Many leaders recognize the importance of team building, but often fail to identify exactly what they are hoping to achieve through team-building initiatives. It’s important to remember that at the heart of every thriving organization is a great deal of trust and respect. A culture of trust will set your team up for success and help you overcome challenges that could potentially wreak havoc on your bottom line. The reality is you can’t wait until it’s too late to starting building trust among your employees, or else your entire organization will suffer.
Start building trust among your employees with these three team-building activities:
The Human Knot
An activity that requires absolutely no props, the human knot will get your employees collaborating and building trust in no time. For the human knot, have your employees stand in a circle and instruct everyone to lock their right hands with someone on the other side of the circle (to make it harder, have them lock hands with someone standing across from them). Then have them lock their left hands with someone on the other side of the circle. After the knot is constructed, give your employees the task of having to dismantle themselves and unlock their hands. As they try to get themselves out of the knot, your employees will have no choice but to work together and help one another break free!
Improv Exercise
You don’t have to run a drama class to enjoy a fun improv activity. A well-thought-out improv exercise will allow your employees to let loose with laughter, while enforcing focus and trust. Consider splitting your employees into small groups with different scenarios, having them act out their respective scenarios on the spot together. This will force your employees to interact and take cues from one other without missing a beat. An improv exercise is especially useful for employees who normally don’t work together, helping build trust in the event an unexpected workplace situation occurs and requires your entire staff to work as a cohesive team.
Scavenger Hunt
One of the easiest and quickest ways to get your team working together is with a good old-fashioned scavenger hunt. Putting your staff into small groups will require them to work closely together throughout the hunt, forcing them to exhibit communication and teamwork skills. Making your employees work together to reach a common goal naturally builds trust, as they will be relying on one other to accomplish a set of tasks in a short amount of time.
You can’t expect to have trust within your organization if you don’t make it a priority. Establishing trust among your employees does not happen overnight and requires substantial time and attention. Implementing even just one of the activities above can be instrumental in building trust that will improve employee relationships and workplace productivity.
Do you want to grow your team?
Get in touch with The Liberty Group, with locations in major cities throughout the United States – including offices in Texas, Georgia, California and the Carolinas.
The Liberty Group has expanded their apartment staffing branch offices to better serve temporary clients and candidates. Texas locations include Dallas/Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio and The Woodlands, in addition to our Houston location. Other branch locations include Phoenix, AZ; Los Angeles, CA; Denver, CO; Washington DC; Ft. Lauderdale, Miami, Orlando and Tampa, FL; Atlanta, GA; Chicago, IL; Indianapolis, IN; Kansas City, MO; Raleigh, Greensboro and Charlotte, NC; Charleston, Columbia and Greenville, SC; Nashville, TN; and Seattle, WA with additional locations planned in the near future
