2 Cool Modern Team Building Ideas

Team building has become a major subject for all major and successful company worldwide. It has now become a recognized fact that team building events and exercises are the key to building an efficient and effective group of individuals. There are now also many different types of team building which is available for us to use. The type of team building that you decide to use is really up to you. Before you decide you should look at the advantages and disadvantages of each different method.

In this article we will take a look at some modern team building ideas, which are both easy to set up and yet will still, provide a long lasting effect on each individual member of your team. Before you decide which of the following games you are going to use, you first need to consider the each individual member of the team to be involved. You need to think about whether the game or activity is appropriate for each member of the team. You should think about providing an activity which goes beyond the standard traditional workplace skills you require.

Team building should be a learning yet an enjoyable experience for all involved from the management to the latest employed member as the team. It needs to be enjoyable to keep all members interested and also as team building is used as a way to break down barriers within the workplace. Many large companies will have several sectors or departments, and it would be of a huge benefit for all employees to get to know each other.

Below we are going to take a look at some low budget alternative workplace social events.

Self-catering – food and drink event

A self-catering food and drink event is a fantastic event which can also be an in house event. Instead of spending large amounts of money on a day out, why not ask each member of staff to bring in food to the buffet. This type of event can be especially rewarding for the members of staff in your workplace of different cultures. The type of event costs nothing to run and is very simple to run or organize. If you wish to add a little twist to the event, then you could add a theme to the night such as a 60’s or other fancy dress theme.

If you have a kitchen in your workplace then all cooking could actually be in house and as a twist you could get the management to cook for the lower members of staff as a thank you for all of their hard work. This idea then becomes especially rewarding for the staffs who have worked on the shop floor.

If this is the type of event that you have decided to organize, then you will also have to look at some form of entertainment. There are many different options available for entertainment, many of which do not have to cost any money or expense to the company. Karaoke or other musical entertainment such as hiring a singer can be highly successful. Casino themes, quizzes and also betting activities are other popular methods of entertainment during an in house staff function.

The Outdoor tea break Exercise

The nature of everything in life such as feelings, relationships and communication will all be perceived in a different context depending on the situation. Perceptions against a certain subject will change depending on the individuals’ beliefs and also life experiences. The Tea break exercise is another cost free activity that will only take a short amount of time to complete. The aims are to bring up a subject and to try to get every member of the team to say there view on it. This is sort of a debate and will encourage every member of the group to interact with one another and will encourage the younger members of the group to voice their opinion. At first you may think that this is a pointless exercise, but through using a pointless subject to cause people to voice opinions, then when it comes to workplace problems you will find that all members of the group will once again interact.

These are just two of the many cheap yet effective team building exercises and events that you can utilise in the workplace, there are many more to choose from. When it comes to planning a team building exercise remember to get creative and make the event exciting. All efforts in team building will be rewarded in the long run as with each event, the team as a whole will greatly improve and produce the right results for you time and time again.

How To Plan A Team Building Event – SIMPLIFIED

If you have been asked to plan a team building event, the very thought of the process can be a daunting experience. However do not despair as here we will provide you with the ultimate dummy’s guide to planning a team building event. In this article we will take a look at the basic mechanisms behind team building and also we will highlight the most important parts of the planning process, as to which will make the event a huge success.

One of the main areas to look at when creating a team building event is the objectives which you are aiming to achieve. Team building is a process that is made to make a certain team work together more efficiently as a unit. A team is thrown together and is often made up of several very different individuals, this can present problems as then you will find that there may be certain members of the group that do not get along. The thoughts that should pass through your mind when planning a team building event should be just why are you planning the event and also what do we expect the team to have achieved at the end if the event.

By having clear objectives in your mind as to what you wish to achieve, it will help you to plan and also set the tone of the team building session that will take place. During the process you should also think about just what your expectations are of the team and also each individual within the team. Once you have set these standards and have found a method of explaining them, then the team can move forward in unison to complete the task.

There are several reasons as to why I have seen team building sessions held in the past. The main reasons are to create an opportunity for people in different departments within the workplace to meet and greet each other and also to address certain work issues that may have occurred. Other similar reasons could be that the team in question has just been made and all individuals would gain an opportunity to get to know each other in a fun and relaxed environment. It is also know common for corporate events and fun team building sessions to be used as a reward for hard work in the office or meeting the required targets.

After you have found the objectives you require for the exercise, then you should next take a look at the participants that are to become involved in the exercise. The profile of all individuals should be catered for. In a modern team you will find people of different gender, race, age and level of education, you may also find people with different physical abilities. Once you have taken a look and studies the profile of each individual then you will be able to think of a task which will cater for and be suitable for the whole team.

The next stage of planning a team building event is to think about the projected time frame. Think about the time of year you are looking to plan your event. It would not be wise to hold an outdoor event in the middle of the winter months for example. Is the event you are going to hold going to be half a day or a full day. If the event is only going to be a small event for example, to cater for u to 30 people then it is still recommended that you give up to 3 months’ notice to your staff, if the event is due to be large then you may have to give 6 months to a year’s notice, to ensure a successful turnout.

As a final thought about the whole team building process, many people are under the impression that each team building event will be of a huge cost to the company. This does not have to be the case, as you can easily find some budget outdoor pursuit business that will be able to offer discounts to large groups. Even if the company does have to cough up a little bit of money you can be rest assured that it will be all worth it in the long run, as a happy and well trained team will bring the right results and will strive to achieve any targets that are placed in front of them.

Developing Your Staff Through Team Building

In a team we should all aim to achieve the same targets or end results, at times these targets may seem a little hard to reach, and no matter how hard we try, whether your team is art of a sporting event or a workplace venture, we seem to try our best to reach the target with little success. If this is the case for you and your colleagues, there are solutions and other avenues you can go down, that will enable your team to work better together to achieve all targets that have been set. It is no mystery that a team will always stand a better chance of achieving these said targets than a single individual.

This is due to the amount of extra man power that you will have available in a team. You may also find that each separate individual will hold specific traits are talents, which are what make them different to the person stood next to them. If you can find a method to utilise, which will mean that at the end, all of these individual traits can work together in harmony, then you will find that you will have created a team which is more than capable of accomplishing even the hardest of targets.

This is where team building comes into place, and if team building holds a primary role within your team then the results and benefits will eventually come. There are several different ways as to which you can bring team building into play. Many people are under the impression that a team building event will be boring and that it will also be of no benefit to the individuals taking part. This is not the case, as no matter which event you organize or which tasks you set, if the actions that are involved in the event force the team to work together, then you have achieved your aim.

When we look to organizing a team building event, there are certain steps that you should follow to ensure the event is of benefit to the organization. Here is a brief guide to the steps you should take into consideration:

1. Create a Vision
2. Develop a Common Goal
3. Set Roles and Responsibility’s
4. Ensure Support from Management
5. Use Fun and Exciting Challenges
6. Implement an Action Plan
7. Learn what the Team needs to complete the task

As you can see from the above list, creating a team building task or event can be no easy or quick task. It takes time to create the perfect task which is best suited to improving your staff. The aim in creating a vision is to make sure that there is a specific result that the team need to achieve, during the exercise. The inclusion of different roles and responsibilities will enable staff to start believing in each other and in many circumstances, trust each other. Generally in the workplace, people are used to taking instruction or orders from one certain person or a leader. In team building the aim is to split the leadership into all members of the group, the result of this will be a new found sense of self belief within all staff within the team.

Using fun and exciting challenges will help to stimulate the mind, and will produce better results. If the challenges that are set are boring and poorly planned, then this will only allow staff to show no interest in the task or challenge that lies ahead. As a part of the task that lies ahead, the team should have the time to create an action plan; this is a very important part of the exercise, as it is in this planning stage where all team members can contribute to the cause, which will eventually bring the feeling of achievement.

Support from the management is again another very important aspect of team building. As a supervisor or manager within the workplace, your key part in the exercise is to bring what is learned from team building, back into the office. If all of the above steps are implemented and if there are regular team building activity’s on an annual basis, then you will begin to see the results that you desire, and ultimately achieve all targets through the use of a happy and well-motivated team of staff.

Productivity Enhanced by Social Media Tools

There are social networking sites available today that are solely for business purposes only. The benefit of this social networking sites is that businessmen, professionals and their subordinates don’t need to login to their emails and another login for their chat or whatever they need to log on to. It’s like an all-in-one communication site for everybody in the company or firm.

Take for example, Dr. Luks, who specializes on knee replacements and sports medicine in a hospital within Valhalla, NY. He uses the social networking site called Doximity to connect and communicate with his other colleagues who are on a different location, hospital or clinic.

The website allows him and his colleagues to connect with former colleagues, classmates and co-residents aside from being connected to their employees and subordinates. They can also have a chance of earning extra money on the site by involving in research, medicolegal consulting and second opinions on a patient’s situation or case. In this way, doctors, especially have access to hundreds of thousands of other doctors whom they can refer their patient to since it shows the education profiles, trainings, publications and certifications of other doctors in the U.S. Doctors will have the chance to get noticed and they can use the site for sending and receiving fax. They will be given a free digital fax line wherein they can send and receive faxes on the go through their computers or through their phone.

Doctors like Howard Luks rely on online sharing and posting in their daily lives. It enables this doctor to consult other doctor’s in real time, including the primary doctors and specialist of patients who were referred to them. This way, they can all monitor the patient’s condition before surgeries, during surgeries and after in a faster and more robust way. Secretaries can also leave a message or even schedule an appointment in behalf of the patient, and doctors will be aware of it real time. With this tool, these professionals were able to speed up the communication process without several degrees of separation.

There are a lot other social networking sites for business use in the world wide web that businessmen and professionals can use. There is Oracle, IBM, Salesforce.com and SAP, which is similar to the Doximity website. Even big corporations that usually use traditional hierachal methods of communication can take advantage of this new technology.Small to medium sized business in particular can benefit significantly from bespoke social media software. Social networks to encourage staff communications, events and news are all utilised effectively through custom built in house social media tools.

Social media in business helps camaraderie among employees since they’re open to communicate with each other even when they’re busy with their individual tasks. They can consult with each other on what to do when a difficult situation arises. It also makes the employees feel satisfied and happy with their jobs knowing that they have a lot of people to rely on in times of need. With these in mind, happy employees will naturally produce more than those who are not. This will result to faster service with high-quality output.