The Heart of the Team

With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, it's a perfect reminder of the power of relationships — not just in our personal lives, but also in our workplaces. Strong, cohesive teams are the heart of a thriving company culture. When team members feel connected and supported, they collaborate more effectively, communicate openly, and innovate with confidence.

Let’s focus on how we can strengthen our team bonds and cultivate a culture of trust and camaraderie. Here are five ways you can encourage team building and collaboration, helping your team feel valued and united while spreading a little extra kindness and connection in the workplace! ??

1. Break the ice.

Whether you're kicking off a new year or bringing in a new employee, introducing team building in a fun and fresh way is a great way to set the tone for your culture. Intentional experiences can help people feel welcomed, included, and immersed in the mission and purpose.

Watch this video to hear from Small Giants leaders Lisa Whealon and Heidi Baumgart on how they used a variety of team-building exercises to build bonds and help employees bring out the best in one another.

2. Set the vision.

Small Giants know that purpose, values, and vision are key tenets to a great company and an engaged culture. Empowering your team to set their own aligned goals and vision, while going beyond the company's objectives, can be just as important.

• This guide by Small Giants leader, Rob Dube , is a great step-by-step process for a personal visioning practice. Rob's process can help you or your team not only set a vision for your own life, but also create habits around checking in on this consistently over time.
• At the start of every year, employees at imageOne get vulnerable. They participate in a visioning and planning program to walk through their for the future and identify 5-year, 3-year, and 1-year goals.?Inspired by the Zingerman's approach to visioning, read more about imageOne's program.

3. Get out of the building.

Some of the best experiences come from getting out of the day-to-day of the office. When team members can create new memories and have shared experiences together, not only will bonds strengthen, but it's a chance for creativity to flow and new learnings to happen.

• Attend industry conferences or leadership experiences like the Small Giants Community Annual Summit. Attending events as a group can be a great bonding experience and can even be turned into a team retreat!
• Go on field trips. That's right—field trips aren't just for kids! Go someplace new and surprising for a bonding experience or visit another Small Giants company for some inspiration. Read more tips from David Mammano , author of Make Love in the Workplace, in this featured blog post.

4. Serve your community.

imageOne rallies employees around community service through Community Days — one paid day off a year to volunteer for any cause or organization of their choosing. Despite being an individual activity, participation is a unifying experience, tying everyone to the company's goals and offering a positive platform for team members to inspire other team members. Read more about how imageOne created this program.

5. Encourage thought leadership.

Turn your team into empowered, collaborative champions and thought leaders by leveraging the expertise inside your organization and making it public! Create opportunities for your employees to tap into their strengths — what they know and do best — all stemming from your company's purpose. The results may create great internal learning resources or external marketing content. Either way, your team has all of the pieces, you just need to empower the puzzle to come together. Read more in this featured post by Mary Ellen Slayter , CEO of Rep Cap .

Follow your purpose,

The Small Giants Community Team

Take a break from your work routine to reignite your team's culture! Register here to join us on February 19th for a free virtual event with Katrina Noelle , President of KNow Research . Learn how their annual offsite retreats have become crucial gatherings that unite their distributed team, spark collaboration and new ideas, and enhance their culture. Bring your questions and your own experiences to share!

Join us in Detroit this April for our 2025 Annual Small Giants Community Summit to explore purpose-driven leadership through the lens of the theme, connections. For 2.5 days, we'll learn, laugh, roll up our sleeves, have lightbulb moments, and break bread alongside other Small Giants leaders and new friends from around the world. Get your ticket before it sells out!