Whether you're a startup CEO or working in a large corporation, mastering the art of teamwork and collaboration is essential.

Team building is a key component of business productivity. It enhances morale, collaboration, and shared experience, which in turn helps build teamwork and employee relationships.

But how can you ensure you're using activities that will improve your team? And what exactly is an activity anyway?

Some people use “activities” to describe anything from simple games like Jigsaw Puzzles to complex puzzles like Syllogisms because an activity doesn't necessarily have to be complicated or profitable.

We hope you'll find the ultimate list of team-building activities helpful no matter what industry you are in or what company size you have!

Top team building activities to maximize productivity

The key to the right team-building activities is that they will benefit your company in the longer run.

Here are some top team-building activities to help maximize your team’s productivity.

1. Sporting events and workout sessions

We all know that exercise is good for our minds and bodies - but did you know it can also make us better at work? Studies have shown that physical activity can help improve memory, cognitive function, and moods, meaning there should be no excuses for skipping workouts.

When it comes to choosing a team-building activity, sports are always a popular choice. 

They're inexpensive to keep active while having fun with colleagues simultaneously. Sports activities like football or baseball games will get people fired up, especially if they play against each other! 

In addition, these events are often followed by post-game drinks or dinners with the team members; this gives everyone time to mingle and understand each other's personalities and habits.

2. Problem-solving activities

Problem-solving activities are designed for participants to work together to solve a problem or complete a task. These exercises may require some prior knowledge or experience to be successful; however, they tend to be more engaging than most other team-building activities because they need active thinking and critical patterns to solve problems.

You can indulge your team in problem-solving activities via IAP (Incentive-Award Program) using simple games like Jigsaw Puzzles.

Puzzles like these encourage teamwork by dividing participants into groups based on their skill set or knowledge base to solve problems. These simple yet effective activities are often used in corporate training sessions because it requires participants to communicate with one another frequently throughout the process.

IAP is an award system in which employees earn points for completing tasks or reaching milestones. The points can be redeemed for merchandise or gift cards. You can implement IAP as a competition among teams.

3. Team communication activities

Team communication is essential in the workplace, so your employees need to know how to communicate effectively, especially regarding conflict resolution. Team communication activities will help them learn how to deal with difficult situations more effectively by teaching them how to listen better, communicate clearly and resolve conflicts peacefully.

Here are some team-building activities that are surefire ways to improve your company culture:

Brainstorming on a dummy project or coming up with a business plan together/playing Shark Tank at the office/virtual retrospective sessions for remote or hybrid teams/playacting team roles in different scenarios/role-play games where everyone pretends to be from another country (or planet!)

Recommended reading: 10 tools to improve internal communications in your business

4. Team bonding and camaraderie activities

When choosing team bonding activities, ensure they are relevant to your company culture and don’t take away from time spent working on projects or completing tasks. Ensure the activity is engaging but not too intense so all employees can participate without feeling overwhelmed or exhausted at work after it’s over.

Some examples include:

5. Volunteer activities

Volunteering helps employees feel good about themselves while helping others in need. It is a great way to get your entire team involved in community service projects such as cleaning up parks or schools, serving meals at homeless shelters or soup kitchens, walking dogs at animal shelters, and more! You can even plan a day where all staff members volunteer together on a Saturday morning!

6. Art sessions

Art doesn't have to be something you do in school; it can also be fun for adults! Invite everyone to your office for an art session where everyone can create something unique using various art supplies like paint, markers, and more!

7. Virtual watercooler moments

This is a fun way to help your team bond over something they all have in common, e.g., their love for social media! You can set up a private Facebook group where everyone can post pictures or updates about themselves or their lives or even just share funny things they find online with each other. This could be done once a week or daily, depending on how much time you have available in your schedule.

According to recent studies, the concept of watercoolers allows team members to share risky ideas, their intentions for the future, and research discussions. Because of this, their productivity gets a boost of 10% to 15%.

Conclusion

Boosting team productivity is a vital part of being a successful business. The problem is that many business owners have little to no experience when it comes to running a team. More importantly, many of the CEOs that do have expertise spend most of their time with individual tasks in mind, not for team productivity. That's where activities such as those on our list come into play. 

They will help you solidify your group's goals and prevent your group from falling into a series of negative habits. 

Of course, the activities included here are only meant to provide examples. They should be added to or molded to fit your group's and business's unique needs as it grows. 

In addition to team building activities, you can also employ tools such as OSlash to enhance team productivity. OSlash is a complete productivity suite for the workspace that allows you to accelerate team collaboration via shared snippet-management and URL management. You can use it to transform your most-used snippets and links into superfast shortcuts (such as o/pitch or o/roadmap) for you and your team. OSlash is extremely helpful to find, access, and share work at the speed of light.

We encourage you to utilize these tips and tricks as you and your team continue your efforts toward increased team productivity.