People who spend most of their waking hours in the office need as much fun as they can get. Yes, they have the weekends free, but after doing their laundry, getting groceries, and visiting friends, the rest of the weekend is used to sleep in preparation for another long and stress-filled week; they hardly have any room for excitement.
Therefore, as an HR rep or Manager, it is important that once in a while, you set aside a day (Friday preferably) for your workers to come into the office and have a fun outing with the same people they work so hard with. This will not only help them let some steam off, partaking with their colleagues also helps create stronger inter-office bonds.
Here are some activities that are exciting as well as beneficial for team building:
Group Juggle
Have team members stand around in a circle facing each other. One softball is given to someone in the circle and he/she throws it to a colleague while calling out their name. The receiver repeats the action by calling the name of another participant and throwing the ball to them. When they start to get comfortable, introduce another ball to the mix to make things more interesting. This game works best for new groups and workers that haven’t had the time to learn the names of people in the office. In a matter of minutes, nearly everyone will be on a first-name basis.
Air Balloon
This game is more enjoyable when played outdoors and it brings out the little kid in every adult. Participants are split into groups and each group sends out a representative per round to challenge representatives from other groups. Here is how the game goes: inflated balloons are released into the air and each participant must blow air towards their balloon in order to keep them floating in the air.
In addition to being fun, this game is also sure to spark healthy competition, and those with the strongest lungs will “fight” it out to win the contest. Team members also get to cheer their representative to victory.
Electric Fence
Put 2 big chairs together and tie a rope (or two) around it to form an obstacle. Now, divide the participants into groups and have them cross over the obstacle without touching the rope. Simple huh? Here is the catch: while crossing the obstacle, one of the participants’ hands must be in contact with the hands of a fellow group member. Expect lots of laughter tripping, and excitement during this game.
Mock Presentation
Official presentations are often tricky propositions and it puts workers under some pressure. Help your team find the fun in this activity by organizing mock presentations. Give each participant an object and ask them to prepare a presentation on it. Objects should be “non-serious” e.g. a sandwich, tissue paper, golf balls and other items that can be found around the office.
Human Shapes
Get your workers to gather round and form words and shapes. You can start off with easy shapes like a square or a parallelogram and move up to forming, say, 2018 or the name of the company (if you have a large enough group). Watch as your team members work together to form the shapes and figures; it may take some time but they will have fun every step of the way.
Don’t wait till your team loses their morale or productivity before organizing one of the games listed above. Some of them do not even require that the workers leave the comfort of the office; just gather them around and give them something to be excited about.