Top 10 Team Building Exercise Tips

Top 10 Reasons for Team Building
1. To gain dynamic rapport among team members.
2. To open the climate for streamlined communication.
3. To stimulate creativity.
4. To discover new ways of strategizing and solving challenges.
5. To surface hidden problems & agendas.
6. To appreciate individual differences and strengths.
7. To learn trust.
8. To welcome and handle change.
9. To strengthen teamwork and motivation.
10. To learn and have fun at the same time!

Top 10 Tips for Outstanding Trainers
1. Be flexible. The unexpected can be your greatest moments.
2. Be well-prepared. Back-up props, back-up activities, back-up agenda, back-up everything.
3. Leave your ego outside the room. Follow the flow of the group even when it goes off your     course.
4. Tell personal stories that are true and make a point.
5. Ask outstanding questions (so that true learning and reflection abound).
6. Anticipate resistance, deviations, and mistakes. How you handle these impacts the whole day     and is usually where the learning takes place.
7. Pause often. Whether after a sentence, after an activity, or after a de-brief, allow your     participants to think and reflect. This is the time when they come up with their own solutions     and lessons.
8. Take risks and try new things. We teach what we need to learn.
9. Involve the whole group. Design the learning so that the learners focus on themselves and each     other. You create the learning experience ---- and then step back.
10. Keep the day fun, fun, fun. And always close with high impact.

Top 10 Tips for Outstanding Workshops
1. Geography, geography, geography. Choose an off-site facility away from work.
2. Challenge by choice / Right to pass / Confidentiality.
3. Safety, safety, safety (physical & emotional).
4. Take lots of breaks.
5. Use lots of variety in your presentation styles...to match all the different learning styles in your     group (auditory, visual, kinesthetic).
6. Occasionally divide into sub-groups for maximum involvement.
7. Get up and move around. Change the seating assignments. Go outside. Human attention spans     are short.
8. Make time for reflection and de-brief time after activities to share the learnings.
9. Fun, fun, fun!
10. End on time.

Top 10 Worst Mistakes Trainers Make
1. Forgetting to check the facility ahead of time for lighting, sound, audio-visual, room temperature,     props, and overall participant comfort.
2. Starting late OR WORSE…running overtime.
3. Talking too much.
4. Forgetting break times.
5. Not laughing at yourself when the unexpected happens. And they will happen.
6. Giving unclear directions.
7. Not smiling.
8. Not involving the participants.
9. Not reading the audience, and therefore, not knowing when to change strategies or pace.
10. The all-time worst mistake --- not being real. Passion is everything. People remember the feeling      they had with the trainer long after the content.

Top 10 De-briefing Tips for Facilitators
1. Ask open-ended questions: What was your experience?, What did you learn?, How will you apply     this new learning?
2. Involve the whole group. That may mean taking the quiet ones aside for a special moment or     two.
3. Expect resistance. That’s where much of the learning takes place.
4. Listen. Listen. Listen. Be invisible.
5. Allow emotions to surface. That’s OK. Experts say that is where most behavioral change takes     place.
6. Follow the group’s lead, momentum, and topics --- not yours.
7. Lead by example: facilitate without judgment or finger-pointing.
8. Say aloud participants’ names, validate their thoughts, and allow discovery to be theirs, not     yours.
9. Maintain an atmosphere of trust, safety, and confidentiality at all times.
10. Always end with closure.