Problem Solving in Team Building Activities

Boston Team building activities and Washington DC team building ideas that involve problem solving encourage group members to use the strengths of all their members to accomplish a new task quickly and efficiently.

Today, many workplaces take one day a year to engage in team building activities with their employees. While a day out of the office, team building activities are not a day off. They are specific exercises designed to create a more efficient group work ethic. One type of team building activity that is great for helping groups to work better together are problem solving exercises.

Problem solving exercises generally take up the bulk of the day. Each group will be given a complex problem that is unrelated to the problems that they normally face in office. They will then have limited resources and a finite amount of time in which to solve their problem. Sometimes teams will compete against each other.

Many problem solving activities involve building something. The team may have to construct a load bearing bridge and then test it to see how much weight it will take. Or they might have to build a raft that can take them across a pond. There are also challenges to see how fast a team can build a fire with only two matches, or some other limitation.

Teams might also have to find something. It could be a scavenger hunt, or a hunt based on riddles. They might have to complete an obstacle course together in order to pick up something at the end. There are also more complex activities that mimic search and rescue missions. Regardless of the activity, the most important part is that all team members contribute in order to reach a mutual goal.

Boston Team building activities and Washington DC team building ideas that involve problem solving encourage group members to use the strengths of all their members to accomplish a new task quickly and efficiently.

Barry Elliot has been contributing to leading magazines, blogs for the past 5 years. He''s also an accredited researcher on various subjects.