A team can be defined as a group of individuals who come together for a certain time period to achieve a definite common purpose. In a broad sense a successful team consists of individuals who have defined tasks and who work with the team members to produce results for the organisation. It is this larger picture that drives actions of individual team members. There is no magic formula to creating effective teams however in recent past team building activities have been successfully used in many companies.

For effective team building some important aspects need to be kept in mind. The purpose of building a team needs to be communicated to the team members. Only with clear expectations can the team perform effectively. The goals need to be spelt out. While selecting and building a team, commitment of individual members is crucial. Competence of the members is equally important while selecting them so as to ensure that their skills are properly put to use. Goals of the team should be properly laid out along with the boundaries and enough freedom should be given to the members so that they can accomplish the task at hand. For a team to be successful the members should be able to work effectively together, understand their roles and responsibilities and those of the other team members. Communication is also important for the team to be truly successful and the members need to have a free hand in bringing forth their creativity and innovativeness in fulfilling the team and corporate goals.

There are a large number of theories and ideas for team building activities. The purpose for all these activities is to ensure that the teams built work as an organic whole along with increased employee motivation and improved communication within the members. Team building activities are also wonderful because they allow people to have fun and at the same time bond with each other. These activities involve stimulating and fun filled problem solving tasks that require the team members to work together to effectively accomplish the tasks at hand. These activities for team building may include simple games or complex tasks. In recent times a number of companies have used outdoor team building activities lasting several days that include interesting tasks such as trekking, white water rafting among others. For team building activities to be truly successful much depends on the facilitator since much responsibility rests on this individual to guide the team through the task and ensure that effective learning is achieved.

Some fun team building activities may include:

• Asking each member in a group to explain what he/she learned yesterday" The answers can then be reviewed and discussed and analysis can be done of the learning experience in terms of the Johari window or Maslow’s theory.
  
• Another interesting game can be where every group is given a bungee cord or a rope and a bucket of toxic waste is identified. Every team must then tip this bucket into another bucket which is a neutralization bucket. This can be used with effectiveness to identify impressive team work, leadership skills etc.
  
• A set of pictures that are sequential can also be used to good effect in team building. The group can be directed to create a unified and meaningful story from the pictures. These images should be handed out randomly. Every member has one picture but this cannot be shown to the other members. This activity requires much patience and an ability to understand a situation from another person’s perspective.
  
• In another game all kinds of objects are scattered in an area. This game is played in pairs. In this game a person is required to verbally guide his/her partner who is blindfolded, through the objects which is deemed as a minefield. This game requires co ordination and trust since directions need to be given precisely so as to avoid the objects.
  
• A number of survival scenario activities can also be used to effectively convey the aspects of team building. In one of these games the scenario can be of a team surviving a plane crash and choosing 12 most essential items to survive.
  
• One classic team building activity is where a team has to support one another to occupy a space that is continuously diminishing. This space can be a slowly reducing sheet of paper.
  
• Tug of war can also be a great team building activity with teams displaying their communication, co-ordination and strength in winning against another team.
  
• An interesting activity can be where a challenge is given to teams to create the most interesting and inspirational quotes on team building in a certain amount of time.
  
• Team members can also be given an exercise of writing their own obituaries imagining that they have died. This obituary is required to be based on what their friends and family members would have to say about them.

In the end remember the purpose of any team building activity is to ensure that the strengths of individual members are utilised in the group and there is co-ordination and identification of individual roles and responsibility and a sense of togetherness that resonates with the goals of the company as a whole.