Team Building Activities for Small Groups

Have you ever thought what makes a good team? Well, there are a number of things which contribute to making a team productive - open communication, trust amongst the group members, respect for one another and team bonding!

There are numerous ways of inculcating these in a group. Participating in fun games and activities, together as a team, is one of the most successful means to ignite team spirit. Scroll down to know of some of the most interesting team building activities...

This is one of the best team building activities at work, as it helps in inculcating trust amongst the employees. You would need maximum ten participants to play this game. So, if you have a larger group, break it up into two or three and then carry on with the game.

Ask the participants to form a circle. They should stand in such a way that there is no space in between them. Then ask one of the employees to stand in the middle. This employee now has to fall on the others in the circle.

He has to completely let go and trust the others in the circle to catch him from falling, but only with their bodies, without using hands. Then again he has to come up and fall in some other direction.

Repeat the same exercise with all your employees. As letting go requires the employees to trust others to keep them safe, this fun team game will indeed serve as a team booster.

Simply ask the group members to stand in a circle. Next, one by one, they have to say something good, something they appreciate, something they admire in any of the other group members and exchange places with him. Next, the person who was praised has to repeat the same thing.

A person can say things like "I admire your organizational skills", or "I appreciate the way you helped me in completing my project" etc. Play the game till everyone exchanges places.

Through this easy activity, you will be able to enhance the positive atmosphere in the group. Researches have shown that it's not just incentives, but appreciation too contributes a lot towards employee productivity.

When working as a team, problem solving can be an issue, if the team members do not listen to one another or the communication between them is not good. This activity will help in removing all such hindrances in team work. Ask the group members to stand in a circle.

Next, instruct them to bring their left hand forward and with it, grab anyone else's left hand, except for the ones who are standing on their sides. Instruct them to do the same with the other hand. Now that the group members are tied in knots, explain them the rule of the game.

The group members have to untangle themselves from this knot, without even once letting go of their hands. As they strive to attempt this difficult task, they will get to communicate with one another.

Various team members will come up with different strategies to untangle the knot. When people are solving this puzzle, they will need to listen to one another and problem solve together, which will help them in their work later on.

Give the group one sentence. It can be something like, "Mark was driving through the town when suddenly he remembered that...". After this, ask one of the group members to finish this sentence.

When you clap, he has to stop speaking and the next member of the group has to take over and continue the story. Likewise, each and every group member speaks at a time and tries to contribute his best in making a good story.

At the end of this activity, tell the group that as the quality of the story depended upon each and every member, it shows that each person's contribution is important in a team. A group is as good or as bad as the weakest member. That's why, to work well in a team, it is important that team members help each other out.

Besides the ones mentioned, some other activities that you can plan are - any of the team sports such as football or basketball, celebrating birthdays together (if it's a group of employees), scavenger hunts, tug of war, amongst others. All these games and activities are a fun way for the group members to learn how to work productively in teams.