Team Building Events for Working With Different Personalities

by Crystal Vogt, Demand Media
Ask team members to participate in a personality tree exercise.

Ask team members to participate in a personality tree exercise.

BananaStock/BananaStock/Getty Images

Many small businesses rely on productive teams of employees that can harmoniously work together to accomplish tasks and projects. Within your organization, however, your employees' personalities may vary significantly from quiet and shy to loud and outgoing. Different personality types can affect how strong a team is, since how people work in a group can differ from how people work individually. Fortunately, you can go about strengthening your team's dynamic in several ways.

Creative Exercises

Improve your team by engaging them in creative exercises, which can include having them sketch "personality trees" that convey what type of personality each has. Instruct employees to label the roots as their fundamental beliefs, the branches as relationships and interests, the buds for their hopes and the fruit as successes in their lives. Have each employee share his "tree" with the team. Other creative exercises can include asking team members to bring their cell phones to a conference room and have them share what ringtone each has currently programmed on his phone. Ask team members to discuss why they chose their ringtones, and ask the team for input into what the ringtone choice might say about each individual personality type.

Company Retreats

People with differing personalities may open up more once they are out of the confines of the office and in a more personal atmosphere. Organize a company retreat and invite your team. Be prepared with creative exercises and icebreaker games to get conversation flowing between employees while on the excursion. Company retreats can span as little as one day or take place over a weekend. Settings you may want to hold your company retreat in may include a local hotel or resort, a nearby community park, a golf club or a special banquet room at an event facility.

Q&A Sessions

Events that involve your team questioning or answering one another on a professional or personal level can build a stronger team bond. These Q&A sessions can be centered around a company-sponsored happy hour after work or during a catered lunch in the office. If it seems like people aren't mingling enough, be ready to pass out questionnaires that prompt thought-provoking answers that extend onto a personal level. For example, your questionnaire may include questions such as "What drives you every day to want to succeed?" or "Name the most important thing in your life." During these sessions, encourage team members to pair up and share answers from their questionnaires with each other. At the close of the event, have each couple present as much as they can from each others' questionnaires to the rest of the team.

Team Bonding Sessions

Hold team bonding sessions specific to a certain activity that every employee can engage in and work together on. These sessions do not necessarily have to be work-related, but should be something that most employees will enjoy doing and bond over. Team bonding sessions may include corporate cooking classes that your whole team takes part in, as well as all-day hiking trips at a nearby state park or office scavenger hunts that involve employees working together in teams.

About the Author


Photo Credits

  • BananaStock/BananaStock/Getty Images
Suggest an Article Correction

Have Feedback?
