What’s the point of team building? What’s the point of handing over sheets of newspaper, rolls of tape and a stapler and encouraging staff to ‘build a chair with teamwork’? If your team building days are tedious and uninspired then your team building is likely to have little point but if you inject the occasion with creativity and flair you can turn team building into something your employees can really get excited about. Leaders and managers who rate team building as a low priority on their agenda have usually failed to grasp the potential of what team building can achieve, so throw the old newspapers away and get to grips with the latest trends in creative team building.

Artistic Team Building

Team building doesn’t have to simply be about basic problem solving and cooperation, it should be stimulating and stirring. Incorporating art into team building gets everyone’s creative juices flowing and leaves your business with a finished product to be proud of, not something that is thrown in the bin come Monday. Many companies nowadays are inviting artists to team building days to inspire people to create, what art can you produce as a team?

• Create A Mural – Creating a mural as a team is a fantastic way to bring individuals in a company together so issue each member of staff with a paintbrush and let things get messy! You could have a single large canvas and assign each individual a section or split into teams with individual canvases and try to recreate the same, or sections of, a picture. With a mural you are setting your team goals that are fun to reach, if you create the right atmosphere each person will be committed to the success of the project and will be motivated to do their best. The end result can adorn the walls of your office space rather than lining next weeks recycling bin!

• Hold A Workshop – Art workshops are fantastic for morale; professional artists jump at the chance to showcase their skills, find the right one and their enthusiasm will be infectious. Your team gets to learn about and participate in an exciting new skill like painting, sculpture or graffiti art that would otherwise have passed them by, and they get to spend a day working on something creative and exciting. In an art workshop everyone in your office is placed on the same level and they can encourage one another to make the day productive.

• Round Robin Painting – This activity is fun for everyone and encourages all to work as a team. The team sits in a circle with their individual canvas in front of them, everyone begins their painting and after a specified amount of time everyone moves to the left (or right, if you prefer) without their own work and instead begins to add to their neighbours painting. The round robin ends when the team are sat in front of their original painting which is now their very own work of art.

To make your round robin more fun and unique encourage each team member to bring an object of their choice to paint on, they could bring a vase, a chair, a plate or a cabinet! You can even change the amount of time allocated to each slot by spending 5 minutes on the first canvas, 10 on the second and 2 on the third, not knowing how much time they have to complete their work keeps things exciting!

Strive For Success

It’s important not to lose sight of your team building goals, you want to keep your morale and productivity high and foster a feeling of community throughout your office. Whatever activity you choose for your next team building venture make sure you keep the tone light hearted and fun so you can encourage communication and harbour enthusiasm in your team.