Ice Breaker and Team Building
Team Networking

Free ice breaker and team building tool for improved networking introduction:

Given this new global economy and fast-paced, ever-changing, competitive environment – people should consider themselves as being “self-employeed”.

The fact is that organizations are in a constant state of change. As a result, your job is always at some level of risk. Even if you are the business owner, your competitors pose a real risk to your livelihood so you cannot afford to be caught off your guard.

Effective networking is one of the most powerful ways to limit your risk of someday finding yourself unemployed.

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Whether you are looking for new opportunities or not, you should ALWAYS be looking for new opportunities. Having these options in your back pocket will minimize your risk and lower your blood pressure considerably.

Effective networking consists of three key areas of focus:

1. Focus on what you would like to achieve and assess how certain people might assist you in achieving that goal.
2. Adopt a habit of getting to know people. Reach out to others in a sincere effort to know more about them. Freely share your goals and aspirations with those you trust. The connections you make will open many doors of opportunity.
3. Identify key decision-makers. Know who has the ability and the authority to influence others to hire you.

Networking is a great way to get involved in important community events, meet new and interesting people and increase your chances of learning and growing your knowledge and skill-set.

Our ice breaker and team building activities will provide great ideas for improved networking.

Lunch Anyone?
Purpose of this activity: To teach team members the importance of learning more about the people that they interact with. The ability to make a personal connection with a client or co-worker is an important way to ensure customer and employee retention, as well as increased sales opportunities.

Explanation: This ice breaker and team building exercise provides a tasty opportunity for team members to connect with one another while learning an important sales management skill.

The benefits of simply taking someone out to lunch are often missed on those who do not plan for an outcome. If you are going to take someone out to lunch, you should have a goal in mind.

However, the first goal should be to LISTEN and LEARN as much as possible about what makes the other person tick.

As you learn more about this individual, you should be trying to identify common interests that you can discuss in an effort to build rapport and connect with the other person.

Ensure that you are doing your part to uphold your end of the conversation. Don’t allow yourself to take over the conversation and make certain that your comments are more about the other person versus only about yourself. Asking questions to learn more about someone else shows that you are sincerely interested in them and is flattering to the other individual.

After explaining the importance of networking and connecting, assign your team members to go to lunch with one another sometime over the coming week. Provide them with the task of learning more about the other person. Seek to find out fun facts that they would otherwise never know.

In addition, ask them to identify common areas of interest and topics that helped them make a more personal connection with each other.

Bring your group back the following week to present their findings and enjoy learning a whole lot about your team than you would have ever learned otherwise. This icebreaker and team building exercise will provide a terrific opportunity to learn and laugh together with your team.

Library Inventory
Purpose of this activity: To teach team members a way to learn more about those they meet and to recognize common areas of interest that can be utilized to create more solid personal and business relationships.

Explanation: A famous speaker once explained that whenever he visited someone’s home he couldn’t help but take inventory of the various books and magazines that were visible throughout the house.

The reason he became so accustomed to noticing book titles is that he recognized that it gave important clues to the individual’s outside interests.

Ask your team members to quickly make a list of all the books they’ve read in the last 3-60 days. Ask them to also identify the book they are currently reading.

As each person shares their list, seek to identify common ties between the types of books they are reading and ask them why they chose those particular books. Ask what got them interested in certain genres, etc. The details that will come from their responses will provide important insights into your team members outside interests.

As a leader you might also take note of titles that employees are reading that assist them in their current roles. It’s easy to recognize who reads just to escape, and who reads to learn and grow.

Famous author and speaker, Ken Blanchard encourages every person to become a lifelong learner. So what does your 30 day Library consist of? Are you seeking out new information and resources that will assist you in getting to the next phase of your career?

Take a personal inventory of your library today – and help your team members to do the same usin our ice breaker and team building ideas.

Receive your free Team Building At Work tool, a collection of 40 fun and effective ice breaker and team building ideas, exercises and activities that promote increased team performance. Remember, you only need to download once. All of the various team building templates are included in a single pdf file for your convenience.

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» Problem Solving
Solving problems as a team helps to show employees that there are many potential solutions to even the most common of problems.

» Professionalism
Team building activities help to increase awareness of professional hazards in the workplace. Use this tool to quickly identify and correct.

» Profitability
Bottom-line results are more certain to continue when a team is effectively collaborating and working together.

We're always seeking new tools and resource ideas for our readers. Do you have a suggestion for ice breaker and team building ideas that you are willing to share? If so, we encourage you to provide your own helpful hints and tips here.

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