Six Innovative Team-Building Activities to Grow Collaboration & Cooperation

It is a truth universally acknowledged that sharing an office and spending time with a close-knit bunch of colleagues can make the world of difference. As a business owner and manager, knowing that your team gets along like a house on fire can give you some much-needed peace of mind. In fact, cooperative and collaborative workers can take your organization to the next level.

Hence, one of the best investments you can make as a business is to always ensure you have effective team-building activities in place. These can significantly develop sentiments of trust among staff, help them improve their communication skills, and aid both personal relationships and feelings of happiness.

Here, with some insights from Dominic Fitch, Head of Creative Change at Impact International, we explore some innovative bonding activities you may want to implement into your workplace to drive team development and create a positive company culture.

1. Reinvented speed dating

Admittedly, speed dating among colleagues may not sound like the most appropriate team-building recreation. But if you free the activity from the sentimental side of ‘standard’ speed dating, you will soon realize that it is a fun, productive way to kick-start discussions about personal relationships.

Allowing your team members to know each other more personally will help your business thrive, as positive relationships in the workplace can favor interaction, communication, collaboration, and empathy. A reinvented speed dating process can also help your employees discover important personality traits about their fellow colleagues. This means that they will get the invaluable opportunity to better understand and appreciate their co-workers.

2. Cooking classes

Let’s not beat around the bush: most people love having a chat over some good food. This is why occasional team lunches are an easy, cost-effective way to strengthen relationships and boost morale. To take people’s passion for good cuisine one step further, arranging a cooking class may work as a clever, entertaining way to enhance your team’s cohesion.

As well as putting a smile on their face, cooking can solidify your team’s spirit of collaboration. Following a recipe requires a good dose of precision and organization, which will allow every team member to deal with a specific task and work towards a common goal: the creation of a tasty dish!

3. Strength envelopes

Your team will have an array of different abilities, assets, and working preferences. To improve levels of engagement and mutual support, you may want to encourage your employees to write ‘strength envelopes’ from time to time. This team-building activity gives people the chance to jot down what they think and admire about their co-workers, celebrating their strong points and qualities.

Receiving commendations from their fellow colleagues can work wonders on your team members’ mood and overall wellbeing. It can brighten their day and motivate them to continue performing the way they are.

In this respect, it has been found that employees who are shown signs of gratitude and feel appreciated can increase their productivity levels by 50%. Not only that, but in an environment that promotes mutual support, people are also more likely to go the extra mile to aid their team and business on the whole.

4. Murder mystery

If you are looking for a creative, original expedient to foster strong relationships and problem-solving attitudes within your team, organizing a murder mystery in the workplace might just be the solution. Elementary, Watson!

Solving an imaginary crime that has happened in the office cafeteria will spur your people to get their heads together and collaborate with one shared goal in mind. Of course, a murder mystery can be quite tricky to arrange, but you needn’t sort everything yourself. There are plenty of events companies that can lend you a helping hand.

Ultimately, as well as being a team-building activity that favors collaboration, it is also a unique talking point that your people will drop into conversations for a long time after it has taken place.

5. Dragons’ Den

Dragons’ Den is a popular British TV show that involves entrepreneurs pitching innovative projects and ideas to wealthy, experienced businesspeople. By emulating the programme’s format, you can actively encourage your team to collaborate and come up with fresh, unconventional ideas in an attempt to convince a fictitious panel of investors.

What’s more, this team-bonding activity has the potential to refine the communication skills of your team as a unite as they will need to elaborate persuasive arguments to successfully sell their ideas. All in all, a re-enacted Dragons’ Den can work as a fun, useful activity that engages your people and puts their teamwork abilities to the test.

6. Volunteering

Organizing volunteering events, whether inside the workplace or out into the community, can have a significantly positive impact on your people. In fact, making a tangible effort to help others and give something back to your local area is an excellent way to enhance your business culture. Not only that, but by making room for volunteering opportunities and involvement, you are also likely to enhance levels of company pride.

Doing something for others can make people feel happy with themselves. By the end of the volunteering experience, your employees will be proud of their colleagues and the organization they work with. From 30-minute dance sessions inside the office to litter-picking in your local neighborhood, there are many opportunities for team-bonding activities. To make sure your events are having a wider impact, you could arrange to fundraise for a charity or help the wider community.

Team-building activities are a crucial tool to nurture a happy, productive work environment. As a business owner or manager, there is nothing better than seeing a group of people that works in unison strive to reach a common objective.

Ultimately, from reinvented speed dating and murder mysteries to volunteering events and strength envelopes, there are several innovative ways in which you can grow collaboration and cooperation within your team.