One Team Building Activity that Every Team Should Conduct

Time and time again, I’ve talked about how teamwork and collaboration are the top factors tied to employee retention. And peers? They are the number one reason people may or may not love their job.

The math of modern organizational culture is pretty simple — a team is made up of people with different needs, ambitions, and personalities. Spending five minutes to know them, and helping them to get to know each other can build a happy, productive team that contributes to an organization’s success for years.

This is something that I’ve learned the hard way. My team at ProofHub is highly experienced and extremely hard-working — but, lately, their motivation and morale have been a bit of “hit and run”. I decided to get them back on track by exploring some team building activities and games. For the record, I’m not talking about the “kumbaya” type activities where everyone is holding hands and singing songs (I’ve tried plenty of those already).

What I actually needed this time was something more real, practical — something that truly allows me to reap the many tangible benefits of effective teaming. In my endeavor, I came across an activity named “The Elephant List” that helped me make a significant difference in work results and relationships within my organization.

If you’re also looking for ways to enhance teaming and communications, here’s one activity you must conduct.

The Elephant List

Activity Goals

1. To have a candid conversation about subjects that your team has been avoiding, or that it doesn’t know how to broach. In simple words, it’s a light-hearted activity to identify and tame the elephant in the room.

2. To create an environment of open and honest communication, to identify any problem that the team faces, and to help the team move forward while openly discussing “elephants in the room.”

Activity Steps

Step 1. Hand out the elephant sheets (sheet or sticky notes) and give participants 5 minutes to write down one elephant.

Step 2. Instruct participants to address each elephant using the principles of Control-Influence-Accept (CIA). This means deciding whether they are issues that the participants have Control over, that they can Influence, or that they need to Accept.

Step 3. Collect the elephants, read them aloud one by one, then record them on the board (marked C, I or A).

Step 4. Check if any of the C or I elephants are actually an elephant. Then, let the A-list elephants go. Basically, just accept them.

Step 5. Tackle C and I elephants in open conversations, as a team. Use the principle of “4 Ws” to come up with solutions or action items — Why is this happening? What are we doing about it? Who can resolve this issue? When can we resolve this?

Sample elephants

• Tell me one workplace issue that you have Control over.

“I lack motivation at work and it affects my everyday productivity. I’m trying to gain control over my working hours and would appreciate tips to beat these motivation dips.”

(Suggestion: Try setting achievable, short-term goals, magnify the effect of time management with a time tracking app, and celebrate the results you’ve achieved.)

• Tell me one workplace issue that you can Influence.

“I’m tired of constant conflicts caused by either misalignment of roles or lack of mutual agreement. I look forward to more cooperation and a little less exclusion from my fellow teammates.”

(Suggestion: Create a more transparent and vocal work environment. Make sure there absolute clarity over who is doing what, who needs help, and who gets credit for the best work. Use a project and team management software — that will help!)

Give your team a better chance at working together! Use ProofHub.

• Tell me one workplace issue that you just have to Accept.

“I wish we could consider an open office space.”

(Suggestion: Share the idea and hope for the best. )

Advice for the Facilitator

This activity requires a very experienced and supportive facilitator. People may be reluctant to discuss their workplace pet peeves in a group, or they may be fearful of raising subjects that are “off limits”. As a facilitator, you need to coach and support participants that they can call out the elephant in the room.

Why I Loved The Elephant List

The elephant activity is simple and quick, but the payoff is huge. This isn’t one of those team-building activities where you and your team need to spend an entire day offsite to achieve a sense of teaming and understanding. Instead, it’s a quick exercise that allows everyone to know each other’s workplace preferences and pet peeves, thereby giving them a better chance at working together towards initiatives and becoming successful.

Sure, you can have the most talented team that meshed naturally, but in order to cultivate a team to its best ability, you’ll need to reinforce relationships and communications with the right kind of team-building activity. So what are you waiting for? Give this interesting activity a try and don’t forget to share your experiences in the comments!

Author Bio:

Sandeep Kashyap is the Founder and CEO of ProofHub — a leading project management and collaboration software. He’s one person always on a lookout for innovative ideas about filling the communication gap between groups, teams, and organizations. You’ll find him saying, “Let’s go!” instead of “Go!” many times a day. That’s what makes him write about leadership in a way people are inspired to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more.

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