Uniting a team in an organization is quite complicated. A solid team can increase productivity and foster a positive workplace culture. If you don't have good leadership skills, you can overcome them in other ways, such as fostering communication or collaboration within the team. One way to exercise teammates' communication abilities is by holding communication games for teams. These exercises are almost the same as connection games or relationship building games. Let's take a look about examples of communication activities and some unique games for teams.
What are communication games?
Games that focus on building communication between team members. But not only games can be done to increase the level of communication between employees. You can also look for activities that can increase collaboration, because every collaboration always has communication in it.
When we talk about games, ensure all employees participate in them with fun and enthusiasm. The function of the game is to demonstrate the importance of communication in a team, and improve skills for individuals in verbal or nonverbal conversation skills.
Why do teams need communication?
Communication is the key to success in team performance. When employees can understand what their leaders or other team members are talking about on any topic, work becomes more efficient. Moreover, communication builds camaraderie and trust among the team members, increases employee retention, stays engaged in the office, and boosts their morale.
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Now, let's imagine if one team could not communicate properly. Every time there is a message coming from managers or higher-ups, there will be a possibility of misunderstanding or distortion of messages, which increases the potential for conflict. Employees' lack of understanding of what is being done will hinder the time to complete tasks and will reduce the company's revenue overtime.
12 unique communication games for teams
Here are the lists of fun games to improve communication skills for teams.
- Taboo
Taboo is a word guessing game, with players and their partners guessing the word on the card without using the word itself. Another rule is that the player may not use 5 additional words listed on the card, for example if the prohibited word is "soccerball", then the additional words might be "sport", "game", "ball", "soccer", or "teams". This is the exercise for each player to think of another way to tell Taboo words using only speech. Gestures and drawings are not allowed, and only allows word play so that the team can guess what the card holder means.
- Can You Hear Me Now?
This is a fun game that can be played both virtual or together in a room. Each participant needs paper and pens. There is someone who served as a describer, and someone who served as a drawer. Each team is required to draw an object described by the describer, but the describer may only provide directions using gemoetric words like lengths, degrees, and forms until it explains what the word means.
The drawers must follow the instructions until they can depict what they hear. Every drawer that can guess correctly, will get points. After one session is over, the describer can be replaced by a drawer that successfully guesses the word in question.
- Birthday lineup
This is the easiest nonverbal game using a birthday date on a big groups. Participants must line up in chronological order without speaking, only using gestures or holding up fingers to notify other participants of their date of birth. After everything is lined up neatly, the participants say their birthdays one by one, and determine whether the line is in perfect order or not.
- Blindfold stroll
This is the best team building communication activity using an obstacle course and one blindfold player. You can split employees into two groups, and the opposing team can interfere with blindfold players to get to the finish line. Give the opportunity up to 3 times for the blindfold player to be hit by an obstacle. The team with the most players getting to the finish line without being hit by obstacles is the winner.
- The spy
Each participant will be dealt a card by the host containing one word. In the team, there will be one word that is different from one another. Each participant will say one word related to the word on the card, until everyone can say it. After that, the team had to determine who was the spy in the room. What's interesting about this game is, one word that is held by a spy is a much different object but there is still an attachment in terms of color or shape.
For example, the word used is "pencil" and the spy has the word "pen". Participants may use the word "black", "write", or "stationary". The spy can be caught after he uses the word "blue", because pencils cannot emit blue, except for colored pencils.
- Lip reading liars
Each team has one player to explain a word, but the other team members are wearing headsets while listening to a song and cannot hear or understand what the word means. Each team only has one minute to guess the word in question, and if they fail or succeed, they can switch positions until they get the most points with the word guessed.
- Say it with feeling
This is a game that stresses emotional intelligence. Each round, a player will receive a random emotion and a random phrase. Sometimes the phrase and emotion can be opposites. The player must read the sentence with the selected emotion, and their teammates must guess the feeling. This game is really fun, because emotions are complex things.
- Four at a time
This is great for non-verbal communication and teamwork. Prepare a private room with five or more people. Have all participants sit with their own chair, and explain the rules. The game begins with four people having to stand at a time, but no more or less than four people. Then the four can only stand for 10 seconds, and they must sit down to be replaced with someone else. Communication between team members is done non-verbally, and the goal is to keep the game going as long as possible.
- Leadership pizza
Participants draw out a pizza with four to six slices. Then, they asked to put the toppings on the pizza, but instead of sausage, it's a skill of potential leadership strength which is the topping. After the pizza was complete, one of the participants presented their pizza, explaining why they had chosen the leadership skills they wanted.
This activity requires discussion, receiving feedback, and talk among one another until they can determine what leadership skills they want.
- Hello counting
This is an easy game to train concentration and listening skills. Let the participants sit in a circle, and start with one of the participants to start counting. The thrill of this game is, the host chooses a number which will later be changed to the word "hello". When the number appears, the participant must replace saying the number with the word "hello" even though the number is repeated. For example, when the number 3 is changed to "hello", the numbers 13 and 23 will be replaced with one "hello", but when the number is 33, it must be replaced with two "hello".
- Compliment circle
You can spread positive vibes and be kind by doing this team activity. One person as a leader will start to compliment someone on their team. Followed by the person giving a compliment to the coworkers, until everyone is mentioned. This is a good vibes to increase trust in fellow co-workers, and can foster a positive culture in a workplace.
- Freeze walk
This is a fun game that we often do when we are in schoolyard days. There is one person who is blindfolded, and the others will walk slowly to avoid that one person. Other members communicate non-verbally to save themselves, but when a blindfold player shouts "freeze", they have to stop moving. After 5 seconds, they can walk again to dodge, and the last person standing is the winner.
Improving communication verbally or non-verbally is needed to increase trust, collaboration, and productivity. A company with a good level of communication will be able to complete tasks properly and efficiently, shorten time and show the best performance as a team. If you want to know about other information about business progress or how to handle problems in business, you can visit the SMEBrother site, and get information ranging from licensing, finance, to how to thrive your business.
