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Team Building Below you will find a list of Team Building activities. Click on those activity titles that suit your needs.
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Adapt these activity ideas to your content and audience 1. Interpersonal Team Norms--Use this activity to identify team norms. 2. Musical Insights—Use this activity to help participants gain insights into team personality. 3. Assessment Builder--Use this activity to clarify team strengths and weaknesses 4. Fill in the Blanks--This activity helps focus and narrow a big topic 5. Any Questions?--This activity develops the skill of good question asking 6. Define Your Terms—Use this activity to explore team member connections 7. Situation Brainstorming--Use this activity to pool the team's best thinking 8.
Core
Team Dynamics--One
of four team self-awareness discussion activities. 9. Team Snapshot--One of four team self-awareness discussion activities. 10. Enduring Values--One of four team self-awareness discussion activities. 11. Foundational Team Strengths--One of four team self-awareness discussion activities. 12. Action Research--This activity will help a team focus its energy on a topic or challenge 13. Choosing the Best Options--Use this activity to help teams evaluate alternatives 14. Stop Doing List-This activity helps teams focus their energy 15. Building Trust—This activity starts the trust building process in a group or team 16.
Sports
Team Analogy—This activity
helps teams to describe team member interdependence 17. "What I Have Learned"-Use this activity to help isolate interpersonal strategies for strong teams 18. Peak Team Experiences--This activity helps teams articulate how they should work together effectively. 19. Team Expectations-Use this exercise to clarify team participation expectations 20. Appreciations Exercise--Use this exercise to strengthen a team by sharing individual strengths. 21. Strength Building--An exercise to build team/group cohesion. |
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Author: Tom Siebold is a writer and business consultant in Minneapolis. He is also co-owner of Collegegrazing.com--a site to help college bound teens to learn more about what they need and want in a college. Objective (s): To identify interpersonal skills that support team success How the author has used this activity: Successful teams find a way to interact in a productive and effective way. I like to use this activity to encourage participants to not only identify interpersonal skills that lead to team success, but also to make a commitment to core team interaction norms.
Activity Description: Divide into small groups.
Each group should have a Team Interaction Chart below.
The groups are directed to do three tasks: A. Make a list of key
interpersonal skills that teams must practice in order to be successful
(one example is listed on the Chart).
B. From the skills listed in column one on the Chart, the group
should write three core team interaction norms (one example is given on
the Chart). When the team
meets, these norms or ground rules should shape how team members interact
with one another. C. Have a
spokesperson share the small group's interpersonal norms with the full
group. From the norms presented, the full group can compile a master list of team interpersonal norms. This list should be printed and subsequently given to all team members. The team may even want to have a poster made of the norms to be placed in the team meeting room. Team Interaction Chart
Options: The facilitator may opt to have the full group brainstorm key interpersonal skills, then, once the list is set, divide into small groups to develop three core interpersonal norms. Added thoughts or considerations: It is always a challenge to translate training content into actual behavior change. This activity moves from brainstorming to concrete behavior ground rules. The facilitator may want to ask the group to make a commitment to the newly developed norms. II. Musical Insights Author: Tom Siebold is a writer and business consultant in Minneapolis. He is also co-owner of Collegegrazing.com--a site to help college bound teens to learn more about what they need and want in a college. Objective (s): To gain insight into the character of one's team How the author has used this activity: I use this activity as an introduction to a team building session. It is open-ended and frequently generates some humor and personal insights.
Activity Description: This activity is a good
introduction to team building. Before
the workshop prepare three to five different musical clips to represent
different team “personalities.” For
example, music that portrays the team that is quiet, stormy, indifferent,
excitable, icy, divided, aggressive, disjointed, etc.
List the musical titles and play the clips.
Ask individuals to explain to the group which musical piece best fits
the team they are on and why. This
should open up some enjoyable introductory discussion about teams and how
team members interact with one another. I like to transition out of this activity by asking the group how team personalities are shaped and what causes them to change character. Options: If I open a workshop with this activity, I like to close the session with music. For example, I might close by playing a piece of music that I think represents the ideal team theme song. If the training is more than one session, you might consider asking participants to bring in a musical clip that could be used as their team anthem. Added thoughts or considerations: I often use music in workshops. It has a power to open people to new ways of thinking about a topic or issue.
 Author: Tom Siebold is a writer and business consultant in Minneapolis. He is also co-owner of Collegegrazing.com--a site to help college bound teens to learn more about what they need and want in a college. Objective (s): To focus team strengths and weaknesses How the author has used this activity: Rather than present participants with a ready-made team strengths assessment, I like to have them build their own. This not only requires them to think concisely about team needs, but it also generates a sense of ownership in the assessment process. This activity format will work with many other topics besides team building. Activity Description: This activity asks small groups
to build a team interaction assessment (or another topic of your choice).
This will require the group to explore the topic in detail and
ultimately identify those elements that define the topic.
Have each group fill in the blank assessment form below (in
blue font): Your
purpose is to construct an assessment for team members to complete.
The purpose of this assessment is twofold: 1. To help clarify
characteristics that shape a team, 2. To help participants identify team
characteristics that are both strong and weak. Assessment
title ______________________________________ Assessment
Objective: _________________________________ Assessment
rationale or justification or purpose:
___________________________________________ Directions:
Complete the assessment below using the following continuum: 5= ________;
4= _______; 3=_________; 2= __________; 1= _________ .
Scoring
Directions: Scoring
Interpretation: Options: Instead of having small group build complete an assessment, you may have each individual do his or her own first; then put them into small groups to build a master assessment. Another option is to have the full group brainstorm the topic to come up with three to five assessment titles. Then divide them into small groups to do the different titles. When they are done you will have a broad assessment view of a given topic. I have also used this exercise as a pre-workshop assignment. When they come with their completed assessments, you can organize an exchange. Added thoughts or considerations: I feel that it is always a good idea to tap the wisdom of a group. This activity does that. You can leave it up to the group to decide if they want to use their assessments and, if they do, how they want to use the results. The logical transition from this activity to the next step is to challenge the group to come up with strategies to strengthen the characteristics if they are scored low. In short, challenge them to identify what makes a team strong and how a team can become stronger.
Author: Tom Siebold is a writer and business consultant in Minneapolis. He is also co-owner of Collegegrazing.com--a site to help college bound teens to learn more about what they need and want in a college. Objective (s): To focus thinking and initiate discussion How the author has used this activity: In order to encourage participants to think about teams (or any professional development topic), I often ask them to complete fill-in-the-blank cards (see sample below). Activity
Description: First participants complete the fill-in-the-blank
cards individually.
Then they meet in small groups of five to seven and pass the
completed cards around the group. Once
all the cards have been read, groups are directed to reach consensus and
complete a group card that lists their best responses.
These cards are shared with the full group.
The facilitator may want to pull together a master card from
the group cards. This is a good
way to focus the group's thinking about a topic.
It also serves as a good vehicle for discussion. Thinking
About Teams--Write
your number one response for each blank
Options: The facilitator can have the group fill out the cards individually and then complete a master card with the full group (this option omits the small group work) Added thoughts or considerations: Since team building is a big topic, it is often helpful to ask the participants to focus their thinking and pinpoint key ideas to explore. This activity format helps do this.
Author: Tom Siebold is a writer and business consultant in Minneapolis. He is also co-owner of Collegegrazing.com--a site to help college bound teens to learn more about what they need and want in a college. Objective (s): To use questions effectively. How the author has used this activity: I will use this exercise in two team situations: 1. The team is working of a sticky topic or issue and needs to get unstuck or redirected, or 2. The team is generally having trouble discussing issues or focusing their thinking. Activity
Description: A big part of team success is the
ability of its members to ask good questions.
Good questions shape a topic and focus thinking.
In
this activity participants will explore five basic types of questions. List the five types of questions
and provide a brief definition for each.
Then have the team identify a current topic, issue, or concern.
After reflecting on the selected issue, the team should generate
one to three questions for each question type.
See the chart below… Issue/Topic/Problem:
_________________________________________________
Options: You may have team members complete the chart individually and then pool the questions as a group. Added thoughts or considerations: We make a mistake when we assume that groups or teams know how to ask good questions. Good question asking is a skill to be learned and practiced. Team meeting facilitators must be particularly good at asking questions.
Author: Tom Siebold is a writer and business consultant in Minneapolis. He is also co-owner of Collegegrazing.com--a site to help college bound teens to learn more about what they need and want in a college. Objective (s): To explore the various dimensions of teamwork How the author has used this activity: I have used this exercise to encourage teams to work toward stronger teamwork. Activity Description: Write the following terms on the white board: collaboration, collegiality, and cooperation. Have the group discuss how each of the terms are different and how each of the terms works within successful teams. The goal is to move team members to understand that they must connect with one another on various levels. Options: You may break the group into three small groups and have each group define one of the three terms. Then in full group pool their responses. Added thoughts or considerations: This is a workable exercise to open a discussion about the power of teams.
Author: Tom Siebold is a writer and business consultant in Minneapolis. He is also co-owner of Collegegrazing.com--a site to help college bound teens to learn more about what they need and want in a college. Objective (s): To stimulate new thinking, best practices, and mutual team support. How the author has used this activity: I often use this activity format to help teams work together to find practical solutions and, at the same time, uncover patterns of problem solving. Activity
Description: In
this activity team members bring to the team a “real work situation”
that they have recently encountered. One
at a time, members relate their situation as objectively as they can,
being careful not to reveal how they responded.
After each example the full team brainstorms for strategies asking
themselves “What would be the best way to handle this situation?” This
activity helps formulate best practices, it helps the team define patterns
of leadership, and it draws to the surface core team values. Options: The team may divide into pairs to do this situation exchange. Added thoughts or considerations: You may want to stretch this activity out over several meetings by doing only one or two situations a time.
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