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Illinois Team Building Ideas & Tips
Here are some useful techniques, theory and ideas for designing and using your own team building games, exercises and activities.
There are many team building games, exercises and activities available on our site. Team building games, exercises and activities help build teams, develop employee motivation, improve communications and are fun - for corporate organizations, groups, children's development and even kids parties. Team building games, exercises, activities and quizzes also warm up meetings, improve training, and liven up conferences. 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. Team building games, exercises and activities can also enhance business projects, giving specific business outputs and organizational benefits. We cannot accept responsibility for any liability which arises from the use of any of these free team building ideas or games. Always ensure that you have proper insurance in place for all team building games activities, and take extra care when working with younger people, children and organizing kids party games, especially when using inflatatables such as rock walls, bounce houses, slides and more.

Great teamwork makes things happen more than anything else in organizations. At the heart of the best examples of teamwork is love and spirituality which helps bring mutual respect, compassion, and humanity to work. People working for each other in teams is powerful force, more than skills, processes, policies. More than annual appraisals, management-by-objectives, the 'suits' from head office; more than anything. Teams usually become great teams when they decide to do it for themselves - not because someone says so. Something inspires them maybe, but ultimately the team decides. It's a team thing. It has to be. The team says: 'Okay. We can bloody well make a difference. We will be the best at what we do. We'll look out for each other and succeed - for us - for the team. And we'll make sure we enjoy ourselves while we're doing it'. And then the team starts to move mountains.

Using and planning team-building activities In Illinois
People are best motivated if you can involve them in designing and deciding the activities - ask them. Secondly you will gain most organizational benefit if the activities are geared towards developing people's own potential - find out what they will enjoy doing and learning. Games can be trite or patronizing for many people - they want activities that will help them learn and develop in areas that interest them for life, beyond work stuff - again ask them. When you ask people commonly you'll have several suggestions which can be put together as a collection of experiences that people attend or participate in on a rotating basis during the day or the team-building event. Perhaps you have people among your employees who themselves have special expertise or interests which they'd enjoy sharing with others; great team activities can be built around many hobbies and special interests. If you are planning a whole day of team-building activities bear in mind that a whole day of 'games' is a waste of having everyone together for a whole day. Find ways to provide a mix of activities that appeal and help people achieve and learn - maybe build in exercises focusing on one or two real work challenges or opportunities, using a workshop approach. Perhaps involve a few employees in planning the day (under your guidance or not according to the appropriate level of delegated authority) - it will be good for their own development and will lighten your load.
 

Illinois team exercises for developing new ethical organizations
Corporate Team-building exercises and activities also provide a wonderful opportunity to bring to life the increasing awareness and interest in 'ethical organizations'. These modern ethical business ideas and concepts of sustainability, 'Fair-trade', corporate social responsibility, the 'triple bottom line', love, compassion, humanity and spirituality, etc., are still not well defined or understood: people are unclear what it all means for them individually and for the organization as a whole, even though most people are instinctively attracted to the principles. Team-exercises and discussions help bring clarity and context to idealistic concepts like ethics and social responsibility far more effectively than reading the theory, or trying to assimilate some airy-fairy new mission statement dreamed up by someone at head office and handed down as an edict. Fundamental change has to come from within, with support from above sure, but successful change is ultimately successful because people 'own' it and see it as their change, not something handed down. See for example the Triple Bottom Line exercise.

Ensure that company team-building activities comply with equality and discrimination policy and law in respect of gender, race, disability, age, etc. Age discrimination is a potential risk given certain groups and activities, and particularly so because Age Discrimination is quite a recent area of legislation. Team-building facilitators should be familiar with the Employment Equality Age Regulations, effective 1st October 2006. While this is UK and European legislation, the principles are applicable to planning and running team-building exercises anywhere in the world, including Illinois, being consistent with the ethical concepts.