- Blind Drawing. Divide groups into pairs, assigning one person in the pair the role of speaker and the other the role of listener. …
- Card Pieces. …
- Forming Groups. …
- Blindfolded Obstacle Course. …
- Just Listen. …
- Don’t Listen. …
- Four at a Time. …
- Acting Emotions.
Teamwork Exercise 2: Paper Chains – The Importance of Communication
Benefits of improving communication in the workplace
There are numerous benefits to devoting time and resources to enhancing internal communication in your company. They include:
More productive workforce
A team with better communication creates a space where people can think creatively. They feel more at ease taking on tasks and responsibilities, which encourages more inventive brainstorming sessions and more efficient problem-solving.
More talented workforce
The leadership of an organization is better able to comprehend the talents and skills of the workforce when it is committed to connecting with others. This enables managers to assign those workers to jobs that best utilize their skills and talents, putting them in positions where they can perform their jobs with the greatest effectiveness. As a result, workers are more motivated and capable of better aligning with goals and objectives.
Mitigates conflict
Information can be shared in a way that is clear and simple to understand with effective communication, helping to prevent potential disputes brought on by misunderstandings.
What are team-building activities?
Team-building exercises are a broad category of exercises used to improve relationships within a team. Many team-building exercises have specific objectives, like teaching participants how to communicate, think, and solve problems differently from them. Team-building exercises should be both entertaining and educational.
Eight communication team-building activities
Here are eight enjoyable team-building exercises you can do with your group to enhance communication:
Back-to-back drawing
You’ll need an even number of participants for this team-building exercise so that everyone has a partner. After pairing off, have everyone sit or stand back to back. Use a pen and paper or a whiteboard to draw. The roles of the speaker and listener will be switched, with one person speaking and the other listening. The speaker will describe a geometric image from a prepared deck of cards for five to ten minutes, and the listener will attempt to draw the image only from the speaker’s description.
After that, talk about the steps taken to make sure the instructions were clear and how this might come across in actual interactions. The person who is drawing can also discuss what was helpful about the instructions and what they would have changed if they had been given the opportunity to respond to the speaker.
Island survival
Break up groups into teams of five to 10 people. Then read them a scenario in which they are stranded on an island after a shipwreck and come across items that are washing up on the shore. Give them a list of 20 items and let them know they can only keep five of them. Then, they must cooperate to decide which items to keep. Following completion of each task, each team explains to the other groups which items and reasons they kept. This activity not only promotes improved cooperation and teamwork among team members but also gives them a chance to practice their communication skills.
Zen counting
Your team should sit in a circle for this exercise with their backs to one another. Have them begin counting in any order, from one to ten (or higher if you have more team members), with each member saying only one number. The exercise resets to one if someone talks over another person or repeats a number. This activity instills calmness and compels team members to pay close attention to one another.
Truth and lies
This exercise is best practiced with five or more people. Ask each person to come up with three truths about themselves and one lie. The lie should be something that’s plausible. The team must decide which claims are true and which are false after someone has read their list aloud. Teams benefit from this as they get to know one another better and improve communication. Additionally, it provides introverts with a chance to reveal information about themselves that others may not be aware of.
The barter puzzle
Four or more small groups are needed for this activity, with a different jigsaw puzzle needed for each group. Give each of your participants a jigsaw puzzle of the same level of difficulty and divide them into small groups of equal size. Then, the teams will compete to see who can finish their puzzles the quickest. However, there is a twist: some pieces will be mixed up in the puzzles created by other groups. The teams must find the mismatched pieces before devising a plan of revenge. They are free to employ any strategies they choose, such as haggling, exchanging items, or even switching team members.
Human knot
For this activity, you’ll need eight to 20 people. Make sure that everyone is facing each other and positioned so that they are shoulder to shoulder in a circle. Each person should extend their right hand and grasp the hand of the person to their left. Then, without releasing hands, the group must figure out how to untangle the knot of arms in the allotted amount of time.
The perfect square
You will need a long piece of rope tied together and a blindfold for each of the five to twenty participants in this activity. Have each participant hold a piece of the rope while standing in a circle. Ask everyone to leave the circle and walk a short distance after having them put on their blindfolds and setting the rope down. Then, with everyone still wearing their blindfolds, have them return to the rope and attempt to form a square. Team members will need to practice effective leadership and communication skills in order to succeed at this activity. Tell some people to remain silent during the exercise to complicate things.
The minefield
You’ll need an even number of participants for this activity because everyone will need a partner. Place balls and cones on the ground, ideally in an open area like a park or a vacant parking lot, and then have one member of each pair put on a blindfold. The other person must guide their partner verbally only from one side of the open area to the other. The person who is blindfolded isn’t allowed to speak. You can use tape to make specific routes that the speaker is supposed to lead their partner through to further complicate things.
Tips on improving communication skills in the workplace
Here are some pointers to help you enhance communication at work:
FAQ
What activities help with communication?
- Telephone Exercise. …
- Stop Listening Exercise. …
- Listener and Talker Activity. …
- Memory Test Activity. …
- Just Listen Activity.
What is communication based team building?
- Telephone. Have students gather together in a circle. …
- Emotional Charades. Write-out scenarios that might provoke emotion in participants.
- Audio Book Interaction. …
- Internet Resources. …
- Role-Playing. …
- The Follow All Instructions Activity.
How do you build communication skills in a team?
Regardless of how well your team communicates, using group exercises to hone existing abilities can be a fun way to foster positive working relationships. They are particularly helpful for establishing rapport, enhancing communication, and resolving conflict within existing teams.
