The following article suggests some of the most interesting and effective rapport building activities for children as well as adults. Conduct them to build strong, productive, and united teams…
For a group to be productive, it is very important that there is a good rapport amongst its members. Friendship, familiarity, trust and respect – these are some of the things needed for two people to bond with one another. Scroll down to know some effective activities to build rapport, which can be planned with groups of children and adults, to foster friendship and enhance bonding between them.
Spot Similarities…
To build a rapport with someone, you need to have some sort of similarities with the person. So plan such activities which give an opportunity to the people in the group to spot what they have in common. If it’s a large group, you can break it up into teams of five each, give the team members around fifteen minutes to talk to one another and then come up with a presentation on how the individuals in the group are similar. If it’s a small group, you can plan the same exercise in pairs. Similarities can be anything, right from the color of their hair to their favorite singer to a film they watched more than thrice. If conducted well, this activity can turn out to be quite some fun!
Help Buddies…
If you are planning activities for children, a good idea is to pair them up into help buddies. You can make two lists, one with names of children who are confident and doing well in studies and sports and the other one of the exact opposite i.e. who are shy and are not so bright. Write the names of the children in paper chits, fold them and keep them in two separate glass containers. Ask all the children to sit in a circle. Give each of them faux colored beads and a string. Next, instruct them to make friendship bracelets. After they are done, call them one by one and ask them to pick up a chit and read the name on it aloud. Following this, they have to tie the bracelet on the wrist of the classmate whose name is there on the chit. Here, you make an announcement that now, they are help buddies, who would be there for one another, whenever any of them needs help. Likewise, have all the children call out their buddies and tie bracelets around their wrists. While conducting this activity make sure that no two children from the same list are paired. Also, every week, keep aside ten minutes for the children, who want to share with the class, how their buddy helped them!
Celebrating Birthdays…
Building rapport in the workplace is essential for the success of the organization. To do so, one fun activity is to celebrate the birthday of each and every employee in the office. Now, you don’t need a big celebration for this. Simply, contribute money and get a cake for the birthday boy/girl. It will make them feel special, plus when all the employees eat the cake, they get time to socialize and talk about some personal things, which is great for employee bonding!
Appreciation…
It is human tendency to like back someone who likes us! So plan an activity, wherein everyone in the group gets to appreciate another person. A simple way to do that is to ask all the group members to form a circle. After this, everyone has to say aloud one good thing about the person standing on their right. Carry on the activity till each and every group member is “praised”!
Building Trust…
To build rapport with a person, trust and respect are two very important factors. A fun trust building game is to ask ten of the group members to come forward and form a circle. They should stand so close that there is no space between their bodies. Next, ask one of the group members to stand in the middle. This person now has to completely let go and fall on his fellow group members in the circle, who have to catch him from falling on the floor! The rule is, they have to do this without using their hands! To completely let go, one needs to trust his group members and thus, this activity does help in building trust amongst the people.
By planning these simple fun activities, you can bring any group closer. And as every one knows, there is nothing that a united team cannot achieve. So for boosting learning and productivity and to achieve group goals, conduct such activities, every now and then!