I am encouraged to put my own ideas into the workshop which helps me get involved with the other members in the group. It is so important to me because every time I go there is always something different happening. It offers me activities that I wouldn't normally get the chance to do
I think the workshop we have done will have a lot of benefits to communication in the workplace and also we will look at doing some more workshops in the future to deal with conflict resolution, communication, collaboration and trust as this one was received so well.
The workshop we did was beneficial and really improved communication between team members, people who rarely spoke to one another got a chance to develop communication channels in ways which they would not in general working life.
The arts based activities took the emphasis off work and put it firmly on the team. People were able to open up more and many of the staff commented how it felt like the were able to take a step back from work issues and this meant they could engage with people differently which they could then take back with them when they were dealing with people in a work situation.
Read More...Wondering what to do with your work team this Christmas?
It’s that time of year where managers, business owners and team leaders are given the responsibility to organise that ‘ideal’ staff party. Pleasing everyone in the team whilst improving team development can be a very challenging task. All managers have to consider the diversity of their team and be considerate of individual cultures, interests and backgrounds.
Teams mostly end up putting on the good ol’ office party, a meal out followed by drinks in a few bars. Then there is the adventurous activities such as extremes sport, go karting, laser quest and so on.
All of the above are all very fun, however a manager once came to me asking what they could do to suit the needs of all their team. They shared that they have a very diverse team coming from lots of different cultures. They often experienced the same staff members attending the staff socials; it was a regular pattern of who would and who wouldn’t turn up.
The company want their team to socialise as one, to encourage them to get to know each other on a social level which in turn can benefit their work relationship. However, ultimately they struggled to find that ‘ideal’ activity that would suit everyone’s interests.
At Inspirative we work with diverse teams regularly and have a wealth of ideas/activities that help keep everyone engaged, build relationships and have some fun.
Here are a few of our ideas that you could try out for yourself at your next team social.
- Artists - bring out the creativity in them all – have your team work together to produce their own collaborative piece of art work
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Conversational Drawings – Have everyone work in pairs and have a conversation on paper. They have to take turns drawing and respond to what each other has drawn. They are not allowed to verbally communicate with one another. This game is really good for building relationships and learning about existing relationships within the team. The end art pieces are very interesting.
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Mirror Dancing circle. Everyone sits in a circle. If there are an even number of people in the circle, have each person observe the person who is standing/sitting three (or any odd number) places to their left. If there is an odd number of people have each person observing someone four places (or any even number) to their left. Everyone will be observing someone else, which you might think that nothing would happen, however a movement will start somewhere and progress. This activity can become very exaggerated which ends up being quite funny. No one is put on the spot which helps those who are shy join in. I do this game with friends on a Friday night – it’s always a barrel of laughs.
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Paranoia – The group in a circle are all given a number (drawn from a hat, if there are 10 members there should only be numbers 1-10 and so on). One group member stands in the middle and shouts out 2 numbers within the range present (they do not call out their own number). The person in the middle then begins looking to try and find out who has those numbers. The two people whose numbers have been called now furtively look around trying to identify each other, without letting the person in the middle know. The aim of the game is for the 2 people whose numbers have been called to swap places. The person in the middle will try to steal the open seats – you’ve got to be quick! The game is called ‘paranoia’ because the person in the middle quickly becomes paranoid about what is going to happen behind their back.
- “What is the rule” game. Now this is a game that really gets you thinking. The person ‘on’ has to make up their own rule for a pattern of words. The group then go around and suggest what they are bringing to the group – the person ‘on’ has to determine whether or not the others are right in what they are bringing (whether they have got the rule right). For example, if I am ‘on’ I might make my rule (I don’t tell anyone) to be “the next word in the sequence will start with the last letter of the previous word”. I would start the game by saying ‘I came to the ‘(your company) business party’ and brought with me FOOD, the next word will have to start with a D and so on. This game becomes funny when people get the word right but don’t have any ideas as to what the rule is. Remember the rule can be anything; I have experienced the rule being a hand gesture every time they spoke, which has caught a lot of people out!
So, there’s a handful of some fun games we do in our team development training, why not try them and let us know how you get on?
Here’s what a manager said about their team development training they received from us:
“I think the workshop we have done will have a lot of benefits to communication in the workplace and also we will look at doing some more workshops in the future to deal with conflict resolution, communication, collaboration and trust as this one was received so well.”
Tracey Cullen
Inspirative Arts
