Be Passionately
Curious

BUILD YOUR COMMUNICATION AND LISTENING SKILLS.

Team Building Activities encompass a wide range of structured exercises, games, and initiatives designed to enhance collaboration, communication, trust, and camaraderie among team members. These activities serve as valuable tools for strengthening bonds within teams, fostering a positive work environment, and promoting a sense of unity and belonging among team members.

There are hundreds to choose from, but we’ll highlight one called Hidden Object. This particular activity is fun to do, but provides the opportunity to highlight the importance of being a good listener and communicating well.

What to do:

❶ Depending on the number of groups you’ll have and the number of rounds you’d like to facilitate, gather up objects around the home or office that you can borrow for the activity, and a bag to carry them in while keeping them hidden.
❷ Explain the activity as a way to practice both communication and listening skills. Everyone should have something they can draw with. Here’s how it works: One person from each group will see a hidden object; they will then describe what it looks like without giving away any specific clues to what the object is. Based only on the description of what it looks like, the rest of the group will individually try to draw what they hear described to them, until someone can guess the object.
❸ Ask for one volunteer from each group to be the communicator, while the rest of the group will be the listeners. The group should rearrange their chairs if needed so the communicator can be behind them and the listeners can all hear and draw without looking to where the communicator will be sitting. The communicator should not be able to see the active drawings.
❹ Provide one object to each of the communicators or let them each select one object from the bag without looking. Remind the communicators to keep their objects hidden from their group.
❺ The communicators return to their groups and get the activity started.
❻ Once the object is guessed, the group can review the drawings and discuss how that activity went, what went well and if they have any ideas on how they could do better if they had a chance to do the activity again.
❼ Have a brief discussion about the activity with all of the groups involved so others can hear a few highlights from the other groups.
❽ Repeat the activity if you wish. You can let the groups switch the communicator or keep the same setup.

Option: Bring multiples of the same object if you want teams to race against the others. When each team has a different object it can be unfair based on the complexity or familiarity of the object. The speed aspect of this option may conflict with the priority of emphasising the importance of good communication and listening, but it also creates a collaborative element to the team of drawers within each group, and competitiveness can increase engagement.