The “Course Topics” series from Manage Train Learn and Slide Topics is a collection of over 4000 slides that will help you master a wide range of management and personal development skills. The 202 PowerPoints in this series offer you a complete and in-depth study of each topic. This presentation is on "Teambuilders".

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Teambuilders
TEAMBUILDING

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The Course Topics series from Manage Train Learn is a large collection of topics that will help you as a learner
to quickly and easily master a range of skills in your everyday working life and life outside work. If you are a
trainer, they are perfect for adding to your classroom courses and online learning plans.
COURSE TOPICS FROM MTL
The written content in this Slide Topic belongs exclusively to Manage Train Learn and may only be reprinted
either by attribution to Manage Train Learn or with the express written permission of Manage Train Learn.
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slides. As with all programmes on Slide
Topics, these slides are fully editable and
can be used in your own programmes,
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as your own.
Copyright Manage Train Learn 2020
onwards.
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These images may also be those which are
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fair use, or allowed under a Creative
Commons license.

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ARE YOU READY?
OK, LET’S START!

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INTRODUCTION
Team-building exercises are valuable ways to speed up the
team development process. By taking the team out of its
normal work environment into, say, a workshop or training
course environment, the team can practise its interpersonal
and task-managing skills. The team can then return to the
workplace with a better knowledge of, and affinity for, each
other and improved working relationships.

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CHOOSING AN EXERCISE
There are numerous team exercises to choose from when
planning a team-building workshop or when, during a
workshop, an exercise is felt appropriate.
The most important feature in choosing an exercise for
team-building is that it meets the team's current
development need. Additionally, an exercise should...
1. have a sufficient level of challenge for the particular
group
2. be well-timed
3. be of a different style and pace from those which come
before and after it in the workshop
4. involve the team as much as possible in the planning,
design and review
5. be selected partly on intuitive grounds as being right for
the team
6. be fun, interesting and entertaining
7. be clearly explained.

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FACILITATING AN EXERCISE
We facilitate a team exercise when we run it with the
minimum of personal control on our part.
There are three key steps:
1. Introduce the exercise
• state the rules and aims of the exercise
• put the rules in writing and post them
• let the team have a say over as much of the exercise as
possible, eg how to present the results.
2. Observe
• use at least one person from the group to observe
• provide a set of team-building features to act as
checklists
• use video if available.
3. Review and feedback
Draw lessons on the group exercise from the feedback. Get
the team to comment first, then the observers, and finally
yourself.

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TEAM-BUILDING EXERCISES
The following are the 12 most frequently used team-
building exercises:
1. icebreakers, including introductions, relaxers and
enliveners
2. brainteasers, which are useful lead-ins to problem-solving
3. team exercises
4. competitive team games
5. team decision-making exercises
6. team-building exercises
7. team role plays
8. task force or outdoors exercises
9. team projects
10. sensitivity or T-group training
11. team performance exercises
12. team self-assessment.

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ICEBREAKERS
Icebreakers are so-called because they break through the
cold, frosty and hesitant climates of newly-formed groups
and groups that are frozen in their development.
Format: there are four main formats for icebreakers:
1. introduction icebreakers allowing members to meet
informally
2. enlivener icebreakers to warm up sluggish teamwork.
One favourite is the "team breath" in which the team sits
and breaths in and out in tune with each other.
3. relaxer icebreakers to calm down an excited group or
invigorate a tired group. A favourite relaxer is for the group
to imagine they are a feather floating slowly to the ground.
4. quickie icebreakers that inject team spirit. One example is
to compete in lifting the heaviest member of the group to
the ceiling of the room.

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BRAINTEASERS
Brainteasers are games and puzzles which the team has to
solve. They can be useful as a warm-up to a brainstorming
or serious problem-solving session.
Format: Any standard puzzle can be used as a group
brainteaser, including word puzzles, such as anagrams,
abbreviations and catchphrases; mathematical puzzles; and
jigsaw puzzles.
Pros: Brainteasers are familiar to most people so need little
explanation.
Cons: Brainteasers are not inherently team games, so their
use may be self-defeating if only one or two people in the
team who are good at puzzles work at solving them.
Timing: 15-20 minutes

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THE TEAM EXERCISE
Team exercises are the commonest and simplest kind of
teamwork. They involve giving the teams a task, sending
them away to carry it out and then reporting back to the full
group session on their findings.
Format:
1. Teams of 5 or 6 participants are formed.
2. The teams are given a relevant question to discuss and
answer, such as "How can we improve customer service?"
3. The rules of the exercise are given, eg how long the teams
can take or their method of reporting back.
Pros: The team exercise is the easiest way for a team to
work together on a task. It is therefore a good way to assess
a team's state of development.
Cons: Excessive use of the team discussion format may
become boring for some team members.
Timing: 30-35 minutes

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COMPETITIVE TEAM GAMES
Competitive team games involve forming small teams from
a large group and setting them up in competition with each
other. Prizes of small value can be awarded to the winners.
Format: One example of the competitive team game is the
team quiz. Two teams are sent away to devise say 10
questions on a common subject (eg an organisation policy).
They then return and quiz the opposing team in turn while
the facilitator keeps score.
Pros: Competitive team games inject fun and motivation
into teamworking.
Cons: Teams may take the quiz too seriously if their desire
to win is too strong.
Timing: 60-70 minutes

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TEAM DECISION-MAKING
The aim of a team decision-making exercise is to allow
teams to consider the task and team implications of the way
they reach decisions. The exercise usually presents a team
with a problem on which they have to come a decision.
Format: One common format for team decision-making is to
ask the team to rank a list of features in order of
importance, say from 1 to 10. This could be preceded by
each member ranking the list individually and followed by
comparing the list with an expert view.
Pros: The decision-making exercise is a good way to practice
the methods the team uses to reach its decisions back at
work.
Cons: The decision-making process may take a long time in
some teams, or, indeed, the team may not be able to reach
agreement in the time available.
Timing: 40-45 minutes

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TEAM-BUILDING EXERCISES
A team building exercise encourages the members of a team
to work with each other.
Format: The format of a team-building exercise is to give the
members of a team parts of a puzzle which they then have
to put together to form the whole. The whole cannot be
made unless everyone works together. This can work with
anything that can be sub-divided, eg a piece of text; a
picture; building blocks; a diagram; a cardboard model. The
simplest team-building exercise is a piece of text cut up and
randomly distributed amongst the team who then must re-
assemble it in the correct order.
Pros: The team-building exercise forces people to talk to
each other and listen carefully to each other.
Cons: Teams may become disheartened and frustrated if
they fail to make progress.
Timing: 20-25 minutes

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TEAM ROLE PLAYS
Team role play exercises are valuable ways to work through
common situations in which skills and relationships are
intermingled. The role play is like a rehearsal for the real
thing.
Format: The team can either choose a common situation
with which they are familiar and practice it without a script;
or they can be given prepared scripts and specific roles to
act out. Role plays don't have to be acted out: they can be
talked through, or walked through instead.
Pros: Role plays put team skills under the microscope in
relatively safe environment. They are good for training
purposes.
Cons: Some people are apprehensive at the thought of
acting, others go over the top. Role plays may offer
misleadingly easy solutions to difficult real situations.
Timing: 60-90 minutes

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TASK FORCE EXERCISES
Task force exercises are exercises built around handling
equipment, objects and materials. They include outward-
bound and adventure team exercises.
Format: The team are set the task with clear objectives and
rules. An observer is chosen or the exercise is video-ed. In
many task force exercises, the task is set outside the
workshop room.
Pros: Task force exercises require practical hands-on skills,
and so can be more "real" than discussion exercises. There
may be value in getting away from the seminar room.
Cons: Depending on the kind of exercise chosen, people
may not be able to relate what happens in the exercise to
what happens in the workplace. Safety is paramount when
people are given any kind of exercise involving physical
activity.
Timing: 30-60 minutes

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TEAM PROJECTS
Team projects aim to carry out a real project in which an
end result is achieved in a given time and at a given cost.
The facilitator, or someone from another team, can act as a
customer to whom the project is presented at the end of
the exercise.
Format: A typical format is for the team to chose a leader
who is then given a job for the team to carry out. Examples
are: building a tower of bricks, or creating a team logo,
within a given time and at a given cost.
Pros: The project can re-create workplace systems quite
accurately. Extra pressures can be introduced by shortening
the timescale, reducing the budget or changing the
specification.
Cons: It is not always easy to find practice projects which
are sufficiently challenging.
Timing: 45-60 minutes

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SENSITIVITY TRAINING
Sensitivity, or T-group, training exercises are based on team
counselling and groupwork therapy. They aim to build teams
through the expression and sharing of personal feelings.
Format: A facilitator leads a group through discussing of a
"sensitive" issue such as "what I dislike about this team" or
"what I like about this team". Feelings can also be expressed
through other means such as movement, non-verbal
communication, pictures and mime.
Pros: Sensitivity training work may be the most suitable way
to address important blocks to team development.
Cons: Sensitivity training needs an experienced skilful
facilitator and a supportive team. Some of the issues may
become very personal.
Timing: 60 minutes or more

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TEAM PERFORMANCE
Team performance exercises are often used at the end of a
workshop on team-building to let the team perform by
themselves. No task is set; the team decide what they want
to do. The only rule may be that the team's presentation of
their work must involve all the team members. Examples of
team performance might be an unspoken presentation on
the themes of teamwork; a role play on the same theme; a
mime.
Pros: High-performing teams often respond enthusiastically
to do their own thing, showing energy, creativity and
synergy.
Cons: If there are unresolved issues in the team, the efforts
to pull together may fail and be embarrassing for everyone.
Timing: 30 minutes

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TEAM SELF-ASSESSMENT
Team self-assessments can take place at any time during a
teambuilding workshop or at the end of the workshop. They
can be based on individual or team progress.
Some of the ways to carry out a team self-assessment are:
1. giving the team a self-assessment questionnaire
2. discussion
3. metaphor (eg "If the team were an oak tree, what
would be its current stage of growth?")
4. drawing a line across the room and marking the ends
"immature" and "mature"; then asking people to show
where they think the team are
5. drawing a similar line but with three points marked:
"dependent"; "independent" and "interdependent" and
asking people to move to where they think the team
are.

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THAT’S
IT!
WELL DONE!

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THANK YOU
This has been a Slide Topic from Manage Train Learn