With companies hopping on the “Web 2.0*” train these days for the marketing, recruiting and customer service needs, you’d think they’d apply that knowledge to their team building strategies.

You know what doesn’t make me love my team members? Being led by a team member, blindfolded, around a office maze. You know there’s going to be at least one guy who thinks he’s hilarious and has you walk into a wall. What is it with companies and trust exercises? No, I don’t want to fall backwards off of a desk into Dwight from sale’s arms. What does a near-death experience have to do with selling paper bundles? Note: I’ve been watching The Office lately. Plus, have you seen this?!

Things Bears Love

Exactly. Bears are everywhere. Watch out.

Want to know what a great team-building exercise would be? Well…since you asked :P I think playing video games would be swell. If your company can be on Twitter, you can also have an office Wii or XBox okay? I’m sure that someone wouldn’t mind bringing theirs in, especially if that means destroying someone at Mario Kart. I know, I know… we’re not getting paid to sit around and play games, but what if you worked at a toy or game company? Then what?

Speaking of Mario Kart, I think that is an excellent team building game. First, you take out some aggression with the Grand Prix. Throw some bananas and blue shells – get that all out of the way and focus your time on the team races. You can work as a team to gather coins or see who can hang onto their balloons as you try to finish the race.

Another fun office game is Rock Band. Why not set up in the conference room and rock out during lunch? It’s a great way to keep spirits high and with Beatles Rock Band now available, chances are everyone will love it – young and old! You can turn this into a great trust exercise by trusting that your team members won’t make fun of your horrible singing skills. Or you can just trust me when I say that they will. Either way, the key word here is trust.

Look at how happy they are:

It’s mandatory that your team take a picture like this while playing. You can add it to the orientation booklet for the newcomers.