Team Building Tip of the Month: Icebreakers Foster Teamwork, Collaboration

Team building icebreakers are a great way to  introduce new employees, break up cliques, and foster collaboration and teamwork.

Team building icebreakers are a great way to introduce new employees, break up cliques, and foster collaboration and teamwork.

Any time a new employee is added to your team it can be difficult for that employee to acclimate to your unique corporate culture. This is especially problematic if the new employee is introverted and doesn’t go out of his/her way to get to know their new coworkers. And the problem is magnified tenfold when businesses merge and entire offices, entire groups of employees are just expected to work together like they have known each other for years.

Unfortunately, this is rarely ever the case. When offices merge, there is often tension among the different groups. This tension can hinder collaboration and stifle productivity. So what do you do? How do you break down barrier and get your employees to start interacting, collaborating, and working together as a single, unified team?

The solution: Team Building Icebreakers

Team Building Can Be a Fun Way to Break the Ice

Icebreakers are a great way to not only introduce new employees and break up cliques (especially beneficial following mergers), but also foster collaboration and teamwork. Presented in a fun and creative way, team building icebreakers, like the Triangle Traverse (below), challenge your team members to step out of their comfort zones and force them to work together as a team.

  • Icebreakers are an excellent way to get new employees to feel welcome and comfortable within their new surroundings.
  • All people learn differently: some by seeing, some by hearing, and others by doing. Icebreakers get your employees involved physically, mentally, and emotionally, which helps foster learning.
  • When handled by a trained facilitator, team building exercises are followed by debriefings, which further emphasize the lessons learned during each icebreaker.
  • Icebreakers not only help improve collaboration, but also morale. Simply put, team building can be fun!

Triangle Traverse Team Challenge

Can you and your team members traverse the wire triangle?

Physical Activity: Medium to Hard

Equipment: Wire, Rope, Teamwork

Lessons Learned: In this challenge, two people are required to make it around a triangle by carefully tightrope walking. The rest of the team spots them to make sure that they don’t fall off of the wire. At one point, two people have to pass each other on the same wire. It take some negotiation and teamwork to get both parties around the triangle, but it’s a great way to get everyone on the same page.

How will your team handle this challenge? Will they break out of their shells and work together? Who will take on leadership roles? The Triangle Traverse is a great ice breaker, requiring a tremendous amount of teamwork and collaboration.

Click Here to Get Started!

The Traingle Traverse is just one example of the many different team building exercises that Terrapin Adventures uses to help your team reach their full potential.

Fun Team Building Icebreakers at Terrapin Adventures

Terrapin Adventures is conveniently located in Howard County, Maryland, between Baltimore and Washington DC. We offer both custom onsite and offsite team building solutions. Our experienced staff is able to create a customized program that exceeds your requirements to help increase communication and productivity of your group.

Serious Team Building partnered with Serious Fun!

Through our highly rated team building experiences your entire group will increase their ability to problem solve, think creatively and collaborate with one another. Our Team Building Programs will help your group learn more about themselves and how to work better as a team.

Get in touch with a Guest Relations Specialist today and ask about how we can help you plan your team building event. Please call Terrapin Adventures at 301.725.1313, or email us at info@terrapinadventures.com. You can also follow Terrapin Adventures on FacebookTwitterLinkedInYouTubeGoogle+, and Pinterest for up-to-date information on events, trends, and other fun and exciting outdoor activities.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 13th, 2015 at 9:26 am. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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