Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Team Building And Free Team Building Activities

By Ferdinand Mekinsy

Free team building activities can be used to help form a basic foundation for cooperation in a newly organised team, as well as assist build the skills of an existing team. Notwithstanding, there are a few things that you should remember when choosing which team building challenges you use for your teams.

Free team building activities are varied, ranging from basic exercises targeted at youth to advanced programs for high end professionals. Due to this assortment, you will want to take care in selecting games, challenges and puzzles for your group. You want to take free team building activities that challenge but do not overwhelm. This means that you need to get a rudimentary idea of the skill level of all of the members of the team you are attempting to train.

There are some generic free team building activities that can assist you access the skills of your team members. These are moderately simple tasks that are completed quickly by a whole group. By watching how well the team works together, as well as how promptly they reach the necessary solution, you will get a feel for how well they work together. The better a team initially works together, the prompter they can advanced to more hard challenges.

If you are projecting free team building activities for use in team based competitions, selecting which games, challenges or puzzles that should be used can be challenging. Finding something that levels the playing field for everybody can be challenging. Finding puzzles that forbid one person from dominating can be even more elusive. Activities that involve cooperation, regardless of the skill level, are far better than challenging puzzles that one person can solve on their own without help.

There are things that free team building activities cannot do. First and foremost, they can not repair damaged teams, or change personalities to smoothly blend with one another. If you are having problems with a group, management should take steps to solve the problem or brusquely tell the employees that it is important that they work together, like it or not. It is very simple to fall into the trap that these challenges and puzzles are cure-alls for teams.

Additionally, free team building activities cannot teach the basic skills of teamwork. If you have a team that is not learning what needs done, they will need to be taught through powerpoint presentations or lectures.

If you take the time to combine free team building activities with training on the basic skills of teamwork, you can expect your team to work in a more unified fashion, which can assist productivity increment and advance workplace harmony. - 15246

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