Are you HR or office manager searching for effective team-building activities for small groups? Well, you are in the right place. This post will not only explain why small group activities are so special and share some really fun and effective activities that you can use in the virtual and real world.
Benefits of Team Building Activities for Small Groups
A small number makes the group really exclusive with more chances of interaction. However, several distinguishable features make small group team-building activities more unique.
Before we proceed, you must remember that a small group is typically ideally 3 to 5 people. An optimal small group may have ten people or less. However, in any case, you should never exceed more than 15. In fact, it is best to make several smaller groups to keep 5 to 10 people in each group.
So let us dive into the benefits of small group team-building activities.
1. They Offer More Intimate Interaction
A smaller group offers more opportunities to get to know each other. This will make each participant feel more valued and connected with the rest of the group. Moreover, the sense of belonging can help a group be more effective in tasks than larger groups.
2. More Participation means More Contribution
Team building activities for small groups will give everyone a chance to consult or engage in order to make decisions. As it gets difficult to hide in smaller groups, everyone will give their 100 percent to make a valuable contribution.
Fun Team building Activities for Small Groups
COVID-19 has pushed most workplaces to adopt work-from-home or remote working models. This makes it slightly difficult for office managers, mentors, and HR partners to organize team-building activities in person. Therefore, this post will give you some of the most invigorating team-building activities for small groups in a virtual world.
1. Created Economy
Get a small group of colleagues together to create a mini-aspect or economy of a larger society. The group members will set the rules leaving a bit of room to experience problems so the team can solve them as and when they occur.
As the group creates a society, the team will naturally create their own problems and try to overcome them. There will be rewards as well as penalties. As a result, some will abide by the rules, while others will reveal themselves to be creative rule-benders. Overall, this activity will instill a new sense of understanding for work-related projects.
2. Common Book
If you are looking for team-building activities for small groups spreading for multiple sessions, Common Book is an ideal candidate. In this one, you will make a blank large scrapbook or journal available in your breakroom or cafeteria.
This journal can have a prompt on each page, such as suggesting things or asking questions to draw or write. Print a guideline and paste or display it next to the journal.
This team exercise will create an ongoing living history of how your employees think. They can keep adding things to this journal. This activity encourages collaboration, creativity, and recollection. It tells new employees about how the company and its employees have evolved in their thinking and perspectives.
3. Totem
Totem offers great team-building solutions for small groups. If you are a business operating remotely with employees working from home and in other cities and countries, Totem offers a feel-good online team-building experience.
The interactive nature of the activities allows your employees to build trust, as well as promote communications amongst the group members. For example, the self-serve team building game by Totem will enable each group member to explore their qualities and strengths and come out confident at the end of the activity.
The self-serve game is widely compatible with the world’s most prominent virtual team meeting apps and tools, which include Google Meets, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom.
However, Totem is equally as effective for team-building activities in a traditional office environment. The card game can bring your team together as well as your employees will learn how to give positive and constructive feedback.
This virtual and real-world team-building platform gives your employees an opportunity to proven psychological approaches for personal development. Totem will help the group members to indulge in honest but positive conversation while breaking down communication barriers.
4. Scavenger Hunt
For the scavenger hunt, you should divide the team into small, equal-sized groups. Now hand them an itemized list to find the objects and bring them. Whether you want to keep it within the office or leave the office premises is totally up to you.
In a virtual environment, you can make a list of items that may involve common stuff found in the home, or otherwise, the team has to get them from somewhere. The team to gather all the items first will be the winner.
It is totally up to you to set the maximum time limit. It can be half an hour to an entire day of activity. To bring a bit of oomph to the scavenger hunt, you can make it a themed one. You may want to include a few twists and tasks to force the team to collaborate, communicate, and get creative in the process.
This is one of the best activities that force colleagues to work together, no matter how introverted they are. Plus, it gets their creative juices flowing trying to solve the riddles and clues.
5. Geocache Adventure
Similar to a scavenger hunt, GeoCache Adventure is a game of clues with an added twist of GPS coordinates to locate the items. Each group will get a GPS device (a common feature on most smartphones) to find the geocaches.
The clues you hide in specific locations can also be a part of a bigger riddle or a message you wish to convey to the entire group as a motivation or the next clue. This larger-than-life kind of team-building activity for the small group will not only help them get creative but also use their critical and lateral thinking skills for problem-solving.
The best part is that you can do this in a normal working environment or with employees working remotely. Everyone can become a part of this collectively enjoyable team-building exercise.
6. Finding the Common Thread
Break your teams into small groups and ask them to find one common element amongst themselves. It can be a hobby, an interest, pet peeve, similar taste in music, movies, etc. Once they have figured out the commonality, it is time for them to create a list of stereotypical qualities of such types of people.
Each group must choose a name for their team and continue as usual for the rest of the day. However, they have to enact the stereotypes on their list periodically throughout the activity or (day). They simply raise their arms and holler and act the stereotype next on their list.
The purpose of this activity is to force employees to see how foolish stereotypes can be and confront them in a hilarious way. This team-building activity also helps people to find commonalities with a random group of people.
Conclusion
If you are an HR manager or a team leader looking for effective yet fun team-building activities for small groups, any of the above-mentioned will do. You can even float the idea amongst the participants and see which ones they would prefer.
