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Office work can sometimes increase tension and stress among employees. If you are in a small group, of course you can see and feel the effects of high tension from employees and this can affect their performance results. Icebreaker games are needed to reduce employee stress and restore their work focus. Gathering employees to do something fun can be a relief even though their work is full of difficulties or problems. But what are some fun icebreaker activities, games, and ideas for small groups? Read this article until the end. Why do we need icebreaker games? Icebreaker games can build relationships between employees, create a team or organizational culture, relieve stress, reduce tension in the work atmosphere, and make employees re-focus on what they do. Icebreaker activities can be a tool to help participants spend time interacting with coworkers and learning about each other.  12 Best Team Building Events for Work Whatever the current work environment, icebreaker activities are the key to making conditions more comfortable. You can do it during a meeting, before starting work, or before work is over. What is a fun icebreaker activity? Fun icebreaker activity for small groups is any activity that can involve all participants, so that they can interact with each other. Let employees help you in preparing icebreaker activities. Prepare icebreaker ideas using equipment you have purchased previously, or using items you have in the office. Or you can receive suggestions from employees about what icebreaker games they know. If you are still confused about what activities are suitable, you can see some of the best icebreaker activity ideas from us. 15 fun and unique icebreaker games for team Icebreakers for small groups can be made as exciting as possible and provide valuable lessons for all participants. There are many types of games that you can use, such as indoor team building, connection games, small group games, problem solving, etc. Here is the list. Classic riddle Have you ever heard of the classic chicken, wolf, and grain riddle? This riddle is very suitable for icebreakers in small groups. Tell the group about the story: "A farmer was traveling with a chicken, a wolf, and a bag of grain. They had to go through a river to cross. The boat could only accommodate one chair for the farmer and one other piece of luggage. The farmer could not leave the chicken with a bag of grain, or leaving the wolf alone with the chickens. How can farmers get them all across the river?" Team members have to think together about how farmers can move the loads one by one without anything getting lost. Here is the answer for the riddle: The farmer brings the chicken first. The farmer returns to take the wolf, and after crossing the river, the wolf is put down and the chicken is taken back. After returning to the starting point, the farmer put the chicken away and took out a bag of grain. When you cross the river, a wolf will be with a bag of grain. Last step is the farmer retrieve the chicken. Speed networking Speed networking is an activity that makes it easier for teams to know each other. Pair your team into groups of two. Give each pair an icebreaker question, and five minutes to answer as many questions as they like. After five minutes is over, switch up the pairs. After switching up the pair, you can give them time to chat for a while to discuss what questions they had with the previous pair. Because you are doing it with a smaller group, you can cycle through the pairs more than once. This activity will give employees time to chat about some information and how they can answer as many questions as possible. Achievements under 18 This icebreaker activity is very suitable for small groups because each participant must convey what achievements they have had until the age of 18. These accomplishments can range from personal, academic, and hobby. Every employee will remember any moment they have from their childhood, and can lead to questions about personal triumphs. This activity is a fun way to grow each employee's self-confidence again, and a great way to get to know each other. Jenga questions You and your team can play Jenga and also answer questions. Give a number to each piece of Jenga, and write questions according to the sequential number. As each participant successfully draws a brick, they must answer a question. This activity creates an easygoing and spontaneous way for employees to share information about themselves. While they have to stay focused on balancing Jenga blocks, they will also have fun answering the questions that have been prepared. Creativity of a brand manager Ask your team members to imagine themselves opening a business. Each group must decide how they market their new brand. Let the group determine the logos, slogans, and products they choose. Share and vote for which group has the best marketing strategy. This icebreaker game will foster creativity for the team, and you can see several individuals who have good talents in certain fields, and we can know what they are passionate about. Six word memoirs Six word memoirs are a suitable activity for team building and spark discussions. Each team member needs to brainstorm about six words that summarize their life, and they need to share their six word memoir with the group. Each team member needs to choose the right words to explain it to the group. Each six words can be a question and explanation, while we can find out interesting insights about each other. Time heist Have you ever thought about what you would do if you could go back in time? This game is inspired by the events of Avengers Endgame, with time heist as a game for teams in what would pull it off if they could time travel. Ask your team to write down their time travel plans on paper, and place it on an opaque container. Then pass the container around and each team member draws a paper and discusses what is written on the paper. Time heists can provide an amazing way to learn about each other, and how creative they are as a team. The marshmallow challenge The marshmallow challenge is a fun team building game for work. Split your team into pairs and give each group 10 sticks of dry spaghetti, three feet of string, three feet of tape, and one marshmallow. Each pair has 10 minutes to build the tallest structure with the marshmallow on top. This activity requires communication, teamwork, and innovation. After the challenge is complete, you can gather the team and discuss which part of the game is the most difficult, which structure is the best, who failed the first, how they overcame it, and what they think about other designs. 10 things in common Divide your team into pairs and instructions to discover 10 things that they have in common. After the pairs find similarities with their partners, they can switch pairs to find other 10 things in common. This game can speed up the time in finding out about each other, as well as what things they like together to add excitement to the conversation. Who am I? Who am I is a fun game that requires some preparation. Choose some well-known real people, and some fictional characters. Write the individual names on paper and tape a paper to each person's back. Each participant goal is a figure out who they are. They have to ask coworkers to find the answers. Answerers may not mention their names directly, and can only answer yes or no. The game ends when all participants can guess who the name on the paper is. To make the game easier, you can create a theme. For example, you can give a clue to all participants that the theme this time is Hollywood actors. Word association Word association is a quick and easy game to learn how teams think. Make a list of ten words, and you can change the number based on your needs. Next, each participant writes one word through ten on a piece of paper and reads each worn. Let employees think about what sentences come to their minds after listening to all the words from coworkers. After the lists are complete, teammates will share the response to each word. This game is interesting because we can understand how employees make connections and their logic. Superhero wars Divide the room into two to four people per team. Every person must choose one superhero, such as Iron Man, Katniss, Gandalf, and take on their powers. Teams now go to battle verbally. You can see how excited they are to defend their superheroes to keep winning, while the creativity of each employee creates good stories. The group leader decides which superhero team wins the war. Talent show Every employee has the opportunity to show their talents in front of coworkers. The talents might be anything, starting from singing, card tricks, stand up comedy, or teaching new skills. The more random, the better icebreaker will be. Song scramble This is a unique game that can be played for small groups. Each participant will choose a song they like and sing it, then they stop suddenly at one word, and appoint a coworker to continue the word with a song of their own choice. Continue the game until there are only two players left who can continue one word to the new song. Would you rather The group leader points to one of the participants and asks a question such as "would you rather eat at the restaurant or fine dining at the hotel?" After answering the question, that person points to other participants and asks the next question. Let each participant prepare fun questions, so that the office atmosphere becomes cheerful and lots of conversations go on. Icebreaker games, activities and ideas are needed to help employees reduce stress, tension, restore focus, or prepare before they start work or meetings. Icebreaker activities for small groups can be a means to strengthen relationships with coworkers and create a positive culture in the organization.   If you need other information about advancing your business through team building, leadership skills, or problem solving, you can check our site. SMEBrother has all the important tips for advancing businesses from small to medium scale. 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Monitoring the team's performance and keeping them motivated and in high morale is quite a difficult task. But, it would be more difficult if we had a virtual team that worked remotely most of the time. We have to think about how to build virtual teams to focus on the same goals, and bond with coworkers even though they work in different places. We have collected several virtual team building activities that you can use to strengthen virtual team collaboration. How do you keep a virtual team motivated? There are several factors to ensure your team stays motivated. For employees who work in the office, it will be easier, because you can meet them directly, ask what they need, ask if there are any particular difficulties, and keep them focused on tackling challenges in no time. But it's different from a virtual team, because we have to ask questions via video call or chat, and can only discuss more during meetings. Several important factors to keep virtual teams motivated are providing them with the right tools, using surveys to gauge motivation, talking about adaptive performance, virtual team building and employee recognition. How do you plan a virtual team building? It might seem overwhelming to gather a virtual team to do team building. But don't worry, we will give you some simple steps to plan virtual team building activities. It might seem overwhelming to gather a virtual team to do team building. But don't worry, we will give you some simple steps to plan virtual team building activities. First, prepare time for a virtual team building event. Notify all virtual employees to be present with a note in the group chat, or email them personally. Second, decide what kind of activities you want to do for team building. Don't forget to have fun while strengthening communication with each other, especially looking for activities that can boost employees' morale. Top Ways To Improve Employee Productivity Third, if you still can't determine what activities are interesting for your employees, make a survey about what events are suitable for groups to see their excitement about team building activities. 14 virtual team building activities for remote employees Let's take a look at some online team games & activities to boost their morale, communication, and potential for collaboration. If we missed any favorite activities that you usually do with coworkers, please let us know by commenting below. Virtual team challenges The virtual team challenge is to create a team from several random employees, completing several games in fun and unique ways. These challenges may include physical activities, puzzles, riddle-solving, trivia knowledge, etc. This is a fun activity because we can understand our team's strengths and weaknesses, and give them the opportunity to do something together virtually while learning about problem solving in the games they play. Holiday themed zoom call One of the interesting team building events is the schedule for Zoom meetings with a holiday theme. Notify all employees to prepare decorations or clothes that match the theme you choose, starting from Halloween, mid-autumn festival, New Years Eve, etc. Don't forget to reward employees with the most unique costumes or decorations. This is a fun activity because you can change the theme according to your wishes. You can hold themed Zoom meetings every time there is a special occasion, and teach the virtual team to be together to always participate in the excitement. Virtual recognition wall Like the wall of fame concept, simply create a wall from social media to send out a message to your team during meetings, as a form of employee recognition for employees who excel. Coworkers can post messages, videos, photos, GIFs, memes, and all the fun ways to convey their support and recognize their peers virtually. Doing interactive activities together Choose several interactive activities like baking parties, art nights, cooking classes, and many more. Let the employee receive a team building kit at their home. All they need to do is bring the box and show up to a virtual meeting while doing a series of activities. This activity can provide a fun experience of doing things together even in different places, while experiencing new things like baking or cooking. Open mic virtual icebreaker Prepare 10 minutes before each meeting starts for one employee to take the virtual stage. Ask them to do something they want, such as reading a poem, singing a song, doing stand up comedy, or playing an instrument. Allow their teammates to snap and applaud after these glorious performances. Dance party Ask each employee to write down their favorite dance songs, then collect the data and prepare some of the songs to play later. During icebreaker time, tell all employees to enjoy the music and allow them to dance, sing along, or laugh together. Take special time to ask the person who entered the song choice, why they chose that song as their most favorite to know the backstory of it. Name that emoji song title This is a fun game that you can do virtually. Determine who goes first, and put a timer for each person to answer the questions. Other team members can only give clues by using only emojis to the title of the song. Everyone else takes turns to guess the song, until time runs out. Reveal the song, and if no one can guess correctly, you can do it for another song title. Department quiz battle Choose two departments that will conduct a trivia battle. Create a list of 10 trivia questions using Google Form. Send out the questions to both departments with time limits. Make 3-4 rooms of trivia, and each team records the answers on digital sheet provided by the host. You can make trivia battles more interesting by displaying answer players, such as whose answer is the funniest? Who answered the fastest? Which department has the highest points? etc. Snapshot virtual icebreaker Ask everyone to take a picture of something, such as pets, kids, desk spaces, outfit, etc. Have everyone upload their pictures and create a digital collage of everyone's snapshots. Spend time to compliments the pics or asking questions about it. Solving problems Divide employees into groups of 3-4 people. Give a case regarding work or real-life problems. Let each group discuss about the case, and give time for each group to express their opinion and how they solved the problem. The interesting thing about this activity is that each group can share their point of view and do problem solving as a group. Virtual comedy show Provide memorable virtual team building by inviting famous stand up comedians in your area to inject a fun and laughter into your team. This is easy to set up, ideal for small teams, and provides relaxation time for employees. A comedy doesn't have to be work related, and tell the talent to craft the comedy as interesting as possible for the time you set. Learning course together For personal development, you can take online courses and watch them together with the team. Giving virtual teams time to learn together with their team is an impressive and useful experience for improving their skills as well as team bonding. GIF wars virtual icebreaker Set the rule for 1-2 minutes per person to reply to a gif from their coworker. Choose a theme for the GIF war each week, like dogs, cats, movies, sports, etc. To make it more interesting, every GIF sent must be relevant or create a story in it. Go around and vote for who can provide the best GIF and can create a story from the GIF wars to keep going. Getting know each other The host will say one of the employees' names. The coworkers are given 1-3 minutes to convey what they know about their coworkers. Do this until everyone has said what they know about, and give time for the chosen one to reveal which one matches what their friend described, and correct it if something isn't right. Do it in a professional way, without blaspheming or demeaning coworkers, as a form of respect for friends.   Virtual teams must still pay attention to their cohesiveness, because it is more difficult for you to form a team when they are in their respective workplaces. By doing team building activities, you can teach the virtual team to stay collaborative and align their goals. 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Enhance workplace culture with these 12 engaging activities, promoting teamwork, communication, and positivity. From professional development to team building, recognition, and well-being meetings, these strategies foster a cohesive and motivated workforce. Elevate your company culture with these enjoyable initiatives to boost morale, productivity, and collaboration. Explore more insights and resources for small and medium-sized businesses on smebrother.com, your ultimate destination for growth and success.

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Companies tend to choose employees with high qualifications in the recruitment process. It was only the beginning. Maintaining employee performance to keep showing their best is more important. If companies want to achieve long-term success, they must recognize that their employees are valuable assets to them. When an employee does not perform well, it will affect the company's achievement. Employee performance can be observed from the work quality completed, the ability to meet deadlines, as well as the way they communicate both with customers and colleagues. Many companies find it difficult to improve employee performance and motivate them. It only needs a simple-basic thing, that is better communication. Tell the employees what kind of performance we expect them to perform, and give them feedback on their work progress and result. Give the best commitment to do it regularly, day by day, to support our employees in improving their performance. But first, make the expectation clear. How Do You Define High Performance? The term "high performance" may be interpreted differently by many people. We can say high performance is achieving better than expected results consistently. Other literature says high performance is the capability in dealing with a high standard. So, a high-performing employee is someone who consistently overachieves the expectation set for them. Setting clear goals and identifying how to asses employees’ performance is necessary before improving their performance. Here are some ways to define high performance. 1. Map employees according to their characteristics, skills, and abilities to set a baseline. Identify the high-performing employees of the team and find out what makes them better than their peers when performing the same role. Discover the traits, skills, and competencies that enable them to drive them success in the role. We can set a baseline for every specific role and use it to improve all team members’ performance. 2. Connect individual outputs to strategic value. Every role has potential impacts. Review the job descriptions and determine the most expected outcome for each role. Identify which outcome has the most strategic value and sort the tasks of each role according to priority. It will help employees to focus their best efforts on those outputs when plays a specific role. 3. Generate a standardized criteria to assess employees performance. Evaluating employee performance so far has been difficult, because there are no clear criteria. Often managers as assessors are subjective, only using their perceptions or preferences. Without clear criterias, managers can only estimate whether the performance is adequate. Managers should assess each employee performance based on the outcomes achieved. To consider whether an employee performs high-performance, list the specific outcome for each role after setting up the baseline and determining each role strategic impact. Why is it important to improve employee performance in a workplace? Employees' performance plays a critical role in the company's success. If the employees are productive and well-motivated, it will be easy for them to meet the targets. The more employees perform high performance, the faster and easier the company achieves its goals. Otherwise, the company may spend more time and energy to get the employees nailed on the target set up for them. Maximizing employee performance makes the employees work more efficiently. It will make the company accomplish its goals earlier and cost more effectively. Moreover, this can increase employee satisfaction with the company so that employee turnover rarely occurs. We all agree that the employees' experience in a role influences their performance. If it happens too frequently, it will affect the quality of the work. Top 4 Ways to Improve Work Performance There are many different strategies to improve employees' work performance. You can manage the daily practices better and create better communication. You can start defining the expectation clearly, communicating effectively, listening more, avoiding micromanaging, creating a performance improvement plan as needed, conducting employee training, and encouraging feedback.  You can also improve employee performance by creating a better workplace culture. Here are the top four ways to improve work performance. Demonstrating authenticity Show that the company supports and respects authenticity. Leaders must demonstrate the company's values in their daily actions. It will increase employee loyalty and respect for the company so that their performance will also increase. Leaders also need to reward employees for their high performance, for example showing verbal recognition in meetings to increase employee pride in their work. So, there will be good collaboration between the leaders and the employees to find better and faster solutions. Creating a culture of a transparency You can create a culture of transparency by letting employees feel the performance of everyone in the company so they can see whether their contributions fit in. It can make everyone motivated to work better and get higher results. You can also declare objectives and main results framework to create transparency. The employees can see how their work relates to the company's goals. With this perspective, employees can build self-awareness and can improve their performance. Encouraging Stretch goals Get the employees to move out of their comfort zone by encouraging them to set stretch goals. Stretch goals are ambitious goals and may seem impossible to achieve. It can make them continue to do self-improvement and learn. Even though this seems risky, encouraging employees to set stretch goals can make them feel that the company trusts their capability and values their contribution. Appreciation Employees who have worked according to expectations and targets need to be given appreciation. You can give appreciation by making them employee of the month to encourage others to be on the same spot. Don't forget to give souvenirs or corporation gifts to lift their spirit to pursue being the best every month. If employees are well motivated and keep at good performance, you can plan to hold a field trip or office vacation once a while.   How to improve employee performance is crucial in helping the company achieve its ultimate goals. The company should not hesitate to invest in one of its most valuable assets. Many companies provide proper training to boost their employees' performance. It might take time, cost, and effort, but it will be worth it. If the employees' performance is improved, their productivity is also increasing. They will accomplish the targets better and faster. So, the company needs less time and energy to achieve its goals. It is one step closer to the company's success. If you're looking for a reliable source of information and resources for small and medium-sized businesses, look no further than smebrother.com. Our website offers a wide range of articles, guides, and tools to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses and overcome challenges. Whether you're just starting out or looking to take your business to the next level, our team of experts is here to support you every step of the way. Check out smebrother.com today and see how we can help your business thrive.

2020年對於大部份做生意的創業兄弟來說，是極度困難的一年。最受影響的當然是飲食業，旅遊業及各類型服務性行業。假如到現在你還沒有放棄，2021年你更加應該撐下去。因為我深信最黑暗的時間已經過去了。如何撐下去呢？以下是一些筆者的愚見：

踏進2021年，有志創業的朋友又是否適合開始呢？我認為是的。在基礎層面上，經濟疲弱，社會消費氣氛差，這些都是鐵一般的事實。但以上的客觀現實，同樣創造了一些千載難逢的創業空間：