Team Building Games

One of the team building games required ten of us to stand up in the front of the room wearing big signs around our necks to represent the different departments within the company.

Last year I had to attend orientation for a new job.

Because I am working for a large business management consulting corporation, orientation lasts one full week and there is an entire training department staffed to give classes and presentations to new employees.

I didn’t mind the parts of orientation where they gave background information about the history of the company and its huge line of products.

What I hated were the team building games that were sprinkled in throughout the week.

One of the team building games required ten of us to stand up in the front of the room wearing big signs around our necks to represent the different departments within the company.

Every business department was represented from Quality Control right on down to Shipping.

So we stood there in a circle in front of our fellow new employees wearing big signs and looking like fools, and we were instructed to toss a ball of yarn back and forth to each other to create a yarn web in the middle of our circle.

Then the presenter placed a piece of paper with the company values written on it in the center and instructed us to let go of our strings one at a time.

The object of this little exercise, and most all of the other team building games throughout the orientation, was to show that each department is very important, and if one of us screws up we all fail, which was represented by the values paper falling to the floor.

I always wonder in exercises like this why people who are seemingly intelligent enough to be hired to work for a successful company are then treated like second graders once they get us all into a group setting.

This kind of thing always goes on in corporate training seminars, and it seems that the team building games we’re required to play would be more suited for an elementary school.

Does the trainer think we will somehow not understand the concept of teamwork if we don’t play a game about it?

Am I supposed to think about the yarn web every time I’m tempted to slack off on the job, thus reminding myself that my job is important?

I don’t think I will ever understand the corporate mindset when it comes to juvenile team building games.

One thing I wish was that if I have to participate in silly team building games, that the rewards would be a little bit better.

The prize for winning any of the games was always candy, so no one really tried very hard to compete.

If they were giving away gift cards or cute tee shirts, people would probably feel less foolish about competing.

Glossary: Management Collective administrative heads of a company, institution, business, etc., who are responsible for conducting the affairs of the company (institution, business, etc.) for meeting its short-range and long-range objectives, and for maintaining it as a profit-making organization and/or an ongoing enterprise. Management consulting Management consulting refers to both the practice of helping companies to improve performance through analysis of existing business problems and development of future plans, as well as to the industry composed of firms that specialize in this sort of consulting. Quality control A system for ensuring the maintenance of proper standards in manufactured goods, especially by periodic random inspection of the product.

Online resources and related articles about team building games: Team building game Descriptions of team building activities, initiative games & group problem solving exercises which are designed to help train a group's effectiveness in thinking, communicating, and behaving. Read about Team Building Activities, Initiative Games, & Problem Solving Exercises at Wilderdom.com Tam building ideas These free team building games ideas and rules will help you design and use games and exercises for training sessions, meetings, workshops, seminars or conferences, for adults, young people and children, in work, education or for clubs and social activities. Fee team building games training ideas and tips at Businessballs.com

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