Creativity for Success 101: Fun and Creative Ways to Foster Teamwork in Your Office
One of the things that separate the best businesses from the mediocre ones is the office culture that a company fosters among its employees. When an office environment reflects a happy and creative atmosphere, people will be more inclined to come to work with a positive mindset and leave after their shift with a spring in their step. When you really think about it, the fear of working in a truly boring corporate environment shouldn’t mean that you should find jobs that are more flexible and less rigid. Even the most corporate of companies like Google or Facebook have office cultures that are known to be upbeat, optimistic, and people-oriented.
So really, it’s not a question of where you should work but whether the company has people who are willing to nurture a lively sense of community within a traditional workspace. This is where the element of teamwork comes in. Teamwork is a fundamental cornerstone of any successful business because the triumphs of any company is the result of like-minded individuals working together to achieve a common goal. Of course, it goes without saying that there’s no teamwork unless it involves two or more people who are able to join forces and collaborating to achieve a certain goal. The bottom line with any great office culture comes down to people, and businesses should find innovative ways or solutions to keep their employees fully engaged and enthusiastic as possible since it will benefit the company as a whole. As such, this is something that you and your fellow colleagues at work should strive for if you want to flourish as successful working professionals.
The values and ethical standards of a company won’t be acknowledged or respected by employees unless everyone gets along well and can find common ground even when two people have irreconcilable differences with each other. This is why building teamwork is important as it allows people working in companies to collaborate not just with civility, but with a degree of harmony and goodwill so everyone will reach the united goal of producing exceptional results. Furthermore, many companies are often segregated into different departments and so people should work well with others within their designated groups so that there will be no issues when it comes to teamwork. Here are some of the creative ways you can apply within your office in order to ensure that team dynamics remain strong.
Conduct a monthly think tank
Never assume that just because companies in general have a hierarchy doesn’t mean that the employees with entry-level positions don’t have anything valuable to contribute. Senior and junior employees should come together at least once a month in order to pitch ideas or solutions for upcoming projects or even for company-related events like anniversary parties or quarterly conferences. This inter-office think tank of sorts acts as a visible platform for everyone to have their voices be heard, as well as getting people to collaborate by exchanging ideas and making helpful suggestions that could improve upon the original concepts presented.
This method also places emphasis on having everyone be on equal standing regardless of their position within the company. Consider implementing this activity so you could get a chance to not only present yourself as a capable individual, but to also absorb knowledge and information from others. Once this particular activity is instituted, make sure that everyone is suitably preprared to take down notes so that the thoughts and ideas shared with the group will be recorded for posterity and reference.
Show some appreciation
Everyone wants to know that their efforts at work are being recognized, and this is something that most companies don’t often consciously acknowledge. Employees are compelled to stay in a company if they feel that the management is giving them the due credit they deserve for a job well done. This definitely sounds like more than a fair deal, so why not think about showing some genuine appreciation towards your colleagues as a way to boost their confidence and morale? A simple way you can help make your teammates feel great at work is to post shoutouts in your office floor. You can do this by taking a standard mobile whiteboard and writing down positive messages that specifically praises individuals for the impressive job they did recently.
You could write something along the lines of “Congratulations to Sarah for closing the deal with our new client after weeks of hard work and perseverance! You go, girl!” or perhaps something like “Kudos to Andrew for improving his attendance record this month by coming in to work on time every day and incurring zero absences. Keep it up!” Such messages of encouragement will definitely make your colleagues nurture their self-confidence and emerge as star players.
Devise a rewards program
Free food is just one of the best examples that can give joy and happiness to any person, and this is a rather good motivation for any employee who can’t resist the opportunity to indulge in complimentary goodies at work. That being said, a great way to really inspire teams to perform with precision is to hold a lottery where names of interested participants are submitted and are drawn at random. Winners of the “lunch lottery” are selected based on a specific criteria set by higher management. Depending on the company’s budget, you can choose to do this either on a weekly or a monthly basis so that people will be motivated to do well at work, as well as making sure that teamwork is in effect.
This gives a whole new meaning to the term “power lunch” because getting free food during a lunch break certainly feels empowering, and therefore infuses an attitude of gratitude within a hardworking employee. Furthermore, enjoying free lunches with your teammates is another fantastic opportunity to get to know them more by sharing personal stories and anecdotes that helps to ease the tension after hours of concentrating on work-related stuff.
Organize friendly competitions
Because the nature of business deals largely with competition, it makes sense that employees should have a healthy competitive streak as part of their work ethic in order to give them a sense of urgency with the tasks they are doing on a daily basis. That aura of passionate ambition is amplified even further when a team is assembled because everyone who shares the same ideals and principles ultimately want to win so that each member who pulled their weight can receive their due credit. When your office has several groups who frequently coordinate with each other, you should think about organizing an inter-departmental tournament to see which team will emerge as the overall best performer.
Friendly office games with a work-oriented approach are not just fun avenues to help people loosen up and be more comfortable with others, but it also keeps them on their toes as events like this encourages them to exhibit their capacity to adapt with high-pressure situations. Furthermore, the presence of a tournament scoreboard placed in a common area of an office floor helps everyone keep track of their progress, which teams are currently heading the leaderboard, and what they need to do in order to bump up their rankings.
