Free Team Building Activities for High Performing Teams, Page 2

Here you'll get free team building activities to help you guide your team to high performance.

I provide step-by-step guides around the team building techniques I use as a paid corporate consultant. If you'd like to read more about the framework for team building, go to page 1, now.

Check out this powerful online team building and coaching program, My Inspiration4Life. To read my review of this program, read this article on workplace motivation.

Free Team Building Activities Step-By-Step:

Facilitation is a crucial skill required for success in any team building program. A good facilitator uses specific processes, techniques and a calm presence to make team discussions easier, more honest and fruitful.

If you'd like facilitation assistance, review the Hire Suzie - Corporate Leadership Training page for more information on my facilitation services and training programs.

The following free team building activities and exercises require solid facilitation skills. That is being a good listener and setting up an environment where people feel comfortable participating.

PERSONAL HISTORY EXERCISE: This free team building activity is powerful and easy. I've used it with numerous teams and they ALL share how meaningful the exercise was for them.

What is It? Why it works: This free team building activity helps team mates learn more about who they work with every day. When we better understand, even a little bit, where people come from and what they've faced, we find more understanding and empathy for who they are and what they do today.

Don't skip this exercise because it looks too easy or personal. Trust IS about being more personal and open with each other, and this is one free team building activity that can help you get there.

Here are the steps for this free team building activity:

• Plan for about 2 minutes minutes per person for this exercise. (If you have a 20 person team, that's 40 minutes.)
• On a flip chart list these three questions:
  1. Where did you grow up?
  2. How many siblings do you have and where do you fall in the sibling order? (oldest, youngest, etc)
  3. What was the most difficult, important or unique challenge of your childhood? This is not about your inner child, it's just tough and important stuff you faced as a kid.

• Share the 'why' of this exercise, something like, "Team, we've been talking about how important trust is on all successful and high performing teams. I'd like to take some time now before we close the meetings to focus on our all getting to know each other a little better. I have these three questions and I'd like us to go around the room to share our answers. Okay? I'll start. Any questions?"
• Whoever you have start (I suggest that the leader be prepped to go first) make sure he or she shares something personal, honest and insightful about a challenge. How this person starts, sets the stage for everyone else.
• If someone shares something profoundly personal or shocking (this has never happened) simply and quietly thank that person for sharing and move on.

CODE OF CONDUCT FOR THE TEAM - TEAM NORMS:

What Is This? Why it works: This free team building activity is a list of behavior expectations for how the team will engage in discussion and debate. It is created by the team (this is why it works) and is visible and reviewed by all prior to all meetings.

This is so simple and so powerful. I use it in every development and facilitation meeting I hold. It helps the team stay on track and regulate their own behaviors.

Here's the best way to help your team create their own Code of Conduct:

1. Ask each team member to write down their preferences for acceptable and unacceptable behaviors around discussions and debate. (ex: tone of voice, use of language, participation, etc.)
2. Hold a group discussion. Ask everyone to share their list. Capture the answers on a flip chart.
3. Discuss similarities,differences and priorities. Develop a list of no more than 8 items that represent the team's idea of productive discussions.
4. Get the list of items laminated and place them in every meeting. Review them in each meeting, before you start. Update and change the team norms as the team evolves.

Check out this leadership article about this free team building activity: Hate Meetings. See three actions for improving meetings and sample list of items for your team's code of conduct.

Here's a powerful online mini-workshop with a dialogue expert. Check this program out: Here Are Team Building Techniques That Are Helping Teams Get Results...

CASCADING COMMUNICATION:

What Is It? Why It Works: This is so easy, you're going to wonder why you haven't been doing it. But this free team building activity will help pay the team back in high performance.

It is basically recapping decisions at the end of every meeting and then agreeing to communicate those decisions, throughout the company in 24-48 hours.

Your team's level of commitment to decisions made is crucial to having a team that works together effectively. This free team building activity works because it is simple, it clarifies decisions, removes ambiguity and it sets clear expectations of next steps.

Because team members are agreeing to communicate information about the decisions made, team members tend to speak up and share more. This practice of reviewing commitments and decisions made, is a simple one. But almost no one does it. And it results in unclear decisions and actions.

Over time your team gets used to this process. It does improve commitment, provided you are also working on improving team trust.

Here's how you use it:

1. At the end of every meeting ask this question and flip chart the answers, "What have we agreed upon today?"
2. Team members provide their responses. Debrief and ensure consensus. Have further discussion as needed. Record final commitments.
3. The team then agrees on what's specifically communicated to others outside of the meeting. Set a time frame for this communication.

TEAM EFFECTIVENESS EXERCISE

What Is It? Why It Works: This exercise helps team mates get used to giving and receiving feedback. It offers direct, actionable feedback about how each person contributes to the team.

It works because people want to feedback. And people like to give feedback. In this structured format I've never had a negative experience. The team is always energized, though sometimes nervous at the start.

This works really well after a team's been through communication style assessments. I use DISC. For more information on this assessment, tell me your thoughts and get this free report.

Here's how it works:

• For this exercise allow 7 minutes per person. If you have a 20 person team, you'll need at least 140 minutes.
• Have each person answer these two questions for every person on the team:
What is this person's single most important contribution to the success on this team?
1. What is one area this person must improve upon or eliminate for the good of the team?
1. Set the ground rules for feedback when you're the receiver: no defensiveness. only ask questions for clarity, take notes of the feedback received
2. Set the ground rules for the people giving feedback:Give the feedback quickly and directly, share objectively by focusing on facts and behaviors (what you see and hear).
3. Have the leader be the first person to receive feedback.
4. Go around the room in round-robin style, asking each person to share with the leader, their answer to question #1 about strengths.
5. IMPORTANT, before going around the room to share the area of improvement, ask the leader (or the person receiving feedback) to share what he/she believes is his/her area of improvement. This helps others start sharing
6. Once finished ask the leader (or the person receiving feedback) if he/she has any questions to ask, for clarification.
7. Go around the room until everyone has received feedback.
8. Thank everyone for sharing and ask them to come to the next meeting prepared to share with the their three greatest strengths and the one area of development they are focused on improving.

TEAM SCOREBOARD

What is it? Why it works: This is a team scoreboard that is publicized to the team and world. It shows how well the teams progressing in a few key areas. This is one of the most important free team building activities.

This is NOT individual departments or individual goals - this is a goal(or several) that the team has decided is it's top priority. It works because it helps the team pull for and focus on one common goal. It works because the team helped develop it and is focused on measuring progress.

Having a common team goal is crucial to team success. Changing the team goal throughout the year may make sense. The goal is for the team to work together with a common objective in mind. This is a free team building activity that works!

Here's how it works:

• Explain to the team that you want the team to develop a team goal - this is one (or several areas) of utmost importance to the team over the next 3-4 months.
• Ask the each team member to answer this question a piece of paper: "What do you think is the single most important goal to achieve during the next 3 months if our team is to consider itself successful?"
• Collect all the answers and list them on a flip chart for discussion and clarification. Group like answers together.
• Have each team member vote, with color dots placed on the flip chart, next to their #1 and #2 priorities.
• Pick the one or two items with the most votes.
• Have the team help you create measurements for the goal by asking, "How will we know when we've reached this goal?"
• "What are some ways we can track progress toward our goal?"
• "What kind of scoreboard will help us stay focused on the goal and be able to see our progress?"
• At the beginning of every team/staff meeting have each team member update their top priorities for that week/month. (Sharing with the team what each person is focused on, helps improve communication and sheds insight into how each person is helping (or not helping) the team meet its mutually decided upon goal.
• Track progress against the scoreboard in every meeting. Get the team involved in overcoming barriers and celebrating wins.

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Meeting Cost Ticker

The Meeting Ticker is an amazing little free team building activities / tool to measure how much money is spent attending meetings.

Enter the number of attendees, average hourly salary, and meeting start time, and watch the dollars add up in real time. Measure how much meetings cost, here

THIS really drives home the point of how important it is to use these free team building activities to ensure that the team works together - otherwise, time and money are wasted.

Check out this powerful online team building and coaching program,My Inspiration4Life. To read my review of this program, read this article on workplace motivation.

Like this site? Have Questions or Suggestions? Contact Suzie here.

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