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When the New York Yankees weren't winning, George Steinbrenner would instruct
his general manager to go out and spend as much money as possible to bring in
the best free agents or trade for the best players. In theory, it's a
great strategy but it doesn't always work out. This is because the new
teammates don't always gel with the players already there. You can't
buy a championship and when it comes to organizations wanting to achieve a higher
productivity or improve employee relations, they can't just trade one
of their employees to their rivals. And even if they could,
it might not achieve the best results. So, what do organizations do? They turn
to teambuilding exercises and hope for the best.
We're going to explain a few teambuilding exercises that you might find
useful and help you achieve team unity at your company or organization. One
form of teambuilding exercise is the communication exercise. There's no
trickery to this one as it is exactly what it sounds like. The purpose of this
type of exercise is to improve the communication between employees and is done
through problem solving activities. One such example is the blindfold trust
game, where one team member is blindfolded and given instructions by his teammate
to walk through a maze of obstacles. The purpose of this exercise is to completely
trust your teammate to effectively communicate to you how to get through the
maze without bumping into anything. If you can trust your fellow teammate in
such an activity, then surely you can trust them to properly communicate with
you when it comes to working together.
The decision making and problem solving exercises place their
attention on helping groups to solve difficult problems and make complex decisions.
Unlike workshops where instructors lead the way, this type of
exercise relies on coworkers to band together in order to come up with creative
solutions to difficult decisions. This type of exercise is quite useful in getting
a team to work together instead of independently. And being able to share ideas
with each other might come up more naturally in a group environment rather than
if they were working alone.
The adaptability and planning exercises focus on aspects of being
able to adapt to change when necessary. Just like with a triathlon race you
need to prepare for the different weather conditions that might arise and adapt
your strategy, the workplace can also be hit with different situations that
you need to be prepared for. You might be given an assignment at work that can
seem like it's easy enough but anything can happen that can change the
expected outcome, which then forces you to change your game plan. You need to
be able to adapt quickly to change and be able to come up with different solutions
if needed. That's why it's always good to have back-up plans. The
teambuilding exercises that are done to teach planning show its importance.
You need to have mapped out all the possible scenarios with any given situation
or assignment and if you're prepared for anything, it makes for a more
relaxed work environment. If you're a farmer and ready to harvest the fields, you need to make sure you're ready for such an occasion and prepared for any such occurrence.
Another teambuilding exercise is the trust exercise. Trust is one of the most
important aspects of building a successful company and maintaining key relationships.
If there is no trust between workers, there is higher possibility of failure
amongst your company. Trust teambuilding exercises are useful because they create
trust between team members. The most commonly used trust teambuilding exercise
is the one where you turn your back on your team member and fall backwards in
the hopes that they will catch you before you hit the ground. It might seem
silly but it works. If you can trust your partner to catch you before you hit
the ground and they do, then you can trust them with having your back at work
during stressful situations. These are only a few types of teambuilding exercises
that you can use at your next company retreat.
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