Team Building Activities Explained Simply

Clotheslines & Kite Strings

Are you a facilitator / manager who wants to build a strong multicultural team? Are you dealing with strong emotions within your team when decisions are being made, but don’t know how to help them recognize and understand each other’s differences? Clotheslines & Kite Strings helps your group see how complex decision making is, even if it is made quickly AND gives a step by step workshop process you can run with them.

Build a Bridge

Build a Bridge is a game you can use with teams of 4-6 people. You set them the task of building sturdy bridges from the materials you provide and then watch how they work together. You can use this in either a team building setting or as part of a recruitment and assessment process to see what kind of team behaviors each participant has.

Questioning the barriers to success - fact or belief?

Barriers and Beliefs

This team activity allows your group to surface project and operational barriers to success and deal with them as either Facts or Beliefs. Barriers and Beliefs should be dealt with in different ways. Use this activity to categorise them as one or the other then it’s much easier for your group to create an implementation or remediation plan.

A diagram illustrating group decision making.

Group Decision Making Analysis

Group Decision Making Analysis is a team building exercise providing an opportunity for team members to discuss and agree how they can improve decision making. Unlike a lot of the tools and techniques on WorkshopBank it focuses on improving only 1 key process – how to make decisions in a better way. Most groups and teams can improve that side of the way they work don’t you think? This process helps them get there quickly.

Fishbowl Discussion

Do you want all your key stakeholders pushing with, or against, you and your objectives? A Fishbowl Discussion is a technique used to help a large group of people reach a common understanding on a set of issues or proposal and increase their feeling of participation. In a relatively short amount of time.

A diagram illustrating the roles and responsibilities of a project management plan.

Team Roles and Responsibilities Template

Team Roles & Responsibilities is an activity using a simple template to document roles and responsibilities of those involved in a project. Use this process to assign roles and responsibilities to members of your change / project team and to ensure that the team as a whole can proceed on a firm footing.

What are we excelling at during our team review workshop?

Team Review Workshop & Dotmocracy

Team Review Workshop is an activity ready-made for any team meeting. It helps you build a shared understanding within a team about what is working well, areas in need of improvement and areas of opportunity. There is very little facilitation involved as it is easy for people to grasp what they have to do and why they are doing it. A great stimulator of conversation within the group.

Two men in suits and hats performing a freudian walk while shouting into a megaphone.

The Freudian Walk

The Freudian Walk is an activity that helps teach the art of active listening. It can be used during a conflict resolution process or simply as an icebreaker.

Stakeholder Mapping

Stakeholder Mapping is a graphical illustration of how your stakeholders feel towards your change project or program. It helps you to identify who you need to influence and what action you need to take. It’s one of the most powerful change management processes on WorkshopBank and a must-do activity for any project manager.

A relationship triangle pyramid showcasing the impact of results, action, and opportunities.

The Relationship Triangle

The Relationship Triangle is a high-impact facilitated discussion that shows how critically important personal relationships are within the team before they can consistently achieve the results they desire. If you’re looking for team building activities this is a great one as most people believe their relationship within a team is stronger than it often is. Or they don’t view the quality of their relationships as important.

A visual representation illustrating the four stages of a project using the Thomas Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument.

Thomas Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument Workshop

The Thomas Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument is one of the most effective conflict management strategies I’ve seen. It is also known as the Conflict Resolution Inventory. It is based on a model of conflict modes, which enables an analysis of individual styles in particular situations. Individuals can identify their primary style, and assess the productiveness of that style in the various situations that they encounter. They then have the choice to continue with that style, or to adopt others if they are more appropriate.

A diagram depicting the evolution of a high performing team and a underperforming team.

The Team Evolution Curve

Team Evolution Curve is a facilitated discussion you can use with your team about where they are now and what they need to do to evolve. If your goal is to become a high performing team then this tool will help you get there by helping participants see what it is they need to improve.

A flowchart illustrating the stages of a project using the 5 whys technique.

5 Whys Root Cause Analysis

5 Whys is a root cause analysis tool for helping teams quickly get to causes of an issue before developing solutions. It’s a great team-builder because the group buys-in to the *real* problems as they surface during the process.

An example of a contract between two people.

Expectations Exchange

Expectations Exchange is a team building activity that provides clarity over respective roles in a team. It can also easily be adapted to use between departments and with clients at the start of a project.

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