If you have a team building plan, then you certainly need to include small group games in it. These games should be part of any team building activities because they’re one of the best tools at your disposal. This might not be obvious but if you are familiar with the effects of group games on adults and kids alike, you will understand how useful they are.
The usefulness of small group games stems from the fact that they are educational in nature (i.e. you learn new things thanks to them), yet they are fun. In a sense, they are the dream learning tool because you develop new skills without making any formal efforts. Sounds like a dream come true!
There are many varieties of small group games, which is good, because it gives you a lot of choice but on the other hand, when there is so much choice, it is also easier to pick the wrong games. If you pick the wrong games, the participants in the team building activity might dislike the idea in general and as a result be reluctant to participate in any game you propose.
As with many things in life, you can’t force participation in a small group game. If the participants are reluctant to take part, you can make them do it but this is not the purpose of the activity. Participants should take part because they’re genuinely interested in the game, not because somebody or something forces them.
However, this is hard to achieve and sometimes you need to use some stimuli in order to facilitate participation. One of the best approaches you can use here is to start the game with only those people who are willing to and hope that once the rest of the group sees how fun the game is, they will also want to join. The strategy works almost always and you can use it in almost any kind of group you can think of.
