I'm looking for some ideas for some Team Building exercises/games that can be played at a staff meeting. Anybody have anything that has been successful at your bank. We have 45 employees from all departments attend.

Yes, take a roll of toilet tissue and pass it around. Ask everyone to take however much they need. After everyone had taken some, tell them for every sheet they have they have to tell something about themselves. This is allot of fun!

We did a "Mad Libs" story - using Senior Management names and Departments. It was really funny. The theme was written out as a meeting opening "We are here, at ABC Branch for a meeting today to discuss important matters dealing with retail banking..." Except of course we left out a few words to be filled in at random by the employees.

As the employees entered the meeting thay picked out a word description (noun, verb, adjective) and had to write something down - then we used the words in our story and it came out something lke this:

"We are here, at ABC Branch for a CIRCUS today to discuss important STATES dealing with SILLY banking..."

I doubted that the Mad Libs was going to be fun - but it was hysterical!! Everyone enjoyed the story especially when we read it out loud.

Laughing before a meeting really breaks the ice and puts everyone into a good mood!

Sort of a variation of an exercise we did in Dale Carnegie classes -

Pair up employees who don't work together. Give everyone 5-10 minutes to chat and prepare to introduce their partner to the group. Introductions should include name, position in the bank, and then one or two other facts about that person (whatever the person is willing to share).

"My partner is Jane Smith. She is a new accounts rep at ABC branch. She was born in Alaska and has 2 dogs."

OK - an old fuddy duddy here, but also a trainer that conducted many mid and upper level management training classes.....

Unless you have clear goals for any team building exercise and people can related to it within their work environment - you have nothing but a game that wastes time.

To be effective, team building has to be among a group that are actually directly interdependent on one another. Crossing all departments in a bank usually does not represent that environment.

If you just want to have some fun and let the employees have a chance to have a few laughs is one thing, but labeling most of these type of exercises as team building is a misnomer. Also, be careful about embarrassing someone in these exercises - it has the opposite intended affect.

Even though these events are on company time, at the same time, it is on my work time. Let's get in, exchange some plesantries, have a coffee, and get to business. I [censored] around enough the way it is throughout the day with my co-workers that we do not need company sanctioned goof-off time. I want this meeting time to be quick and productive!

I have to agree with rlcarey and bbsgrant. It is such a waste of time. Our meetings are after hours and mandatory. I live 45 minutes from work and would rather not make that drive after dark.

My censored word was faart, sans one "a"

Had no intent to cuss or offend anyone!

I have to disagree. (set aside the aspect behind team building for a second) - playing a simple game prior to a meeting is extremely helpful and effective. If to do nothing more but bring out people's natural personalities and relax any tensions that may be present.

We often play simple games prior to our meetings - it has worked so well that the managers of our bank want to use our games prior to their meetings as well.

We have taken (business appropriate) questions our of a book called "Stupid Little Questions" - this simply asks things like - "Who would you like to be stuck in an elevator with?" - we had such answers as Danzel Washington and the Elevator Repairman.

Laughing prior to any meeting allows the members of your team to "drop their gaurd" and be themselves, thus allowing for a more effective meeting and more open-minded discussions. Which in turn IS infact effective team building.

Well, why not open up the meeting with a laugh or a joke? If everyone is miserable about going to the meeting in the first place, then I promise you..No one is paying attention!! Then what's the point.

If you had to meet with your family during that same period of time, I am sure you would be more relaxed and not care that it were a mandatory "get-to-gether" - Meetings should be fun, informative and stimulating...it's all about the atmosphere presented. Perhaps your next meeting could be theme based? With door prizes geared around your theme.

Another exercise that is similar to the TP one is to pass out Skittles or M&M's and tell them to take as many as they want, but to wait to eat them until the bowl has been passed through the group.

Then you reveal the code. For example:

For each RED candy you have to share an embarassing moment that happened at their branch.
For each BROWN one, they have to share a favorite movie they have seen, etc., etc.

Flowerbud - Apparently you failed to read my whole post. I didn't say anything about not doing this for a few laughs or as an icebreaker - but call it what it is. Effective team building takes more than an excercise that you spend 10 minutes on in a staff meeting. Team building is a very complex process and hit and miss activities at staff meetings with no specific goals does not qualify as such IMHO.

I read the entire post and I choose to disagree.

While team building may be a complex process, I have found that through (silly) games co-workers are more successful at coming together as a team to work towards a common goal. I am speaking from experience.

We had a group of ABM who wanted nothing to do with monthly meetings...In fact at our meetings people used to be down right nasty - and after six months of starting each meeting with the games that I described these same ABM participate more during the meetings and contribute ideas more freely without being nasty.

Perhaps these types of games and activities have not worked for others, but I stand by them and find them truely effective.

I know from experience that meetings (though painful and distracting from the days work) are a positive thing. In the past I have seen meetings help bring people together.

I also know that when you introduce people that work in other departments to one another - you gain the respect for each other that is often lacking. If Sue and Shannon work in separate departments of the same bank and see each other every day, but don't communicate because they don't work together, it can hurt the bank. If you do some exercises such as those above the two will exchange pleasantries and learn to respect each other.

I have seen that in doing this, the back stabbing slows down and people are nicer to each other. I will state (and I am sure I will be smacked for it) that this has more to do with women in the working world than men.

Good luck with your exercises and remember not to overwhelm your meeting with them. 10 minutes or so is plenty (maybe break it up so that a few people each month get a turn to be in the forefront of it all.

My personal response to participating in what are called "team building exercises" is akin to being compelled to attend a bridal shower; "Could you please just shoot me instead?"

Rather than explain why, I would point out to the proponents that I'm not alone and there will be people in their audiences who make rlcarey and me look like moderates. Take them into account; whatever you choose to do, do it quickly.

Prior thread with some suggestions and a similar exchange of opinions.

I was thinking about this last night and realized that where I am at now, the president or the CEO will read a joke at the end of our staff (bankwide) meetings. These are short and sometimes get interaction afterward, but always take less than 5 or 10 minutes. Besides, we have our meetings first thing in the morning before we open. We all have to be done within the 30 minutes so that we can open the doors to our customers. Putting timeframes such as that on a meeting makes a HUGE difference.

I honestly believe that every department IS directly interdependent on all other areas. If a lender brings in a loan and deposit relationship and the branch gives lousy service and looses it, the net gain of all that work is zero. Operations departments can forget what looking at a breathing customer can be like, so often their response to issues is by-the-book and extremely poorly accepted by front-liners and customers. Sometimes just having the lenders, retail managers, and ops managers (along with all you compliance types!) sitting in the room with each other completing a simple team building exercise reminds us that the "other guy" put their pants on the same was as I do.

However, I agree that team building exercises are used too often as time-wasters ("Oh no, my meeting is tomorrow and I have 2 hours to fill on my agenda") and ther is no need for an exercise at every meeting. No more than once per year is what I try to go by, and there is always a tie in of some sort to the task at hand.