TEAM BUILDING

Team building exercises; they're a great way of improving communication, morale, motivation, productivity, helping employees or new teams to get to know each other better, and learning about one’s strengths and weaknesses. Team building games and activities can be used by any business, large or small, to promote better teamwork in the workplace, and as most business owners and managers know, great teamwork is one of the key factors associated with a company’s success.

Here is an example of a team building exercise

Spectrum Mapping

Map the diversity of perspectives on a topic by organizing them into a spectrum. This can unearth innovative ideas and show the diversity of opinions within a team. It can also encourage people with unconventional views who otherwise won’t speak up to participate.

1. Start by identifying a few key topics on which you want insight and opinions from the participants.

2. Write down a topic in the center of a whiteboard. Then ask participants to write down their opinions and perspectives on the topic on sticky notes. Post these notes on either side of the topic along a horizontal line

3. Once everyone has chimed in, work with the group to arrange the notes as a "range" of ideas. Group similar ideas together to the left. Place outlying ideas to the right.

4. Continue doing this until you've arranged all ideas as a "spectrum" with most popular ideas to the extreme left, the least popular ideas on the extreme right.

Strategy

Building a spectrum map tells you the diversity of your team's views about a topic. If you choose a topic that's relevant to your business, this little team building exercise can reveal an astonishing amount of unconventional thinking.