3 Teamwork Exercises That Help Improve Productivity

Want to hear something counterintuitive? Despite the chaos and uncertainty of COVID-19, workplace productivity levels have actually improved by 5% since it hit. Employees may have had to work from home and adopt brand new systems, yet they’ve still managed to get more done than usual!

Ready to step those productivity levels up even further? You’re in the right place! Check out these 3 awesome teamwork exercises that’ll increase productivity in no time.

1. A Penny for Your Thoughts

Resources: A jar full of pennies!

Method: Ask the team to sit in a circle around the jar of pennies. You then take it in turns to pick a coin from it and reveal something of interest that happened to you (or that you did) in the year on the penny. Working from home?

Try doing a virtual event over Zoom, where a moderator withdraws a penny for each person and tells them the year.

Benefits: Great for team building and a powerful ice-breaker, you’ll learn something new about each other and discover common interests, strengthening relationships as a result. That, in turn, should facilitate teamwork and improve productivity.

2. Celebrity Name Game

Resources: Paper, pen, sticky tape.

Method: Use the paper to create a small index card for each employee. Write the name of a celebrity on each card and then stick one onto the back of each team member as they arrive (don’t let them see what’s on it!). When everybody’s been assigned a celeb, they have 10 minutes to walk around asking questions in a bid to figure out “who they are”.

Then, when they think they have an answer, ask them to write the guess on a board alongside their actual name. After the 10 minutes is up, bring everyone together to remove the cards from their backs, and discuss their strategy for finding answers.

Benefits: This is a fun team-building game that brings people together around a common goal; the time limit also adds a level of pressure that simulates the stress of work! Asking astute questions to discover answers is also a transferable skill that may prove useful in their roles and facilitate productivity in the process.

3. Communicate On 4-Walls

Resources: Paper, pen, sticky tape.

Method: Take four pieces of paper and write down a common form of communication on each one (e.g. e-mail, direct messaging, phone calls, face to face meetings). Next, use the sticky tape to attach each piece to a different wall in the room. Then ask everyone to stand next to the wall with their preferred method of communication, taking it in turns to explain why you chose that one over the others.

Benefits: Each member of the team learns who responds best to which form of contact. They can then take those insights forward into future correspondence with each other, boosting collaboration, satisfaction, and productivity thereafter.

Try These Teamwork Exercises

Teamwork exercises are an amazing way to improve camaraderie, learn more about each other, and boost productivity in the process. With countless options out there, though, the tricky part’s picking the best exercises for the job! Know the struggle?

Well, we hope the top examples in this post will help. To read more articles on similar topics, search ‘team’ on the website now.