Staff Meeting/team building games/activities & Ideas

[Bigkitty266]

I am wondering if anyone can help

I have currently moved up to the managers position in the children’s nursery I work in.

At the moment I feel the girls I work with don’t work as a team and are not pulling together at times. This causing little niggles with them this then brought to the office mostly just tittle tattle little things.

The team I have are aged between 17 and 33 with me being the oldest at 47. We are a small setting so only 11 of us 4 of those are new starters and only been with us a month and one recently just returned from mat leave.

The next staff meeting I plan to have I was hoping for it to be more hands on and wanted to use some team building or get to know one another type games and activities, has anyone any ideas ? Or what do you do to encourage your team to work together ?

Thanks

[pinktraceb]

2 truths and a lie is a good get to know you one.

[shona]

Have a look on the site business balls, loads of ideas on there.

[Guest]

I manage volunteers and one of the activities I do in meetings is get a Jenga game and write questions on each of the bricks. Some of these might be fun/light hearted type of getting to know you, some might be linked to the setting and some are just odd questions that usually make people laugh!

[WhereIBelong]

The only team building exercise I ever "enjoyed" was doughnut Tuesday.

Once a month we had a staff meeting - always a Tuesday (everyone was available on a Tuesday) - boss bought in a box of doughnuts for everyone to share.

I generally abhor team-building exercises.

Would add teamwork and individual specifics as to how it needs to be improved, indicating how improvement will be measured - into every staff member's objectives for the year.

Make working as a team one of the overarching requirements of the job alongside safeguarding and health and safety.

On our wall at work we have the reminder "How can I help?" at the top of our customer service list - it also applies to colleagues. Simple but effective.

[ChrisE]

There are loads of ice breaker team building games on line. One of my favourites is to draw up a list of 12 questions, give each person a copy and they will have to speak to everyone to get an answer. Ie find the person who likes chocolate, find the person who has been to Florida, find the person who has a birthday in October. Etc . Gets people talking. If you want something quicker, put everyone in a circle and using a small rubber ball the team has to throw the ball to another team member and say their name when throwing it. Usually ends up in fits of laughter which is good for bonding the team together.

[katiec68]

I don't know anyone who likes "team building" games! in fact mot people I know would actively try to avoid them

How about suggesting an after work picnic or something (only thinking picnic as you could do it at work and its cheap!).

The only other thing is for everyone to put one thing about themselves in an envelope and then the others have to guess who wrote it or a photo of themselves as a baby and guess who it is.

[ERICSMUM]

Sorry - yet another essay🙄

I never found ice-breakers and the like to be enjoyable or effective.

I had a team of 30 and used to divide them into teams and give them projects within our immediate office. One team at a time, not all at once ! Nothing too taxing or onerous but with practical benefits. Each team would give us a presentation of their approach and recommendations.

Things like :
- a better method for ordering, storing and controlling stationery.
-a way to control the amount of paperwork produced - is it necessary, could it be done electronically, how could it be controlled better
-identify one task per job that someone on another job could learn so they could provide emergency cover

It worked quite well, got them thinking and talking to each other.

[Smilesonfaces]

Ice breaker games would be my idea of a nightmare. My niece works in a nursery and they go on regular nights out. It does mean using your own time but the team will get to know each other much better over a drink or a meal. You wouldn’t be able to do team games while the children are there, a night out would get round having to stay back at work and staff expecting to be paid for it !

[missy E]

A simple game or two of bowling.
Winner gets a tenner, 2nd a fiver, loser gets a pound & ridicule for the next week.

or cheaper

Two teams.
Get 2 baby dolls, 2 identical sets of baby clothes each babygrow, cardigan, hat etc.
2 decent blindfolds
First person undresses baby
2nd person dresses baby
& so on until first person to finish wins for the team.

Rest of the team give instructions to whoever is taking the turn.

To make it funnier the person taking the turn could wear a silly hat then this has to be handed to the next person before they start.