Do you want to know some team building activities for the performing stage? Performing is the fourth stage of the group development model suggested by Bruce Tuckman. This is the stage during which your teams become highly effective and complete the tasks. So, as a business leader, you must ensure strong cooperation among employees during this stage. In this article, let’s see some of the performing stage activities.
What’s the Performing Stage?
The performing stage is the fourth stage of team development, which comes after the forming, storming, and norming stages. Arguably, this is the most important stage because the tasks are completed and overall goals are achieved here.
During this stage, employees focus on cooperation, group thinking, and teamwork. They would be highly engaged and motivated to accomplish the desired results. So, they strive to reach high performance. Moreover, they make better decisions and quickly solve problems with minimal supervision. As a leader, here you should make sure that things are working according to your plans.
What Should Teams Accomplish During the Performing Stage?
By the end of the performing stage and just before the beginning of the final stage (adjourning), teams should accomplish the following four key tasks.
Task 1: Focus on collaboration and group thinking
Firstly, team members should focus on collaboration and group thinking. They should help each other and share a common value. That means group goals take dominance over individual goals.
Task 2: Become autonomous and self-motivated
Secondly, teams should become autonomous and self-motivated. They should be able to make better decisions, perform better, and complete tasks with minimal supervision.
Task 3: Reach the top level of productivity
Thirdly, team members should reach the top level of productivity by increasing their performance and innovative thinking. This will contribute to the ultimate success of the job.
Task 4: Overall goal achievement
Lastly, teams should achieve the overall goals assigned to them. This involves removing all the blockages that may come their way with the right efforts and strategy.
10 Team Building Activities for the Performing Stage
During this stage, it’s important to keep your teams highly engaged and motivated. For this reason, you need to try several activities that focus on cooperation and goal achievement. So, here are 10 team building activities that you can try during the performing stage.
#1. Animal Resemblance
For: Cooperation and motivation
Initially, ask this question to the participants: if you could relate your team to an animal, which animal would that be?
Now, give them some time for discussion. After that, each team should answer this with a reason. For example, we relate our team with a lion because we have strong leadership and are highly loyal.
#2. Desert Survival
For: Cooperation, decision making, and problem solving
Start by instructing the groups to assume they are stranded in a desert. Now, ask them to choose only 3 items from the following list for survival.
The list of items
- First aid box
- 50 liters of water
- Dust masks
- A bag of fruits
- Snakebite kit
- A large bucket
- Head torches
- A lighter
- Water purification tablets
- A magnetic compass
{Note: You can create a list that is more complex as well as challenging, encouraging the participants to carefully plan and brainstorm.}
Then, each person can personally rank the items according to their importance. Once they are done, they can share it with the other members.
Finally, all the members can brainstorm together and choose the 3 most important items.
#3. Dog, Rice, and Chicken
For: Cooperation and problem solving
First, ask one of the team members to act as a farmer and the remaining ones should act as villagers.
Then, instruct them to assume that the farmer has a bag of rice, a chicken, and a dog. Also, the farmer’s goal is to return home by crossing the river, but he can carry only one item with him on the boat.
- If he leaves the dog with the chicken, it will eat the chicken.
- Likewise, if he leaves the chicken with the bag of rice, it will eat the rice.
Now, the team should find how the farmer can return home with these three items.
#4. Egg Drop
For: Cooperation, creativity, and problem solving
First off, ask the teams to create a structure that will protect an egg when it’s dropped from a certain height.
Next, give them a raw egg and a limited number of materials such as a cardboard box, duct tape, old cloth, sponge, straws, etc. Then, allow them some time to plan and build the structure.
Now, ask them to put the egg inside their structure and drop it from a certain height, say 10-15 meters. Finally, see how many eggs have survived?
#5. Live Story
For: Collaboration, communication, and creativity
Start by asking the group members to sit in a circle. Then, instruct them to create a unique story by including every member as a character.
For this, ask one person to start the story. He can tell a sentence or two by mentioning one of his teammates as a character.
Then, the next person (sitting left) continues the story by mentioning another teammate. This process continues until they arrive at a climax. You can also set a time limit for this exercise.
#6. Scavenger Hunt
For: Cooperation, creativity, and problem solving
Initially, hide some objects in different areas of your office. Then, ask the group members to find these objects with the help of several clues.
For this, you can give them the first clue at the start. Then, they should find that object and get the second clue. This process continues until they find all the objects.
#7. Seven
For: Collaboration and communication
At first, instruct the group to stand in a circle and count from 1 to 100 in a clockwise direction. However, nobody should say the number ‘seven’ or its multiples (14, 21, 28, etc.). Instead of that, the person who is supposed to say it should just clap.
If anybody says the number instead of clapping, he’ll be out from the game. Then, the remaining members should continue the activity and the last man standing will be the winner. You can also try other numbers like 3, 5, 9, etc. depending on the situation.
#8. Slogan Selfie
For: Cooperation and motivation
At first, ask the participants to discuss and come up with a slogan for their team. Then, provide them a large sheet of paper (preferably flip chart paper) and a marker.
Now, they should write the slogan on that paper. Once they are done, instruct them to hold it and take a wonderful selfie of the whole group. Finally, they can share their photo with other groups.
#9. Team Logo
For: Collaboration, creativity, and motivation
Initially, instruct the members to discuss and come up with a few logo ideas for their team. For this, give them some time.
Once they are done, ask them to choose the best logo. Now, provide them a paper sheet and marker. Then, they should draw their team logo on the paper and share it with the other groups.
#10. Theme Song
For: Cooperation, creativity, and motivation
Start by asking the group members to discuss their team’s strengths, vision, mission, etc.
Now, they need to create a theme song for their team. Give them some time for preparing and practicing.
Finally, encourage them to sing the song together.
Want Some Unique Team Building Activities for the Performing Stage?
If you want some unique team building activities for the performing stage (and also for all other stages), you can get my new e-book:
Or Want Some Unique Leadership Development Activities?
If you want some unique activities to equip your employees with leadership skills, qualities, and mindset, you can get my new e-book:
Final Words
Literally, successful completion of tasks requires great performance and strong cooperation among your employees. So, your role as a leader is crucial during the performing stage. For this reason, make sure that your employees are highly engaged, collaborative, and motivated during this stage.
Hopefully, the above performing stage activities can help you guide your teams. Just in case you want more insight into building and managing strong teams, you can read my newly published article: “25 Best Team Building Books for Managers and Leaders”.