TEAM BUILDING - Ideas for Corporate Games

by Tara Duggan, Demand Media

Coming up with ideas for corporate games typically involves analyzing your business needs, defining game objectives and developing rules. Conduct successful team-building sessions that utilize corporate games in settings such as a company retreat, training event or team meeting. Ideas for corporate games include scavenger hunts, sports competitions or other recreational activities, game shows and contests. Games help employees learn new skills, techniques and strategies.

Analysis

By conducting regular employee satisfaction surveys, employers identify employee concerns. Games could be used in sales training, new employee orientation, team building and management training. Maybe you have identified performance gaps. To fill gaps, create corporate games on critical topics such as developing business acumen, valuing diversity, adhering to ethical business practices and upholding standards of business conduct.

Design

Designing effective corporate games involves identifying clear objectives. For example, you might design a game to teach people how to negotiate more effectively. Successful instructional games convey information in an engaging manner that doesn’t bore participants. By creating relevant challenges, scenarios and interactivity, corporate games encourage learning. For example, design a team-building game that challenges people to avoid hidden agendas, prevent internal competition, discourage defensiveness, supports diversity and rewards dependability and sharing credit. Other ideas for corporate games include icebreaker activities, simulations and contests. For example, award a prize for the employee who accrues the most volunteer hours. This encourages employees to participate in the community.

Development

Managers will prepare materials, rules and supplementary resources that participants use to play. Create online games using free tools to create activities such as puzzles, scavenger hunts, card games or contests. Provide opportunities to practice over and over in a protected environment, with immediate feedback, because this typically leads to improved performance back on the job, higher productivity, fewer errors and higher job satisfaction. Utilize technology when available and appropriate. For example, if your sales force has smartphones, deploy corporate games on mobile devices. Then, when the sales people have free time, while waiting in airports or hotels, they can play. This leads to ongoing learning and development.

Types

Planning scavenger hunt-style games involve listing questions, challenges or clues. Use scavenger hunt games to promote awareness about corporate policies, procedures, products and services. Creating quiz-show games involves developing a list a questions and answers. Use this type of game to test employee knowledge of your products’ features and benefits. To foster both corporate team building and health and wellness, sponsor team sports activities such as volleyball, basketball and bowling. This encourages people from different parts of your business to come together outside of traditional work roles.