Corporate training games, also known as team-building exercises, are games that are played in the workplace with the goal of encouraging positive attitudes and teamwork among employees. These games frequently include a variety of activities, all of which are designed to help people become more comfortable with one another and encourage them to collaborate. Small and simple games for introducing people to each other; a little more involved games for getting people to start working together; or much more elaborate games that can include non-office locations and activities spread out over several days.
In the latter half of the twentieth century, there was a greater emphasis on how employee attitude and teamwork could improve workplace productivity. Activities like corporate training games became more common in offices and corporations as psychological concepts about personality types, learning attitudes, and general human behavior were applied. The goal of these types of games was to promote teamwork and encourage employees to work together to achieve common goals. This was in contrast to some previous attitudes, which saw competition and division as positive workplace characteristics because they boosted individual performance and achievement.
Corporate training games can range in complexity from simple activities to large-scale games and exercises that can be physically demanding and intimidating. These games can be as simple as passing a ball around a room while people answer questions or brainstorm ideas, as well as other small activities to help people get to know each other. To begin a meeting, a manager or team leader might identify a problem, such as customer service, and go around the room collecting one or two examples of how each person in the room has dealt with or been affected the problem in their personal lives. This introduces people to one another as well as the topic to be discussed and explored.
Expensive activities such as breaking groups up into teams, usually representing different departments of an office or business, are examples of other types of corporate training games. A large sheet of paper and some colored pens or markers are given to each team. The teams then create an animal that best represents their team or department, which they then draw on the paper. The teams then give a presentation to the rest of the group, explaining their symbolic animal. This encourages the entire team to work together as a unit, as well as the creation of a single team identity and symbol for future use.
There are also more elaborate or in-depth corporate training games, such as weekend retreats where employees work together to achieve specific goals or objectives. Extreme sports such as paintball or rock climbing, as well as camping and hiking trips where groups are encouraged to work together to “survive in the wild,” are examples of this. These types of activities, on the other hand, should always be safe, with proper safety equipment and other precautions in place to encourage safe behavior.