Yahoo Finance 3 Team-Building Exercises That Don't Cost a Dime
What's a team without trust? It may involve a jittery, fumbling quarterback skeptical of whether his linemen will protect him as he passes or let him get pummeled to the ground. It may involve an ice skater mid-lift -- a moment away from soaring majestically on the palms of her partner -- before she says: "You know what? This is a terrible idea. Let's just keep skating in a circle."
A team without trust could also involve you doubling your work on a project, because you doubt Ellen really "gets" the assignment, so you'd better compensate for her. Or it could mean you're dismissing and trash talking your supervisor, Chaz, because what does he know about managing?
Mary Scannell, author of "The Big Book of Low-Cost Training Games" and several other team-building books, says a lack of trust among team members is a major concern for many managers she consults. "Everybody's just clamoring for 'How do we build more trust on our team?'" she says. "Well, you need to create spaces for people to get to know each other."
The 30-second "howsitgoin-and-nod" in the hallways or minute of small talk before meetings doesn't cut it. "Real teams are people who know each other well, and you've got to spend time on the get-to-know-you," says Leslie Yerkes, president of Catalyst Consulting Group in Cleveland and author of "Fun Works: Creating Places Where People Love to Work."
Here's the good news: While leaders must commit time cultivating trust among their team -- how many hours do you think those ice skaters practiced their lift? -- they don't have to deplete the team budget.
"There's an underlying assumption that we need to have money to motivate people, or we need to have money to incentivize people or we have to have money for people to be fully engaged in a team experience. That's a faulty premise," says Susan Fowler, leadership expert and author of "Why Motivating People Doesn't Work ... and What Does."
In fact, the three exercises below, which will help your team members get to know (and thus trust) each other, are free. But here's the catch: Where you scrimp on money, you ought to make up for in enthusiasm. "If the person who's facilitating or leading thinks [the activity is] hokey and doesn't see the value in it, then nobody will." Scannell says. "They're going to follow the leaders." So smile, maybe track down some caffeine, and try leading the following exercises:
1. The name game. Here's a quick game from Scannell: In a group of four to 10 people, each person takes about 90 seconds to discuss the story of his or her first name. Why did Ellen's parents choose that name? Does it mean something? Was she named after someone? When did Charles decide to go by Chaz, and why?
Scannell calls this kind of activity a "climate setter" because "it creates the right tone and climate for the work you're going to do," she says. So if you're going to launch into a three-hour collaborative meeting, consider spending the first 10 minutes using this exercise to relate to each other, connect and nurture a safe space for teamwork.
2. Thumb ball. Take a cheap soccer ball or beach ball and write a number on each of its panels. Then write a corresponding question for each number. Scannell shares a few ideas: Who is someone you admire, and why? What are two office tools you can't live without? What's your favorite stress-buster? What are two valuable traits in a co-worker? What advice would you give to someone just starting his or her career?
Toss the ball among your team members popcorn-style and have them answer whichever question corresponds with the number their thumb lands on. For example, if Ellen catches the ball, and her thumbs land on 7 and 12, she chooses one of the two numbers. The leader then reads the question assigned to that number.
Use this game as an alternative to the everyone-go-around-and-tell-us-about-yourself icebreaker, which sets up participants for one of two fates: spending the whole exercise thinking about what they're going to say instead of listening to everyone's answers, or drifting into a boredom-induced coma. With a ball, a mix of questions and splash of spontaneity, this game "keeps people in the moment," Scannell says.
There's room to adapt the game to fit your needs, too, Scannell says. Instead of personal queries, each number could correspond with a quiz question to test team members' knowledge on, say, a prospective client. Or, for Scannell's virtual team meetings via conference call, she ditches the ball and just has people call out a random number to determine which question they answer.
3. Song selecting. This exercise from Yerkes requires some (fun) homework. Give about 10 days for each participant -- or, if it's a big team, each small group -- to decide on a song that "embodies the spirit of the kind of team they'd like to become."
Then meet, listen to the songs and have folks explain their choices, "which tells you a little bit about their philosophies," Yerkes says. (A few songs team members have chosen in her recent workshops include James Brown's "I Feel Good" and Queen's "We Are the Champions.") "Music is a way to connect with anyone," she says. "Songs tell you the world about another person."
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