Management Retreats – Pack The Trip With Interesting Games To Boost Teamwork

By Author: Mark Cohen
Total Articles: 43
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Planning a retreat for your company’s staff? If yes, you can make the trip fun-filled with games that are not only amusing to play but also boost teamwork and improve leadership and problem-solving skills. Let’s read on to learn how fun activities make management retreats a huge success.




Who Am I Game




Begin with this activity. Each of the participants will be assigned a role in the organization, such as a receptionist, clerk, data entry operator, and a financial officer. The members participating can mingle with each other and ask 3-4 questions about each other’s job responsibilities and duties. One has to guess the job title. If the guessing is correct, the title gets added to the list. The person who has the maximum number of titles will be rewarded with some prize. This is an activity that improves communication and interaction between team members. When planning team building retreats, try out this fun game.




Treasure Hunting




This is a game with some clues that people ...
... from specific departments will understand. The team should be properly divided so that employees from different departments get an opportunity to participate and work in collaboration. This activity improves cooperation and coordination.




Storytelling and Role Play




This is a game that will help introvert employees speak out and recount any interesting anecdotes. It can be anything from their personal experiences. Members can also invent any role playing game so that people who are reticent can play a role and speak at the same time. Ask some of the participants to enact a situation when an employee is about to resign. This will help seniors to tackle staff who like to gossip, or pass the buck. There can be enactment of people coming late to office and the excuses they are coming up with.




Exercises to Improve Communication Skills




Some exercises can be performed to improve communication skills and communicate clearly. One of the members is blindfolded. Another participant will explain step by step how to put jam on a piece of bread. Bread slices, knife, and a pot of jam will be placed on a table near the person who is blindfolded. The other member who is explaining the steps will clearly instruct how to apply jam on bread. The blindfolded member will do as instructed. This is a useful exercise to explain things clearly and follow instructions.




Silent Auction




A silent auction can be organized, and items will be described with the help of symbolic clues. It can be a birthday cake or something as mundane as an old pair of socks. The person responsible for describing the items will hint with the aid of cryptic gestures. Others are required to work as a team to understand what these items are. Each team needs to be given some amount of money to bid for the things. This is an activity that improves problem-solving abilities.
The games or exercises organized at management retreats are not only entertaining but also effective to improve teamwork, and leadership abilities. These activities improve team morale and bring colleagues together, particularly those members who are shy and introvert by nature.




About the author:




Mark Cohen has been an organizational head for the past twenty years and he well understands the essence of management retreats and team building retreats to make companies grow and develop with maximum potential.