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How can you find more joy at work? In this article, you will find a complete list of the best 5 minute team building activities you can do with your team.
For us Its not easy designing websites, creating new logos and delivering SEO services on an ongoing basis. No one likes the grind. That is why we personally invest an hour a week to socialise and play.
Why 5 Minute Team Building Activities Will Help Your Business?
engaging in easy and fun team building activities can improve your work environment. It will help your team feel safe to fail and explore new opportunities for your company. These activities promote creating a culture where people could feel connected.
Team activities create a positive environment and culture which promotes productivity and creativity. The following three activities are a good starting point. They are designed to make people feel inclusive, empowered, and supported to collaborate, which will consequently create more value for your team and business.
Activity 1 – Meditation Session
Every day we are facing new challenges, personal and professional issues that can change our emotions and state of mind. My team and I use this activity before starting a new project or when we finish a crazy week of work. it helps both to with promoting creativity and to wind down.
more over meditation is a practice that could improve your life, your health and reduce stress and anxiety. if I could summarise it in one sentence, its basically an exercise that helps us enjoy the present moment.
How to prepare for this activity
You need a relaxing space and room for everyone to fit in comfortably.
Switch off your smartphone.
Remove distractions from the room.
Feel free to add any object to make you feel more comfortable in the space (e.g. candles, a diffuser, music, pillows)
Step 1 – Create a comfortable space to relax and get everyone ready
Creating a comfortable space is key if you would like to have a good experience meditating. Ensure everyone in your team feels comfortable and ready to start the activity. Ensure no one has their phone and try to chose a room with no black screens or other distractions.
You can improve the team’s meditation space by checking out Pinterest, where you can find some creative ideas for elements you can add to the room. For example, use a comfortable pillows and blankets, essential oil diffuser, candles, and smooth stones.
Step 2 – Choose a guided meditation of your liking
Mindvalley is a top preference for us. In this article, you could find some of the meditations they recommend depending on what sort of outcome you would like to achieve with your team (Improve sleep, reduce anxiety, mindfulness, wind down etc.).
My go to meditation is The 6 Phase Meditation by Vishen, and it takes around 20 minutes.
Step 3 – Press play and enjoy a peaceful session with your team.
Just relax and let it be. Enjoy the meditation session and be present in the moment.
After the meditation, ensure you ask your team about the experience and if they would enjoy more of these activities in the future.
Activity 2 – The Gratitude Test
When was the last time that you asked your team members how they are doing ? And how often do you do it?
It sounds very basic, but we all get busy with many dead lines and projects. So sometimes we forget to think about each other and what is happening around us.
Step 1 – Get your team together and ask one at a time the following two questions
With this activity, you should spend 3 to 5 minutes and ask your team one by one, “On a scale of 1-5, how is everyone doing today?”
Then ask the second question “what were your top 3 highlights for last week”. This question could activate your team to think positively about their best moments of the day and bring grateful energy to the space you are sharing.
Another option for this step is to ask your team to draw the 3 highlights instead of talking about them. Then show the drawing to the team and talk about it. This could make things more funny and creative.
Step 2 – Let them share and talk freely
During the activity listen to what the team say. Let each one of them answer the question at their turn. You will find that some speak more and that is ok. Some people just like talking more then others.
Be sympathetic and appreciative if people are getting deep with their answers.
Step 3 – Thank you for sharing
Summarise the session by thanking the team for sharing their feelings and thoughts. Now you know a little bit more about your team and what can make them happy.
Activity 3 – The Creativity Challenge
This activity is tailored for team building and is very effective before a brainstorming session. It is Basically designed to help us think outside the box.
The goal is to think of 30 different ways to turn circles into recognizable objects in 5 minutes.
This exercise helps the brain to be flexible, generate more ideas and combine thoughts. in a group setting it also helps people feel more connected to others in the team.
How to prepare for this activity?
You will need to supply your team with a sitting area where they can draw. And a pencil/pen and paper for each of the team members .
We recommend you provide your team with other materials you think can help them be more creative, such as stickers, watercolours, crayons, graphite sticks, colour pens etc.
Step 1 – Draw 30 circles on a piece of paper
Give all the team members a piece of paper and ask them to draw 30 identical circles on it. They should be fairly evenly spread apart covering all the space. They can either be in a table format or evenly spread out on the whole paper.
Step 2 – 5 minutes to draw anything using the circle
Using your pen convert the circles to what ever your heart desires in 5 minutes. Try to get creative and not just draw different faces in the circles. draw a sun, or a cup or what ever you can use the circle for. Try to use all the 30 circles.
Its not a competition if you get less than 30 drawings that is ok.
Step 3 – Go around and present your art
Let each team member show what they have created, and try to get them to talk a little bit about each of the circles.
enjoy this moment, check who was the most creative and see if anyone drawn the same thing. Once everyone displayed their art the activity is complete and you are now more ready for your brain storming session.
This activity also help identify who can be more creative and suitable for brainstorming tasks that can benefit out of multiple solutions.
