There is a popular quotation from Plato that is often used in work environments: “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation”. Many teams will take a playful approach to team building, whether it’s helping in the community through a charity or collecting supplies for another organization.
Large corporations have set aside budgets for activities and team building smaller teams find it more difficult to find the same opportunity. Here are a few things that can be done to help motivate and bring teams together without breaking the bank.
Get out – with many busy schedules people don’t always have the time to leave the office all day. Remind each other that even if they choose to eat at work they can still get out of their workspace. Why not take a break on the patio. Sometimes just a simple change of scenery is all that’s required to recharge and refuel.
Add music – music plays an important role in everyone’s life. It’s amazing how just adding some music to a workspace can help perk up the office and bring everyone together. Many times just a conversation about favorite artist or favorite concerts can help make connections between individuals.
Unplug – technology can be amazing and helps us with almost every facet of our lives except one: interpersonal communications. The more time we spend on our devices will translate into less time interacting with each other. Our personal relationships will suffer as our reliance on technology continues to grow. We should encourage each other to unplug it for a few minutes every day and this will help foster better relationships within the workspace.
Play – play time is the time to decompress. It might be as easy as putting together a Rubik’s cube, or joining an after work bowling league. Coworkers who spend a couple of hours laughing and playing together will end up learning things they never knew of each other.
-RG