Teambuilding and Conflict Resolution in the Workplace

15 Feb Teambuilding and Conflict Resolution in the Workplace

Posted at 20:08h in Counseling, EAP by Ryan Dame

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While we would all love to live and work in a utopia, we don’t. Conflicts and disagreements will arise. Nevertheless, how conflict is handled in the workplace speaks volumes to employees about corporate culture, professional expectations, and company care.

Teambuilding Exercises

Teambuilding exercises can assist with conflict resolution strategies before there are conflicts. Here are three teambuilding exercises that are simple and cost-effective that in the long run will assist with employee conflict resolution

Personality Tests
Murder Mystery
Lunch-n-Learns

Personality Tests

Believe it or not, personality tests like the DISC test, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, and the Enneagram are a great way to help employees understand each other. And contrary to popular belief, they do not excuse bad behavior or the lack of conflict resolution skills. There are variations of these tests available for a small fee or for free, depending on how in-depth you’d like to go. Business Made Simple even offers an Enneagram Made Simple course to help employees view the Enneagram and its types from a business standpoint.

In fact, personality tests often promote kindness and empathy between employees. How? When we understand other people’s strengths, weaknesses, and motivations, it helps us know how to approach them when a conflict arises. It also teaches team members how to relate to each other to avoid conflicts, thus averting the need for conflict resolution.

Maybe It’s Time to Get a Clue?

While we admit it’s shocking, not everyone enjoys learning about themselves, let alone others. For these personalities, an activity or game may be a better teambuilding and conflict resolution in the Workplace. If this is the case and you want to keep the exercise to about 60 minutes, you may want to consider a murder mystery.

Murder mysteries are great teambuilding exercises whether in-person or online. You could try: Clue Virtual Murder Mystery. The goal is for employees to work together to solve the crime in 60 minutes or less and discover who had the means, motive, and opportunity to murder Neil Davidson. Poor Neil!

Employees will need to collaborate closely, and communicate effectively in order to successfully solve the case. If they DO solve the case in time: Celebrate the virtual teambuilding victory and discuss what led to the “aha” moment when everything clicked. If they DON’T solve the case in time: That’s okay! Take this moment to do a group reflection on which challenges your team overcame and which ones stumped you.

Eat and Educate

Lunch-and-learns create an opportunity for employees to meet with one another face-to-face. This fosters community within the organization, which is exceedingly important for building a cohesive company culture at your startup. Not only will this foster a better employee relations experience but it will also allow reps to become more acquainted with their teammates, facilitating greater cooperation between different teams within the organization, which is critical especially when it’s time for conflict-resolution, course-correction, or an organizational pivot.

Did you know that Lunch-n-Learns are available through our Employee Assistance Program (EAP) as part of our Wellness Solutions? Contact us today to discover how our EAP can help your business with teambuilding and conflict resolution in the workplace.

At Care Plus Solutions, we care about you, your business, and your employees. We’ve made it our business to help businesses care for their employees for more than 46 years. We serve only you. We are not affiliated with an insurance company, counseling center, hospital, third party administrator, or other managed care organization thereby avoiding potential conflicts of interest. EAP is our core business.