Team Building for Finance: What Fresh Activities Would You Suggest?

Hi All,

We were asked to come up with a team-building program for our Finance Department. Any suggestions for activities that we could potentially include in the training? I need new and fresh ideas. Your help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Sokee

Hi Sokee,

I would recommend this program - "Take up the Challenge."

Objective

For people to contribute their individual talents and skills to the group.

Group Size

10 or more (more is better!)

Materials

Paper

Pens or pencils

Description

Divide the group into teams of five to fifteen members each (the bigger the teams, the better). Give each group paper and pen or pencil and give them five minutes to come up with five challenges for the other groups to attempt to successfully accomplish.

The group creating the challenge must be able to demonstrate that they can do it before another team is challenged. The challenges may be physical (build a pyramid, one person can carry five people, everyone stands on his/her head, etc.) Or the challenge may be anything else (our group has the most birthdays in one month, our group can sing any TV theme song you name, etc.). The challenge must not be obviously impossible for the other groups to accomplish (our group has the person with the longest hair).

Once the challenges are written down, each group gives out one challenge at a time and demonstrates it, then the other groups get a chance to try to accomplish this task in a given amount of time. You may give points to teams who can "take the challenge" successfully.

Discussion Prompts

1. Was it easy for your group to find things that everyone could successfully do? Why or why not?

2. Did you have to rely on the talents of the group members?

3. Did any team feel like it was hard to find talents within your group? If so, why?

4. How much do you rely on the talents of others or of yourself when you are in a group?

5. Do you always let your talents be known? Why or why not?

Cheers,

Rajat

Hello Rajat,

That was a very good exercise. Lately, I have experienced that mere presentations about the importance of teamwork neither allure the employees nor motivate them. It's exactly like they are forcefully stacked with data, and as soon as they are out of the training, they throw that burden off!

I would appreciate it if you could suggest some more games that would genuinely help every team member understand and realize the importance of their teammates. Your guidance based on experience would help me in bonding my people as a team.

Regards, Mayuri

Hi Mayuri, Radhika & Sokee,

Am glad you all liked this program which is one of my favourite ones..

Mayuri:- Refer to your query

You have a point..in my opinion & experience such presentations do help in reinforcing the importance of team work over the period of time as sometimes these presentations leave an indelible impressions in the minds of the participants and unconsciously makes them realize the importance of team work.

Am sure you must have presented the presentation on Race of Rabbit & Tortoise : Updated version. The other one " Not my Problem" which are great presentations on Team Work.

Such presentations need to be complimented with team building games and even OBT(outbound training) also helps immensely especially the rock climbing exercise where all members are connected to each other by rope.

Am posting two games as below:-

Boom!

All participants should sit in a circle. They are instructed to count out loud around the circle. Each person whose number is a multiple of 3 (3-6-9-12, etc.) or a number that ends with 3 (13-23-33, etc.) must say BOOM! instead of the number. The next person continues the normal sequence of numbers.

Example: The first person starts with 1, the next one says 2, and the person who should say 3 says BOOM! instead, and the next person says 4.

Anyone who fails to say BOOM! or who makes a mistake with the number that follows BOOM! is disqualified.

The numbers must be said rapidly (5 seconds maximum); if a participant takes too long to say her/his number, s/he is disqualified.

The last two participants left are the winners.

Note: You can have the participants “clap” once instead of saying Boom.

Note: To make this energizer more interesting, when a specific number is reached (e.g., 30) have the participants count backwards towards zero. The game can be made more complex by using multiples of bigger numbers, or by combining multiples of three with multiples of five.

Tell A Story

The participants should stand in a circle. The purpose of this activity is to build a story with each participant contributing one sentence that must:

• Make sense and at the same time add some fun to the activity,

• Build on to the last sentence, and

• Be grammatically correct.

For example:

#1: “I was walking to breakfast this morning.”

#2: “A dog came up to me.”

#3: “I said good morning to the dog.”

#4: “The dog asked me what I was going to have for breakfast.”

The activity continues until all of the participants have contributed.

Cheers,

Rajat

Hi Rajat,

Thank you so much for such good and exciting games.

"In my opinion and experience, such presentations do help in reinforcing the importance of teamwork over time. Sometimes, these presentations leave an indelible impression in the minds of the participants and unconsciously make them realize the importance of teamwork."

I would also like to thank you for sharing your experience regarding the importance of such presentations. I never thought along those lines. I will definitely benefit from your experience and the wonderful exercises you have provided.

Regards,
Mayuri.

Hi Rajat,

Thanks once again for the games, especially for the "Tell the story" activity. That's something very interesting. I will try to implement it in my next sessions.

Regards,
Radhika

Hi Mayuri & Radhika,

Here is a another one which we implemented today; in Today's world we all by and large have self centred and there comes a time for a need to take stock.It was an eye opener for the participants!..

I's Have It !

Objectives: To illustrate how we tend to be more self-centered than we may have thought, and to demonstrate the importance of focusing on the other person.

Procedure:

After a discussion on inter-personal skills or any aspect of

communication, casually mention that many of us forget about focusing on

others and instead become somewhat self-centered, albeit not in a conscious way. With this in mind, ask the participants to find a partner and for the next 2 minutes, they will be allowed to talk about anything in the world they want to discuss. There is, however, one rule - THEY CANNOT USE THE WORD 'I'. They can do anything else they want; they just can't say I. After 2 minutes, call time out & lead the discussion.

Discussion Questions:

• How many of you were able to talk for those 2 minutes without

using the pronoun 'I'?

• Why do so many of us have difficulty avoiding the use of 'I' in

conversation?

• How do you feel when talking to (listening to) someone who starts

every sentence with I?

• How can we phrase our communications to better focus on the

other person?

• If you did not use the word 'I', what strategies did you use to

avoid it? Could you do those things more often in your work (or

social) environment?

Time: 3-5 minutes

Cheers,

Rajat

Hi Rajat,

I think you have a store of training exercises. Once again, thanks. Are you a trainer by any chance? This one is the best one for Software guys, where every time I hear from them "I did this," "I know this"... Let me try this and I will get back to you with the feedback.

Regards,
Radhika

Hi Radhika,

Thank you for your compliments. I am not a born trainer as such, but I have learned on the job, especially on Creativity & Lateral Thinking - a topic that is my passion and an area of interest.

Have you seen Tom Cruise's movie Jerry Maguire, where he comments that in this life, you gotta be passionate about what you do and the rest all falls into place? :D

Cheers,
Rajat

Hi Rajat,

Your simplicity is your goodness. Yes, I did watch this movie. But I do not remember the dialogue. It seems that you would have watched this movie many times. (My favorite Tom Cruise movie is "Three Wise Men" and "The Last Samurai").

Rajat, I have a question for you. Can you share with us how "Creativity & Lateral Thinking" became a passion and area of interest for you?

Regards,
Radhika

Hi Radhika,

Rajat had a question for you, "Can you share with us how 'Creativity & Lateral Thinking - a topic' became a passion and area of interest to you?"

A good question. I have been fortunate to have had the privilege of working with the Senior Management Team, especially in my early stages of my career. What I essentially realized is that these Senior Management Team members displayed a high sense of competency for creativity and lateral thinking while dealing with complexities and problem areas. This is something that is not taught or at least spoken about during our academic years. I sometimes wonder how our academic coordinators have been blind to this topic/area. They all have learned on the job by virtue of having a good boss or by their own interests. Also, I keep asking questions and probing their thought process. Last week, during the flight to Mumbai from Delhi, I met a person who has composed the music for "Hum Tum" and inquired about his source of creativity and so on.

In 2004, I attended a workshop on Creativity at IIM-Ahmedabad, which opened my eyes to endless options and the potential it had for organizations and individuals. Thereafter, I studied the subject during my short sabbatical from the industry and created modules; conducted workshops at B-schools. Initially, my efforts were scoffed at and many B-schools were skeptical of this workshop. I remember during my meetings with one of the top B-school's directors, he mentioned why I did not do the Management course from Symbiosis and should enroll myself in his institute.

In India, Creativity and Lateral thinking are yet to catch up in a structured manner in B-schools, though efforts have been made by IIM-Bangalore by inviting artists to showcase their talent and encouraging students to draw. But they have not yet taken the steps like US schools do. They have a structured Creativity program over a period of 6-8 months where one has to earn grades by clearing the exams and showcasing creativity and lateral thinking talents, which are measured before the commencement of the program and compared to the scores after the program. Well, I guess it would take some time for Indian B-schools to catch up.

If you want to know more about the same, please check the section on Lateral Thinking under the Organization Development Forum.

Cheers,

Rajat

I recently bought some books off Amazon to use for fodder for ideas. Here are the titles:

- 301 Ways to Have Fun at Work by Dave Hemsath & Leslie Yerkes
- 1001 Ways to Energize Employees by Bob Nelson
- 1001 Ways to Reward Employees by Bob Nelson
- Get Weird: 101 Innovative Ways to Make Your Company a Great Place to Work by John Putzier

Like I said, these can be used as fodder to generate ideas. I leave them out on my desk, and employees frequently come up and look through them; two also asked to take them back to their desks.

I'm not trying to plug Amazon or anything, just thought that some materials might be useful. Also, I've used some game ideas from the following websites:
- http://www.partygamecentral.com/
- http://www.party411.com/gameguide.html

Good Luck!

Hi there,

It was interesting to read that "team building" is almost always related to playing games. I work with top management teams for team-building, and we focus clearly on issues that need to be addressed to get the team together. Playing games would not necessarily solve the problems that team members have within the team and in relation to the rest of the organization.

I work with teams 15 days prior to a 3-day team-building summit. I do an assessment of issues that need to be addressed, and based on the resulting data, along with a selected Planning Team, design an agenda for exercises at an offsite retreat where the team would stay overnight. True organizational development and transformation would only come about by following an agenda that is sure to bring about such a result. Playing games could actually divide a team if some members' skills are not suitable for it.

Good luck with your team.

Mubeena Mohd, M.A.
Professional Profile

I completely agree with you, Mabeena. Without knowing the competence levels, issues that need to be resolved, etc., pertaining to the team with whom the games are to be played, the program should not be planned. Maximum information possible should be collected from the participants, HR department, objectives, learnings, expectations from the program, etc., and then shape should be given to the team-building activities if the activities are to be really successful.

Regards,
Hanu
[Website: www.innovativetraining4u.com]

Dear Rajat,

Thanks for sharing your knowledge. This activity on team building was wonderful during my sessions. Thanks to you!

I also want to request you to share some team-building games when we have to conduct outbound trainings and cannot go for trekking, rock climbing, etc.

Further, thanks in anticipation.

Regards,

Tejvinder Kaur

Objective
For people to contribute their individual talents and skills to the group.
Group Size: 10 or more (more is better!)
Materials: Paper, Pens, or pencils

Description
Divide the group into teams of five to fifteen members each (the bigger the teams the better). Give each group paper and pen or pencil and give them five minutes to come up with five challenges for the other groups to attempt to successfully accomplish.

The group creating the challenge must be able to demonstrate that they can do it before another team is challenged. The challenges may be physical (build a pyramid, one person can carry five people, everyone stands on his/her head, etc.) Or the challenge may be anything else (our group has the most birthdays in one month, our group can sing any TV theme song you name, etc.). The challenge must not be obviously impossible for the other groups to accomplish (our group has the person with the longest hair).

Once the challenges are written down, each group gives out one challenge at a time and demonstrates it, then the other groups get a chance to try to accomplish this task in a given amount of time. You may give points to teams who can "take the challenge" successfully.

Discussion Prompts
1. Was it easy for your group to find things that everyone could successfully do? Why or why not?
2. Did you have to rely on the talents of the group members?
3. Did any team feel like it was hard to find talents within your group? If so, why?
4. How much do you rely on the talents of others or of yourself when you are in a group?
5. Do you always let your talents be known? Why or why not?

Cheers,

Rajat

Hi Tejvinder Kaur,

Thank you for your comments.

Incase if you go out and cannot have rock climbing & water rafting etc..though these are good exercises.

One can attempt this as how much one knows about the other person…it's called six degrees of separation.

Six degrees of separation (also referred to as the "Human Web") refers to the idea that, if a person is one step away from each person they know and two steps away from each person who is known by one of the people they know, then everyone is no more than six "steps" away from each person on Earth.

Make sure everyone meets each other for 5 minutes..in which they have to gather information on common and shared interests like common school studied, names of kids, spouses if they r similar, or same companies worked earlier, common bosses in ex-co..etc.

If they are 10 people..this will last for I hr and stop the session

After one hr..each will give a talk as what common atleast 6 things they found with each person.

Regards,

Rajat Joshi

Dear all,

Yesterday, we had a training session on team building, and herein the exercise was conducted.

Three teams were formed, comprising 6 members each, and they were asked to select a team leader. The three team leaders were then asked to leave the hall.

Meanwhile, treasures/landmarks were created in the hall where items like plates, glasses, keys, etc., were placed. At least 7 such places were prepared, along with obstacles like chairs and tables.

The first leader was called into the hall, blindfolded, and guided by a team member to search for these items.

The team that finishes first wins the game. Each team then assesses the lessons learned, strengths, and weaknesses.

Regards,

Rajat

Great games. I like the human chain game too. You get people in groups of 5-8, ask them to put their right hands in, then hold a random hand, and then place their left hands in. Again, ask them to hold a random left hand. This will cause a hand CHAIN! The point of the game is for teams to get a big circle out of the chain by twisting, bending, jumping, or whatever they think is beneficial to untie the chain!

It's a fun game that was brought to me by a fellow consultant while preparing for a team-building exercise. Highly recommended :-)

Hi all,

Please, can anyone suggest team-building activities? I want to conduct a session in my class. Please contribute your valuable suggestions, and I will be waiting. I have already considered some suggestions, but I am still looking for more.

Regards,
Prerna