LEADERSHIP - What Makes a Great Team?

To have a great team, there is no surefire recipe for success. A combination of solid leadership, communication, and access to good resources contribute to productive collaboration, but it all comes down to having people who understand each other and work well together. Not every team needs that one superstar player to excel. Having the right mix of trust, ambition, and encouragement among your team members is crucial. Here are ten characteristics you should seek when recruiting to create a great team:

1. Mutual respect. Knowing each other’s accomplishments and work experience plays a key role in relationship development, the catalyst for a strong team. Before a new team begins work on a project, have them meet for an extended period of time to establish familiarity and to bond. Inevitably, those six degrees of separation that connect us all will take shape and your team will discover common ground and mutual connections. As the teamwork progresses and conflict arises - an unavoidable part of collaboration – the team that has respect for each other will be able to move past conflict towards resolution and, ultimately, completion of the goal.

2. Specialization. Just like a team of athletes working together in different roles to win the game, good teamwork comes from members combining their specialized talents to achieve an end goal or resolution. While one may excel at writing, another may boast superior organizational skills, while another is great at presenting to decision-makers or the art of rhetoric. Figuring out who works best where will come naturally as the team spends time together, but it’s important not to suppress individual talents. Allowing each person to make their own unique contributions will lead to less conflict and a superior outcome.

3. Establishing objective. If the goal of the project, whether small or long-term, isn’t clear from the beginning, many hours will be wasted in frustrating meetings that go nowhere. The very first step should be to describe a clear outline of work and the projected end result. Change is always necessary along the way, and this is where our next tip comes into play.

4. Adaptation. Being flexible is a key trait of any team player. Confronting and resolving crises, rushing to meet deadlines, or picking up the slack for an absent or dismissed colleague are all problems that require adaptation. If someone on a team is unable to change gears and refocus, odds are more issues will arise to further complicate the workflow process.

5. No finger pointing. When a big mistake is made, it’s easy for members of a team to find a scapegoat or individual to lay the blame on. This will only lead to distrust and low morale. It’s possible that if one person keeps making critical mistakes, they should no longer be a part of the team, but that is not always the case. The entire team should accept the responsibility for the mistake and move forward to correct it and make sure it doesn’t occur again.

6. Admission of failure when necessary. This tip can go hand in hand with number five. If the desired outcome of a project has setbacks or is predicted to be a complete disaster, it’s better to admit failure and start over rather than giving up or presenting a flawed product. A good team will roll with the punches, recognize that each step is essentially an experiment, and stay positive even when facing serious setbacks.

7. Patience. Working with others requires the most the most difficult trait of all: patience and tolerance. We all strive for it, but few people are truly unflappable. Patience will keep a team motivated and allay conflict. 

8. Delegation of duties. A capable leader will know one of his most important jobs is to delegate responsibility. One or two team leaders should never be saddled with all the grunt work. Instead the workflow should be spread out evenly and each person given a reasonable amount of projects and adequate access to resources. 

9. A natural-born leader. As noted earlier, a team doesn’t need a superstar to excel. But they do need a self-assured, trustworthy, ambitious leader that keeps morale high and knows when to rally the troops. A good leader will listen constructively, act as a mentor, monitor the quantitative and qualitative results, provide consistent feedback, and maintain a good rapport with all team players. 

10. Competitiveness. A healthy dose of competition is fuel for inspiration. When you’re working on a team, all your cards are on the table, so it’s easy for people to become jealous or possessive of each other’s attributes or contributions. And this motivates others to work harder and develop even better ideas, because it makes people ask themselves, if he came up with this, can I create something even better?

Source: http://www.americasjobexchange.com

TEAM BUILDING - Five Key Performance Factors

Many of the factors highlighted by Herzberg, Hackman, and Beer are not things that you as a manager have direct control over. For example, you will need to work within existing organizational policy with regard to working conditions; your executive may not be prepared to adopt a culture where ‘silent barriers’ can be openly discussed; and you may not be able to respond to market pay increases when you have a defined salary/bonus budget.

However, there are some general symptoms that you can watch out for as manager. These will indicate that your team, or a member, is not performing as well as you would expect.

• Absences from the team and its activities that are lengthy and cannot
   be explained
• More frequent displays of conflict and frustration, often unjustified
• Lack of enthusiasm and motivation to perform tasks
• Rumors and gossip heard on the organization’s grapevine about your
   team are on the increase
• A clique develops so that these people protect themselves from the
   stigma of poor performance.

You will need to be constantly monitoring and observing how each of your team members is performing and look for signs of reduced productivity. Assessing how well your team’s performance compares to other teams in your organization is also an essential part of your role. If you notice a reduction in performance, understanding why this has occurred and addressing it are essential.

The most common reasons teams or individuals underperform are:

• Lack of clarity and focus
• Lack of ability
• Lack of confidence
• Lack of direction
• Lack of motivation

Lack of Clarity and Focus
If team members keep on asking exactly what they should be doing, by when, and how they should actually perform the task then this indicates that their responsibilities have not been specified clearly enough.

This type of behavior may also imply that they need more feedback from you so that they understand how well you want them to do the job. Many jobs can be expanded to fit the time available, and you should regularly review the team’s work to prevent this from happening. It is quite common to see team members spending a lot of time ‘perfecting’ things that don’t really need it rather than doing an adequate job and then moving on to another task. For example, if a team member is preparing a document for use within the team, then you might consider accepting a less polished format than if it was going to be more widely circulated.

Lack of Ability
One of your members, or the team itself, may be underperforming because they have been assigned a task that they are not skilled or knowledgeable enough to undertake.

To prevent this situation arising, you should have an appreciation of each team member’s capabilities. You can assess how much additional training and coaching you can offer to help develop their skills, but in the end you need to make a judgment on how well their skills match the task requirements. This inability to perform the task may also be due to a lack of resources, whether it be in terms of people, materials, or funds.

In your role as team leader you need to ensure that higher levels of management are made aware of the skill level of your team, manage their expectations of what tasks your team can accomplish, and feed back when constraints exist.

Finally, to ensure you only have capable members added to your team you should take an active role in the selection and induction of new members.

Lack of Confidence
Your team may find itself performing a new role or task following a reorganization or merger. This may result in a lower level of performance as the change causes the team to lose confidence in their abilities to handle the new tasks and processes.

Sometimes as a manager you will notice that an individual, despite having the right qualifications, just doesn’t seem to perform as well as you expected. This can be because they don’t possess the required behavioral skills, or they lack the interest to adjust and learn the new skills that are necessary for their role.

This person could also just not fit into the social make-up of your team even though they have the right skills. In this instance often the individual begins to feel unappreciated, and they may even feel ostracized by the rest of the team. As a consequence their performance declines, and the situation deteriorates because the rest of the team resent carrying an underperformer.

Lack of Direction
This is probably one of the most common reasons for underperformance. As a manager you should make certain that the goal and task descriptions you provide are as clear as possible. For more information on this topic you should see our eBook ‘Effective Goal Setting’ which can be downloaded from this website.

If your own goals are poorly defined it will not help the performance of your team. This could be due to one of the ‘silent barriers’ described by Beer and his team of researchers. Often this results from senior management having hidden agendas, which undermine performance and bring about a culture of mistrust.

Lack of Motivation
Some of your team may just not care about doing a good job, and they may even avoid working altogether. This lack of motivation can have a variety of causes, including personal problems, lack of career development opportunities, and increased pressure because of reduced resources.

Motivating your team will often be handled as part of their appraisal system, but this is not enough in itself. You also need to be monitoring and feeding back to each individual how well he or she is doing on an ongoing basis. If the team is involved in boring or repetitive work then motivation may be your number one priority.

Source: http://www.free-management-ebooks.com

TEAM BUILDING - Coaching, Mentoring & Team Building

by Kermit Burley, Demand Media

Developing and growing your team is one of the most important activities that a small-business manager can perform. Learning and developing skills and techniques to improve the performance of your employees is essential for both your success and the future success of your business. Skills in coaching, mentoring and team building help to make this possible; mastering these techniques is critical. Your team must be developed and prepared for both today's challenges and the assignments that await them in the future.

Coaching

Just as sports coaches inspire their teams to success, so should corporate managers. Coaching begins by setting expectations. Let your team know exactly what you want them to accomplish, and articulate these goals as clearly as possible. Once expectations are set, provide feedback as frequently as it's needed. In his book "The One Minute Manager," Ken Blanchard calls feedback "the breakfast of champions." After you provide feedback on performance, support your people whenever possible. Knowing that you're there to help is essential for your employees' continued success.

Mentoring

Mentoring involves a more senior executive helping to develop a new or less-experienced associate. This relationship usually lasts for an entire career, during which the senior manager shares her knowledge, skills and insights with the less-experienced employee. It's critical that the manager and employee mesh well together. Lunch and dinner meetings, as well as after-work discussions, need to be continuously scheduled. Once established, the mentor and the trainee need to speak meet or speak frequently: The senior member of the team shares his experiences and advice with the trainee and also serves as a sounding board when needed.

Team Building

A great way to build morale and camaraderie in your company is to employ team-building activities and concepts with your employees.Team-building courses are usually held off-site and involve every member of your staff. Outdoor challenge programs range from ropes or obstacle courses, where team members overcome obstacles by working together; to simpler problem-solving games that encourage creative thinking. The goal of your team-building program should be to bring your team closer and learn how to work together effectively for the success of your company.

Making It Work

Coaching, mentoring and team building are all designed to help your people grow and develop. Choosing the right program or system for your company should begin by searching for programs that will help you accomplish your specific goals. Search for vendors and consultants that offer these programs; seek references to verify their successes and objectives. Speak with a number of graduates of their programs and compare their experiences to what you're seeking to accomplish. Every organization is different --- carefully craft your goals prior to beginning any program.

TEAM BUILDING - Corporate Team-Building Coaching

by Andrea Carson, Demand Media

A good team atmosphere can improve business productivity.

A strong, effective team works in harmony to achieve a specific goal. Techniques, theories and exercises have been designed for the purpose of building a cohesive team and can be found on www.businessballs.com for free. Managers must take on several roles to facilitate development of an outstanding team that demonstrates confidence in the results produced and projects the company image in a positive and professional way.

Empowerment

Empowering others is an absolute necessity for an effective manager. Your employees were hired because they possessed a certain level of ability. Individuals tend to work more diligently when they have some autonomy in the workplace. Empowered employees are more likely to make better decisions and act in ways most beneficial to the company. Effective coaching means allowing the team to develop its own processes to accomplish a task. Your guidance can ensure timely project completion, problem intervention and resolution.

Respect

Corporate executives must break down the barriers that separate them from other employees. Employees consider their directors and managers as unapproachable and out of touch. Many employees feel management has no idea what they go through on a day-to-day basis. The barriers come down when they see that their managers are willing get down in the trenches and work side-by-side with them to get a job done. This is a powerful tool in gaining respect and lets employees know you are as dedicated to the team effort as you expect them to be.

Ethics

A code of ethical behavior clarifies the mission of an organization and outlines its values and principles as well as presenting standards for professional conduct. Ethical behaviors should not only be something included in the employee handbook, but should be mirrored by management and strictly enforced. A well-defined code of conduct outlines what is expected from an employee and helps build teams that work effectively within established guidelines.

Coaching

Effective coaches can extract extraordinary work from ordinary people. A good coach focuses on solutions, not on problems. Employees are more effective when they feel there is an atmosphere of forgiveness about any mistakes. They benefit from an approachable resource to help them so they don't make the same mistakes in the future. If coached property, employees will feel that they have a personal stake in the success of the company.

Communication

Team coaches encourage feedback. It's not necessary to be the manager whom employees want to have a drink with after work, but it does help to talk to your employees from time to time. Engage them one-on-one or as a group to keep everyone on the same page.

If a team member has an idea or suggestion, she deserves to be heard and should feel that you take her idea seriously. Your body language and verbal responses demonstrate whether you are receptive to others' ideas. Don't be unyielding to changes or only willing to do things a certain way because "that's the way we've always done it." This makes you "unapproachable" and stifles creativity and motivation. Statements like "It sounds like you put a lot of thought into this" encourage the employee and make him feel he is getting through to you. Try nodding during a presentation to foster feelings of encouragement.

TEAM BUILDING - The Rules & Roles for Team Building

by Stacy Zeiger, Demand Media

Team-building involves building relationships among team members. Exercises are designed to improve productivity by helping team members communicate better. Team-building may also be used to set goals for a team and understanding the strengths of each team member to help reach those goals. Understanding the goals of a team-building session at the beginning is essential for making sure all employees benefit from and participate in the team-building process.

Setting the Rules

If not all team members participate in the team-building process, it may not be effective. Setting rules at the beginning of the process ensures that all team members know what is expected of them. Guidelines guide team members on how to interact to ensure the process is successful. If the team-building process will take place over a series of sessions, require that team members attend all sessions. Require that all team members show respect toward one another during team-building sessions and define what it means to show respect. Outline the roles and obligations of each group member to ensure all members are on the same page of the process.

Team Leader

At the beginning of the team-building process, the team should designate one member to be the leader. This person serves to delegate tasks during the team-building process and has the final say in any decisions that must be made. It must be established that because this is a team-building process; the job of the team leader should not take on the feel of a dictator. Instead, the team leader should effectively manage the group and encourage its members to work together as a team.

Recorder

The recorder plays the role of a note-taker or stenographer during team-building. This person documents all discussions and keeps other written records. At any time during the session, the recorder should be able to refresh the group’s memory with what has been discussed and be able to resolve any disagreements over what was said. After a team-building session, the recorder should send out minutes of the session to all team members.

Timekeeper

Meetings often get off-task or tend to run over. The role of the timekeeper is to keep team members on task and keep the meeting running on schedule. Before the meeting, the timekeeper works with the team leader to develop a schedule for the team-building session or meeting. This schedule is presented to all team members at the beginning of the session, and the timekeeper helps ensure transitions run smoothly, breaks do not last too long and the meeting ends on time.

Encourager

An encourager helps keep team members on-task and motivated during the team-building session. The encourager may motivate other team members through positive phrases, cheerleading or telling other team members they are doing a good job. When a task becomes cumbersome, the encourager reminds team members that the team is working toward a goal and keeps their eyes focused on the results.

Mediator

When multiple personalities work together, disputes are likely to arise. The job of the mediator is to help team members work through disputes so they do not disrupt the team as a whole. This may involve taking individual team members aside and hearing each side of a dispute or providing an objective voice when a decision cannot be made among team members.

TEAM BUILDING - Team-Building Exercises for Efficiency in the Workplace

by Erin Schreiner, Demand Media

In many workplaces, managers attempt to promote harmony and the building of unity by engaging workers in team-building exercises. If your aim is not only to bolster the development of relationships in your workplace, but also to amp up efficiency, select team-building exercises tailored to meet this aim. By giving your employees a break from the day and engaging them in exercises of this type, you can not only promote the development of strong team unity, but also make increasing efficiency a fun process.

Telephone

A lack of communication can hinder workplace efficiency. If you think your workers simply aren’t communicating as effectively as they should be, a simple game of telephone may help get your point across. Prepare for this game by writing down a humorous message on an index card and making several copies. Start the game by dividing your employees into teams. Have each team form a circle. Give one member of the team a copy of the card with the phrase. Ask employees to spread the message around the circle, taking turns whispering it into the ear of the person to their left. After the message has moved around the circle, allow the final recipient in each team to share the message with the group. In all likelihood, this message will have changed much from its original version. As employees laugh at the bumbled new message, they will likely learn an important lesson in the value of communication.

Productivity Races

Turn the completion of daily tasks into an engaging game. Set up a relay race of sorts in which workers must complete tasks they do on a daily basis. For example, one section of your race could have workers opening envelopes as quickly as they can, another setting up a phone line and a third assembling a piece of equipment they use daily. Divide your workforce into teams, and allow them to move through this race, completing the tasks as fast as possible.

Business BINGO

Increase efficiency by building employee knowledge in your team-building game. Create a business BINGO game by writing words germane to your business on BINGO cards. On slips of paper, write definitions that match these words. When time comes to play the game, group employees into groups of two to four. Give each group a BINGO card. Draw the slips of paper containing the definitions out of a hat and ask employees to cross of the words that pair with the definitions if they are present on their cards. Reward the first team to create a pattern of five in a row.

Procedures Race

Help your employees better understand important procedures within your workplace to enable them to more quickly complete job-related tasks. Take your procedure manual and cut it up, creating separate, un-numbered slips of paper containing parts of your procedure. Place these jumbled procedure slips into an envelope. Complete this process several times, creating different jumbled collections. When game time comes, give each group of employees one envelope and ask them to order the procedure parts as quickly as possible.

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.

TEAM BUILDING - Advantages of Team Building Over a Corporate Retreat

by Jennifer Williams, Demand Media

Team building can be more advantageous than a corporate retreat. Team building exercises are usually individual exercises completed within hours, as opposed to retreats that usually last days. Today's workers have busy and demanding lives outside the work place and employers are unrealistic to expect to be a worker's whole life. Individual team building exercises are likely to be more easily accepted and gain greater cooperation from workers than retreats that require days away from family and other private responsibilities.

Everyone Has Stake in Outcome

Team building exercises require a minimum commitment of hours rather than days on the part of every team member. To get the most out of the limited time available, team members themselves choose the activity. This promotes the sense that each team member has a stake in the successful outcome because each team member had a say in the exercise planning.

Relaxation And Trust

Using a team building exercise creates an atmosphere of shared fun, which breaks down personal barriers and encourages a deeper comfort level among team members. Since team members know the exercise is of short duration and no personal commitments are threatened, team members relax, which makes it easier to develop a sense of trust and shared goals with fellow team members.

Comfort Breeds Creativity

Also a byproduct of the quick fun afforded by team building exercises, the atmosphere of team building exercises encourages members to become comfortable with each other, which allows them to more freely express their creativity and more deeply held ideas about the organization and how to reach its goals.

TEAM BUILDING - Team Building to Improve Communication

by Miranda Morley, Demand Media

Collaboration is key in 21st century businesses and if you are a business owner with a team that doesn't know how communicate, let alone collaborate, you could find yourself in hot water. Luckily, most business leaders know that team building and communicating is not simple. For this reason, team-building exercises are often used to help workers improve their interpersonal communication skills.

Definition

According to the Business Dictionary, one definition of team building is the "ability to identify and motivate individual employees to form a team that stays together, works together, and achieves together." Managers and small business owners may use team building to improve communication by simplifying the communication process for employees. By dividing employees into teams, managers give employees fewer people with whom they must communicate while simultaneously ensuring they better understand the audiences with whom they communicate. This makes it easy for employees to work together to solve problems and come up with new ideas.

Skills

According to Team Building Resources, members of a team need to work on listening, speaking, writing skills and getting to know each other to improve their communication ability. The website suggests that team members learn how each member best processes information. For example, does one member better understand information that is presented in writing? Does one member need to look at a chart or table when hearing numerical information? The website also recommends continually assessing communication within a team to ensure it is working well and improve it if need be.

Methods

Many employers devote time to team building activities that focus on communication in order to help employees improve their skills. These activities generally consist of games and puzzles that teams must solve through communicating well. For example, one game might involve one-half of a team giving directions while the other half of the team tries to follow the directions while drawing on a board. This tests team members' listening and clear communication skills.

Controversy

According to work happiness expert Alexander Kjerulf, some activities that employers use as team-building activities actually do the opposite. Kjerulf states that a number of these activities are focused on competition, which actually makes employees learn to work against each other instead of with each other. He states that effective team-building activities should encourage everyone to work together toward goals that all can achieve.

TEAM BUILDING - Communication Exercises for Team Building

by Kyra Sheahan, Demand Media

Team-building activities can strengthen communication in the workplace.

Communication is a fundamental aspect of teamwork and is relied upon for successful business accomplishments. According to AllBusiness, a website for business managers, employers want to build team communication because better communication breeds a more productive workplace. If you’re looking for a way to develop your crew’s communication skills, team-building activities are a good way to strengthen employee interactions while offering a fun and educational atmosphere.

Treasure Hunt

Stage a treasure hunt for your employees to complete. Begin by splitting employees into small teams and providing them with a treasure map. Each team will have to follow the instructions on the map to find the treasure at the end of the game. This activity teaches teams how to follow directions, listen to one another, develop leadership strategies and work together to accomplish a unified goal.

Story Circle

Story Circle is an activity that requires employees to take turns telling a story. For this game, assemble employees into a full circle and begin the activity by saying, “Once upon a time.” The person on your right should pick up where you left off. When he finishes his sentence, the next person in the circle must continue the story. Go around the circle as many times as you want before you conclude the story. This activity will strengthen your team’s listening skills and let employees practice how to formulate quick, sensible responses. According to Innovative Team Building, team-building exercises should break down personal barriers, which Story Circle does by inspiring creativity.

Ball Toss

For this activity you will need a soft or spongy ball, which will be used for tossing. Form your team of employees into a circle, and throw the ball at one of them. Whoever catches the ball must state their favorite color. That person tosses the ball to someone else in the circle. The catcher of the ball has to restate the previous color and add another color of their choice. The third person to catch the ball must restate all the previous colors and add another. The object of the game is to memorize the list of colors, which will be more challenging as the list gets longer. This activity aims to improve listening skills and help employees learn how to stay focused when the pressure is on.

Project Race

Split employees into small teams and give them a project to complete. Instruct the groups to assign roles for each person on the team and begin working on the project. The first team to complete the project wins. This activity teaches employees about the importance of communication, and how effectively communicating with one another will help them work together to get any type of job done.

TEAM BUILDING - Team Building Activities Focusing on Communication

by Sherrie Scott, Demand Media

Effective communication is an integral part of an organization and can be achieved through a variety of team building exercises. Team building activities encourage trust, cooperation and communication within a group. Team building activities that focus on improving communication enhance how workers interact with one another. The activities generally focus on verbal, nonverbal and visual forms of communication.

Ice Breakers

An icebreaker is a brief team building activity designed to warm workers up to one another. These activities gets employees talking and working with each other cooperatively. Ice breakers can be about almost any topic.

An example of an ice breaker activity could be to go around the room and ask participants to explain one characteristic about themselves that most people would not know. A variation of this could be to go around the room and ask participants to describe the proudest moment they have ever experienced. Participants will not only get to know each other better but they will also feel good about themselves as well.

Verbal Communication

Team building activities that focus on verbal communication require workers to cover their eyes or perform an activity in which they cannot see what they are doing. An example of a verbal communication team building activity could be to have workers line up according to a particular characteristic or trait. Blindfolded or with eyes closed, employees can attempt to line up by date of birth, by height or hair color; lightest to darkest for instance. The purpose of the activity is to get employees to communicate as best they can about a characteristic without relying on eyesight.

Nonverbal Communication

Nonverbal communication team building activities enhance employees' ability to communicate without speaking. With some activities, a select individual or group may speak while other may not. Charades is an ideal example of a nonverbal communication activity because one person must communicate by using body language only. A variation of this could be to break up in teams and have each teams act out a clue at the same time. The team who correctly guesses the clue first wins.

Written Communication

The purpose of written communication team building activities is to improve the way workers communicate in interoffice memos and emails. A written communication activity could be to give workers a simple "how to" problem and have them write out instructions on how to solve the problem in a limited number of steps. An example could be "how to tie a shoe" or "how to sharpen a pencil." The individual or group must effectively write down the instructions in five steps or less.

TEAM BUILDING - Team Building Activities for Pairs

by Arnold Anderson, Demand Media

Team building exercises are not limited to large teams of several people. Partners and pairs can also take advantage of the benefits of good team building exercises, thereby enhancing their working relationships. Good team building exercises help strengthen decision-making abilities and allow the participants to develop a framework of familiarity.

Standing

If your pair consists of two physically fit people, try the “Standing” activity. The pair sits back-to-back in the middle of an open room. By using verbal commands and physical movements, the pair must reach a standing position. This exercise improves coordination between partners and helps develop a sense of coordination between the pair.

The Story

This exercise is borrowed from creating writing classes, but it also makes an effective team building exercise for pairs. You will need a piece of paper and two pens for this activity. One of the partners starts by writing down a simple phrase stating a condition, such as "A person is standing in a doorway," or "It is raining outside." Each partner then adds one sentence to the story until it is completed. Each partner can see how the other thinks and reacts in a variety of situations.

Work of Art

Gather as many art supplies as you can -- paper, pens, tape, glue and paper clips all qualify. The pair has 30 minutes to create a work of art with these supplies. The pair is free to create whatever they like, be a statue, picture or a diorama of a famous event. Expressing creativity together is an excellent way to strengthen the bonds between business partners.

Drawing

You will need a whiteboard or a blank flip chart page, a marker, a paper and a pen for this activity. One partner creates a drawing using basic shapes such as circles, squares and triangles. The drawing must consist of at least four shapes. The other partner cannot see the image, and he cannot be told how many shapes were used to create it. The person that drew the image then tries to describe it to her partner, and he recreates it on the whiteboard or flip chart. This activity improves communication and clarifies terminology between the partners.

TEAM BUILDING - Team Building Activities in Cubicles

by Tara Duggan, Demand Media

Team building activities prepare employees to function more effectively. When team members sit near each other in cubicles, a successful facilitator conducts team building exercises that promote cooperation, sharing and collaboration using the cubicle space. When a company hires a large group of new employees, reorganizes or acquires another company, team building activities that encourage participants to visit other employees’ cubicles help promote team work on the job.

Treasure Hunt

A facilitator conducts a treasure hunt in an office setting with cubicles by hiding items in the cubes in advance. Then, he creates instruction sheets that provide clues to finding the items. Items can include office supplies, company products or ingredients to make a snack, such as trail mix, which can be assembled at the end of the day. At the beginning of the day, the facilitator divides the participants into teams and distributes the instruction sheets. The teams meet to develop a strategy for finding the items throughout the day. At the end of the day, a facilitator announces the first team to find all the items on their list.

Decorating Contest

Cubicles provide a sterile, uniform environment. To make it more exciting, successful managers motivate their teams and encourage their employees to decorate their space. Establish rules for safe, tasteful and appropriate decoration. By running contests, managers establish a competition that encourages teams to work together to come up with innovative decorating solutions that surpass other team’s decor. Each quarter, set up a new theme. For example, challenge teams to decorate their cubicles with phrases commonly used at meetings, such as “Push the envelope” or “Let’s touch base.”

Crazy Shirt Day

Even if a company has a dress code, reserve one day a year for a team-building activity. Every cubicle occupant gets to wear a crazy shirt on that day. Take pictures of the event and display them on the company’s website. Provide prizes for the craziest shirt, the most colorful shirt or the oldest shirt. Everyone gets to walk around and see their neighbors. They get to laugh a little in a cubicle environment not necessarily conducive for meeting other employees.

Cubicle Swap

Allowing employees on one side of the building to exchange cubicle space with another employee on a different side of the building or another floor offers these employees a chance to work in a different space and meet the people in that area. This promotes team collaboration and team members have fun commenting on the pictures, coffee mugs and other items assembled in their temporary cube space.