5 team building activities for your organisation
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Starting a new job can be tricky.
Navigating what you need to do in your new role, meeting work expectations, the range of personalities in the team and the best ways to communicate.
My first day at Volunteer West was cushioned slightly, having volunteered in the communications team for 3 months prior. Thanks to a grant from the Working for Victoria initiative, my role and the roles of 18 others, became a possibility. You can find more case studies from across Victoria here.
The fact there was a whole group of us starting on the same day was comforting, knowing I wasn't the only one feeling the first day jitters.
Throughout our team meetings, we have workshopped communication games. What better way to get to know your team than to find out more about each other?
Here are 5 team building activities that anyone can try with their team.
Only 1 is not virtually friendly, so save that one for when you are able to host face to face meetings...
1) The Popcorn Game
Unfortunately, there is no popcorn eating in this game, but it is a great one to use with a new group of people.
Time: 2 minutes per person
Group Size: 4+
Equipment needed: None
How to run the game:
To start, the speaker (a willing volunteer to go first) tells the group who they are, what they do and something about them the group might not know.
If a listener in the group connects with a part of the speaker’s story, they tell the group how they connect. The listener then becomes the speaker to tell their story next.
Just as corn pops and spurts off into random directions when it is cooked, the onus is on the listeners to make a connection, no matter where they are in the room. Dispersing the order of introductions not only helps to show how people connect to each other, but gets rid of the “oh no, I’m next in line” feeling.
2) The Name Test
This game takes me back to primary school when every new student adds an imaginary item into the imaginary box. The more people in the group, the harder it is to recall each item, or in this case - names. We ran this activity in our second team meeting at Volunteer West. I can testify this game helped to secure those elusive names I didn’t quite catch on the first day.
Time: 2 minutes per person
Group Size: 6+
Equipment needed: None
How to run the game:
Like the popcorn game, one person says their name and a roundup of who they are and how their week has been.
Whoever connects with their story says "Thank you Joe Bloggs. My name is <say your name>,” before sharing their weeks summary. Each new speaker has to thank all previous speakers before sharing their summary. The larger the group, the harder this activity becomes.
I was impressed that Volunteer West's new team of 25 not only were able to recite everyone's names, but recalled them in the order of speaker too.
3) The Empty Chair Game (not virtually friendly)
This game is all about communication, which we discovered after a few attempts whilst not speaking.
Time: Between 10-40 minutes (or as long as you want to go for)
Group Size: 6-20
Equipment needed: a chair for each person, a stopwatch to time each round
How to run the game:
Place one chair for each participant randomly in a room with space i.e., no tables in the way
Everyone sits in a chair (the sitters), bar one person (the walker)
The walker’s aim is to sit down in the empty chair
The aim of the sitters is to ensure the walker doesn’t reach the empty chair, thus needing to leave their chair and sit in the chair the walker is about to sit in
As soon as a sitter fills the empty chair, their old chair is now empty and becomes the new goal for the walker
The sitters have to work together, reshuffling where they sit, to block the walker from sitting down
A few rules to try to abide by:
Once a sitter leaves their seat, they cannot return to that seat. Don’t hover, be decisive.
The walker has to keep a steady walking pace (no running, skipping or changes in speed).
TIP: Sitters closest to the walker should not leave their seat...
Chair Game in motion with the Volunteer West team
4) The Commonality Game (can also work virtually with breakout rooms)
Get to know your colleagues by finding commonalities between each other.
Time: 15-30 minutes
Group Size: 8+
Equipment needed: none
How to run the game:
Starting in pairs, find 3 commonalities (the obscurer the better).
Once you’ve got your 3, join another pair to find 2 commonalities within your new group of 4. These are different to the commonalities you had as a pair.
Then join another group of 4 and within your final group of 8, find 1 commonality (again, different from previous commonalities).
Depending on how big the group is, join together to discover one commonality between everyone.
A few commonalities Volunteer West colleagues discovered: drinking Kombucha, having siblings, speaking another language, from overseas, being right-handed, a love of outdoor activities.
5) Partner Stories
A deeper level communication exercise to get to know 1 colleague better.
Time: 20-30 minutes
Group Size: 2+
Equipment needed: none
How to run the game:
Pick a topic in which you can talk to a partner about non-stop for 3 minutes. It could be what you did on the weekend, a hobby, a travel experience.
The talker speaks for 3 minutes about their chosen topic, whilst the listener just listens. The listener then tells the speaker their story back to them within 1 minute, recalling any bits of information that stood out to them.
Then switch. The speaker becomes the listener, and the listener becomes the speaker.
Have a debrief session as a whole group after the exercise.
The moderator can ask the group:
What was easy or difficult as the speaker?
What was easy or difficult as the listener?
Would you change your topic next time or not, and why?
What information stood out and what information was tricky to recall?
