thanks! - Racha Z.
A. Hi Racha, that’s a wonderful idea, and I am sure your team will love it. Not only will this be an opportunity for them to discover other facets of their colleagues’ personalities that they otherwise were not aware of, but also cement communication and facilitate better future interaction.
Organization heads and department managers have a tough job – they have to make sure their team understands that while they belong to a different department, they should work with other departments in order to accomplish the organization’s overall objectives. Along with this, managers in the Middle East also have an additional tough challenge: handling multicultural teams. In fact, according to the Bayt.com ‘Management Challenges in the MENA’ poll, January 2012, almost
30% of managers claim that the most difficult aspect of their job is managing multicultural teams. Other areas that managers find challenging are motivating and inspiring teams (18.6%), and encouraging open communications (16.2%).
Having said that, there are a lot of options you could choose from to make help your team succeed by integrating team-building activities. With a little bit of creativity, you can in fact evolve most activities into team-building activities. Here are three of my favorite suggestions:
1. Build a Plane – The room can be divided into four groups. Each group is given large sheets of paper, some string, glue, and other items. Their task is to build a paper plane that can travel the farthest. The next hour or so will be guaranteed entertainment, as there will be a lot of trials, errors, agreements, disagreements, and possible successes. It is a great team-building activity because it has the team work together to build something they need to think of to accomplish a goal .
2. The Hall of Fame – While this may not be a team-building activity, it does contribute to better motivation and satisfaction on the job. Does your organization have a value-based reward system where employees are commended on how well they demonstrate the company’s values? If not, then it would be a good idea to introduce one. Approach department managers to nominate their best performers, and these could be announced during your annual meet-up. When it comes to rewarding your team, there are a number of
innovative non-monetary rewards you can give away.
3. Minute To Win It – As the name suggests, this exercise is based on the popular TV show with the same name. All participants are divided into two teams (you can make this easier by randomly assigning everyone to groups). One good idea is to put numbers at the bottom of their plates or their seating location. Team members then choose one leader from their team who subsequently chooses who will compete for each of the coming games. These one-minute ‘games’ can easily be
downloaded for free. They are really entertaining to watch and play, with everyone strategizing, cheering, and ultimately having fun. That’s not to mention interacting and experiencing each other’s company in a non-work environment.
Do you have a favorite team-building exercise? Share it with us in the comment section below!
Photo credit: Bernard Menettrier De Jollin
