Team-building activities in the workplace can be pretty cheesy. Some manager or business owner reads somewhere that it’s a great way to build rapport, so they come up with these “exercises” in team-building that result in nothing more than sighs and eye rolls.

Here’s the thing though, the right kind of team building can be fun and, more importantly, it can encourage employees to open up and talk. Team-building activities don’t have to be some goofy, off-the-wall game.

Any activity that gets employees to open up with each other is great. Breaking down these communication barriers can lead to many different positive changes in the workplace. When employees find a fun and challenging way to interact with both their coworkers and their leadership staff, that barrier likely stays broken down even when it’s time to get back to work.

Tips For Team Building

• Make notes of what your employees like and dislike outside of work. You may end up with less traditional team-building exercises that involve fantasy football, or a trip to the bowling alley. Try and mold activities around what the group likes. (This also gets the group to share personal information about their likes and dislikes!)
  
• Events, activities, and exercises for team building should be done both with the company as a whole and throughout individual departments. It’s great to encourage team building on a company level, and a department level.
  
• Consider ways for team building that involve leaving the office. This will help employees see each other and their leaders more as regular human beings, and less as just pieces in their game of workplace chess. Conferences, shows, and retreats are all great team-building activities.
  
• Encouraging your employees to hang out with each other around the office is great for team building. Even something as insanely simple as a ping pong table can work amazingly well for boosting employee morale and communication.

Team-building activities also, well, build teamwork. Employees learning that they have the ability to work together with one another effectively is an additional trait that will be carried back into the workplace, long after the actual team-building activity is over.