Team building and icebreakers have been the butt of office jokes since the invention of the office building. Introverts tend to hate them and extroverts look forward to them.

But as much as they are a mainstay of office culture, the benefits of incorporating them into your yearly schedule can be ignored.

When you work in an office, you are part of a machine. And when each part of the machine is up to doing the overall tasks assigned to the machine, you have productivity.

But when parts of a machine quit working together, things begin to break down. This happens often as over 80% of the U.S. workforce feel very stressed about their jobs.

You need your “machine” of an office to work smoothly. One way to make this happen is through corporate team building activities. Let’s look at the benefits.

1. Gain An Efficiency Boost

When you get together and solve something fun together, you grease the wheels of relationship. People let their guard down when they are having fun. Which leads to a deeper understanding of one another.

When people understand each other, they will better understand each role in the company. Your employees will waste less time in conflict with one another and use more time working toward the goal of your company.

2. Gain Definition Of Company Roles

In team building, you figure out where you fit in. You may think you fit in one part of the “machine” but you’ve been blind to the fact that you fit in another part of the machine.

This can be eye-opening to an employee who thought they understood their strengths and weaknesses within the team.

3. Learn Each Other’s Communication Styles

The McKinsey Global Institute found that if you want to improve productivity by a good 20-25%, you give your employees a method with which to connect and communicate effectively.

Team building games and activities will help you employees learn each other’s communication styles. You may not even realize that your own communication style clashes with the communication style of another employee.

Sometimes, people assume other people communicate the same way as them. Many people don’t even realize that other people communicate in very different ways.

4. Improve Morale

Forcing people to cheer up will never work. You can’t just flip a switch and have improved morale. You have to do something creative. You have to get your employees away from all that stress.

Giving your employees a break is always a good thing. But just letting them off for the day won’t give you all the other benefits we’ve already mentioned.

Instead, give them a temporary change of environment for the day. Treat them to an awesome activity for the day.

You employees will thank you for it and they will come back refreshed.

Conclusion:

Corporate team building exercises are a sure way to build morale, improve communication, and boost efficiency.

Despite the jokes surrounding team building and ice breakers, your team can most assuredly benefit from taking a day to work together on something fun and non-work-related.

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