Team bonding and productivity go hand in hand in any work environment, but you won’t see an improvement in either when you don’t cultivate these qualities. There are plenty of ways you can bring your team closer together and help them boost the overall productivity of your organization without causing a drain on resources. Here are a few ways you can build a stronger and more productive team in your organization.

Turn Meetings into a Collaborative Event

Even though meetings are intended to keep everyone informed about the organization’s plans, achievements, and challenges, sitting around a conference table and listening to a pre-planned presentation isn’t very exciting. It can also be demoralizing for the entire team. Instead, draft a quick outline of the topics to be covered in each meeting and distribute copies of the outline ahead of time. This will give attendees an opportunity to brainstorm before the meeting, providing them with the chance to provide more valuable insights and suggestions.

Give Each Team More Autonomy

Micromanaging a team will not produce the intended effect of keeping everyone on task. In most cases, this type of supervision drains energy and positivity, causing employees to work less productively. By contrast, granting more autonomy and only looking over your team’s shoulders when your help has been requested will actually promote greater productivity. Left alone to manage a project or a strategy for attaining a goal, the team will work together and utilize each member’s greatest strengths. This will help them meet productivity goals more effectively on a consistent basis.

Encourage Private Chats

If most of your staff is suddenly working from home, they’re missing the typical water cooler small talk that helps them bond on a more personal level. You can combat this with a variety of virtual team building exercises, including creating a private or non-business chat room. This is a place where your employees can log in to chat with their co-workers about personal interests, such as discussing a favorite TV show or to talk about their kids. It provides an opportunity to unwind and socialize, which is especially important with everyone confined to their homes where there are few outlets for socialization.

Create Attainable Daily Goals

You can boost productivity while encouraging a team environment when you create daily goals for your team to reach. While these goals should be attainable, they should also be challenging. The idea is to prompt your team to work together as a single unit, taking advantage of everyone’s skills and expertise to reach the goal. Once that goal has been achieved, a new and higher goal should be set up to test your team’s resilience. By continuing to challenge your team to strive harder, you’ll be compelling them to support each other and grow closer as a more efficient team.

Create Fun Team Building Exercises

There are many team building activities you can use to help your staff bond and work better together. At the start of each meeting, you can ask each member of your team to share the highlight of their week. This will help you start meetings on a positive note as you give your team opportunities to get to know one another better. Another idea is to host a coloring contest and offer a reward, such as a half-day off from work for the winners. The catch is that each entry must be colored by two team members, compelling everyone to pair up with a co-worker. You can also turn children’s games into a team-building exercise. One common example is the “three truths and one lie” game. This is an opportunity for everyone to share facts about themselves, while also teaching your employees that snap judgments are often incorrect. By the end of the game, everyone will have learned some surprising facts about their other team members.

You can look for other ideas that will help you build a stronger team that works well together. If you’re not coming up with ideas on your own, consider asking your employees. They may surprise you with some effective concepts and, in return, you’ll help them feel more like valued members of your organization. Over time, you’ll see that the team-building exercises your practice with your employees have helped boost productivity even when that wasn’t the primary goal.