We all have the responsibility to accept our mistakes and the consequences of our actions, but finding the best way to do so is not always an easy task.
In this post, we’ll discuss 12 accountability team building exercises that will show you the path of shared commitment to success in the workplace.
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Why is Accountability Among Teams Important?
Holding all team members to a standard is the key to meeting expectations and creating a workplace where all employees are aware of their roles.
Team accountability is one of the most important factors at work, and yet, many organizations fail to successfully promote accountability in the workspace, as demonstrated by the following three statistics:
- A research paper by Gallup reveals that 40% of employees believe that their managers hold them accountable for goals they set, but only 2 in 10 employees believe their performance is managed in a way that motivates them to do noticeable work;
- According to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), practicing a constructive approach to accountability in the workplace leads to improved productivity, better performance, increased feelings of competency, and more creativity and innovation;
- Accountability is highly linked to workplace performance. 70% of employees believe that their managers aren’t objective in how they evaluate their performance, creating a sense of negative bias that directly affects accountability (HBR).
How to Choose Team Accountability Exercises
Accountability team building activities help team members to integrate a sense of responsibility in the workplace, but in order to achieve this, it’s necessary to learn how to choose the correct accountability-fostering exercise:
- Step 1 - Define Accountability Objectives: First, start by defining the goal of the team accountability activity. Some of the most common goals include fostering open communication, reinforcing individual responsibility, and improving teamwork and collaboration;
- Step 2 - Adapt the Exercise to Your Team Members: Before engaging in the team building accountability activity, explain it to your team members. Evaluate the characteristics of your team (such as size, environment, and needs), before proposing or engaging in an accountability-focused team building event;
- Step 3 - Gather Feedback and Continue Improving: Once the activity is over, actively seek feedback from your team members and determine whether the event was successful. Fostering team accountability is an iterative process - focus on measuring the results, and identify the areas of improvement.
12 Accountability Team Building Games
The following 12 accountability team building activities are designed to cultivate a culture of responsibility and promote accountability in the work environment - let’s check them out.
1. Trust Box
Trust Box is a team building game that tests the trust levels in the workplace.
Fostering trust helps to promote accountability among all team members because they are all responsible for the team’s success in different areas.
Gather all team members in the office and make them sit around each other. Then, a team member will say the direction they will trust fall into another team member’s arms.
Repeat the exercise until everyone can naturally trust-fall into each other’s arms.
Keep in mind that the idea is to build trust among team members, not to see how fast their reflexes are, so watch out! Other trust team building activities can also foster team accountability in different ways.
- Activity Duration: From 30 to 45 minutes.
- Group Type: Small and medium-sized in-office teams.
2. Human Knot
Fostering problem-solving skills is a great way to educate teams about the importance of successfully managing challenges at work.
Human Knot is a problem-solving team building activity where all team members need to hold hands, create a “knot” with their bodies, and then find a way to untangle the knot before time runs out.
This simple exercise shows all participants how individual responsibilities contribute toward the benefit of the entire team, demonstrating the importance of accountability.
- Activity Duration: From 30 to 45 minutes.
- Group Type: Small and medium-sized in-office teams.
3. Running or Biking Club
Cycling, biking, and running outdoors help people stay healthy, lose weight, and improve overall mental health (Healthline).
Running and Biking Clubs by Teamland help to build team accountability, foster collaboration, and learn how to overcome challenges and complete tasks together, as a united group.
As participants engage in outdoor team building activities, they keep each other accountable for the completion of milestones and goals. Get some fresh air, clear out your mind, and have a fun time with all employees.
- Activity Duration: From 1 to 2 hours.
- Group Type: All in-person group sizes.
4. Participate in Employee Engagement Team Building Activities
Gallup research shows us the importance of keeping team members engaged - only 32% of full-time and part-time employees in organizations feel engaged at work.
By integrating company employee engagement activities into the workplace, it’s possible to build authentic relationships and nurture a positive company culture.
Building a culture of trust and accountability through activities such as Karaoke Nights and Board Game Nights provides teams in all industries with several different benefits. Don’t forget to measure the positive outcomes of the activities to ensure continuous improvement.
- Activity Duration: From 1 to 2 hours.
- Group Type: All group sizes and types, depending on the activity chosen.
5. Weekly Accountability Check-Ins
Weekly accountability check-ins consist of discussing and analyzing progress in work-related activities to hold each other accountable.
By talking about how other members of the teams can collaborate toward common goals inside the company, it’s possible to start assigning tasks and finding new ways to improve productivity.
Some teams may prefer to hold accountability check-ins on a daily basis instead of weekly - it depends on your team’s sizes and needs.
- Activity Duration: From 45 minutes to 1 hour.
- Group Type: All team sizes and types (hybrid).
6. Team Bucket List Challenge
We all have things on our bucket list that we want to do before we leave this world, but actually getting to do them is not always easy.
Team Bucket List Challenge is a popular team building activity that consists of finding common ground between team member’s bucket lists and holding each other accountable to accomplish these personal goals.
Gather all your team members, ask them to come up with their bucket lists, and divide them into groups that will need to complete at least one list element.
Set clear expectations, teach team members about the importance of holding themselves accountable to fulfill the goal, and foster the creation of a more successful team with stronger relationships.
- Activity Duration: From 1 to 2 hours (setting the bucket list).
- Group Type: Hybrid teams of all sizes (only remote employees who live in the same city or area).
7. Amazing Race Game
The Amazing Race Game is a Teamland activity is an adventure that promises fun and team bonding while fostering a sense of accountability.
The activity is divided into different games where each team member needs to talk to each other in order to progress through the course. It won’t be easy, so the groups need to work together toward team success in a responsible manner.
Some variations of this game included participating in a blindfolded obstacle course. Here, team members will need to trust each other and learn from their mistakes to complete a course while blindfolded.
Race Games are all about fostering open communication and understanding the role of each participant, showcasing the importance of accountability.
- Activity Duration: From 2 to 3 hours.
- Group Type: All in-person group sizes.
8. The Blame Game
The Blame Game is an exercise that encourages participants to take responsibility for their actions.
The objective is to show how, from a manager and employee point of view, blaming others is not good for productivity, while showing the rest of the team how it’s possible to create an environment where responsibilities are the absolute priority.
Accountability is not about finding someone to blame - it is about understanding each one’s role in the workplace and learning to take responsibility.
- Activity Duration: From 45 minutes to 1 hour.
- Group Type: All hybrid team sizes.
9. Team Personality Training
Teamland’s Team Personality Training is more than a personality test - it is a workshop that teaches participants everything they need to know about the different roles inside an organization.
By engaging in this workshop, participants accept responsibility for each role that exists in the workplace, learning how to successfully address potential issues within the company.
Defining roles is crucial to improve communication and psychological safety inside the work environment, and it can also help to show the importance of accountability to foster a more harmonious workplace.
- Activity Duration: 1 hour.
- Group Type: All hybrid team sizes.
10. Roleplaying Work Scenarios
Role-playing is one of the most popular team building activities due to its versatility.
Roleplaying work scenarios work to have a broader perspective of the responsibilities of other team members inside a company, learning the reasons behind their mistakes and successes.
For example, swap someone’s roles with other team members (managers switch with employees in certain areas), and ask them to explain their POVs of different roles from a neutral perspective.
This way, teams will discuss and understand how varied, changing, and specific certain responsibilities are.
- Activity Duration: From 45 minutes to 1 hour.
- Group Type: Small and medium-sized remote and in-office teams.
11. Effective Communication in the Workplace Training
Effectively communicating is one of the most vital skills that all team members should have to avoid potential conflicts inside the office.
Teamland’s Effective Communication workshop works to improve communication, learn how to manage feedback and constructive criticism, and improve accountability among teams.
The workshop, which is imparted by a professional host, provides team members with the tools they need to foster accountability and create a workspace where everyone understands the responsibilities of other members.
- Activity Duration: From 1 to 5 hours.
- Group Type: Small, medium, and big-sized hybrid teams.
12. Participate in Productive Workshops
Fostering accountability works differently depending on your team’s goals and mindset.
Some of the aforementioned activities might not be the ideal ones for your teams, but fortunately, there are other accountability-fostering events to participate in.
Teamland has multiple productivity-focused workshops that inherently teach teams how to be accountable for their decisions.
Some examples include the following workshops: Diversity Training, StrengthsFinder Training, and the Conflict Resolution workshop.
Participating in any of these workshops will help your team see things from different perspectives, focus on their strengths and weaknesses, and understand how each role contributes to the team's goals while being accountable for each action.
- Activity Duration: From 1 to 5 hours.
- Group Type: All hybrid team sizes and types.
Summary: 12 Accountability Team Building Activities
Holding team members accountable for their actions will bring several benefits to the workplace while also fostering teamwork and responsibility. This is a quick summary of the 12 best accountability team building activities:
- Trust Box: Test trust levels in the workplace by participating in a classic trust-fall activity that teaches team members the importance of their actions.
- Human Knot: Create a human knot and work together to untangle it while fostering problem-solving and accountability skills.
- Running or Biking Club: Participate in an outdoor event while accomplishing milestones and keeping each member of the team accountable for their actions.
- Employee Engagement Activities: Run classic employee engagement activities focused on having fun to create stronger bonds and showcase the importance of each member’s responsibilities in the workspace.
- Weekly Accountability Check-Ins: Perform weekly accountability check-ins to have a broader perspective of each member’s responsibility within the organization.
- Team Bucket List Challenge: Motivate team members to fulfill their lifelong dreams by working with each other and making them accountable for each other's success.
- Amazing Race Game: Participate in Teamland’s Amazing Race Game, where communication and responsibility accounting will be crucial to be crowned as the winner.
- The Blame Game: Show team members how accountability is not meant to blame people for their mistakes but to understand, embrace, and adapt to each one’s responsibilities.
- Team Personality Training: Discover the personality traits of each team member and understand how each person can improve their accountability skills to fulfill their responsibilities.
- Roleplaying at Work: Make team members rope-play while adopting different perspectives to understand how individuals in other areas are held accountable for their tasks.
- Effective Communication: Participate in an expert-led workshop to improve communication skills inside the workplace.
Productive Workshops: Select among various workshops by Teamland to encourage different perspectives and have a wider point of view when it comes to understanding workplace accountability.
