Team building ideas that work.

Building a successful team takes the right ideas that work. What makes a strong team? What does it take to have a successful team? What kind of ideas will take a team from average to out of this world?

Here are a few ideas that many successful companies have used to create teams that are above the expectations.

Creating highly successful teams starts with a game plan. That game plan has a few characteristics that all teams need.

Employee involvement - when employees are involved, are empowered and enabled, they are more likely to be more loyal and take ownership in projects and responsibilities that need to be completed.

Praise and discipline - There is places for both in business. However, the period that you use these tools can make or break any team. Praise in public and discipline in private.

Spicy team meetings - to often team meetings are a time for complaining and sleep. This time should be used for motivation, enthusiasm, team building games, activities, and goal setting.

Brain storming - use the time together as a team to come up with ideas for new projects, activities for the team and future goals. Brainstorming creates initiative, structure and open minded thought processes.

Let others take over - in a meeting have it conducted by another person on your team. Have them think of focus classes, or be the leader in activities to boost moral.

In a team-oriented environment, you contribute to the overall success of the organization. You work with fellow members of the organization to produce these results. Even though you have a specific job function and you belong to a specific department, you are unified with other organization members to accomplish the overall objectives. The bigger picture drives your actions; your function exists to serve the bigger picture.

Defining the team you want to build is a very important part of the success of any ideas to building a team. Setting your goals and expectations are necessary if you are going to be able to guide others to reaching the same goals you have.

There are many dimensions to optimizing the organizational environment in order to improve productivity through improved employee motivation. What works in one organization or type of organization may not work in another

Team building activities can take many forms, and need not cost a lot of money. Social events are particularly valuable because they can be arranged to suit most people's diaries/tastes, are relatively cheap
Some fun, team-building ideas you could implement are as follows:
- Treasure hunt
- Making a video
- Hot air ballooning
- Cooking
- 10-pin bowling
- Quasar
- Casino games
- Volunteer work in the community
- BBQs
- Question and answer games
Some workshops that would be beneficial are:
- Group games and exercises (that have learning points)
- Psychometrics or personality questionnaires (to develop better interpersonal understanding)
- Business problem solving, or information exchange
- Customer interaction forums (e.g.: ask customers to provide feedback on the service, or what they want from you in the future
- Technology exchange (invite leading figures from the industry to present their vision of the future)
Another idea is to toss around a few things on the job line itself:
- Team meetings/Cascade briefings
- Job swapping
- Team newsletter (for larger teams)
- Open door policy
- Walkabout (not just management, but all staff)
Whatever the options are that you choose, remember to maintain open communication and a positive atmosphere, just about anything you do to increase a teams balance with these tools in mind will be successful.