Building The Team Without Breaking Its Spirit
Companies across the world have long known about the benefits of team building events, but in trying to carry them out, they have often made the mistake of doing the opposite. There is no doubt that team building has a great effect on employees, but if you as a company offer them the same tired old events that have been going on since the concept was first introduced, then you may be failing to show the creativity that those type of events are supposed to produce.
Employees can only take the paintball bruises and thrill of being caught when they fall backwards so many times before boredom sets in. If you really want to build team spirit and rapport, then give them something a little more unique to do. Something that will be fun yet will still bring the group together in all the ways that make teambuilding so successful in the first place.
Think About Context
If you live in an area that is by the ocean, then you probably have a group of employees that stare out the office window and wish they were ate the beach instead of shuffling papers. For your next team building event, take them to the beach and organize some games that will let them get their feet wet and soak up the sun. It’ll feel like a mini vacation, and you will come off smelling like an ocean breeze, just by thinking outside the box a little.
Employees will often engage in their own teambuilding efforts by getting together at the bar after work, which is a night than can oftentimes end up in song. People love to party and sing, so combine that by breaking your people into groups and getting them to put together a music video. You could even have a little awards show at the end of it all with prizes going to the most creative. If the employees seem a little uptight at first, then you may want to consider tossing in a little liquid encouragement, making sure of course that everyone gets home safely if you do. Let’s face it; nothing loosens the vocal cords like a nice cold beer.
Community Counts
If you are a company that believes in helping the community, then you can boost your local presence, as well as the morale of your team, by putting together a cook off that will test the culinary skills of your employees. The reward for all is that the food that they make will be served to families that aren’t doing quite so well and who could really benefit from a good meal. Not only will it put your company in a positive light, it will also help your employees to have some fun whilst also realising how good they have it compared to other less fortunate.
There are a ton of different team building events that don’t have to follow the same old formula of those that have gone before. If you are going to ask your employees to get creative and think outside the box, then you have to be prepared to do the same thing.
Employees can only take the paintball bruises and thrill of being caught when they fall backwards so many times before boredom sets in. If you really want to build team spirit and rapport, then give them something a little more unique to do. Something that will be fun yet will still bring the group together in all the ways that make teambuilding so successful in the first place.
Think About Context
If you live in an area that is by the ocean, then you probably have a group of employees that stare out the office window and wish they were ate the beach instead of shuffling papers. For your next team building event, take them to the beach and organize some games that will let them get their feet wet and soak up the sun. It’ll feel like a mini vacation, and you will come off smelling like an ocean breeze, just by thinking outside the box a little.
Employees will often engage in their own teambuilding efforts by getting together at the bar after work, which is a night than can oftentimes end up in song. People love to party and sing, so combine that by breaking your people into groups and getting them to put together a music video. You could even have a little awards show at the end of it all with prizes going to the most creative. If the employees seem a little uptight at first, then you may want to consider tossing in a little liquid encouragement, making sure of course that everyone gets home safely if you do. Let’s face it; nothing loosens the vocal cords like a nice cold beer.
Community Counts
If you are a company that believes in helping the community, then you can boost your local presence, as well as the morale of your team, by putting together a cook off that will test the culinary skills of your employees. The reward for all is that the food that they make will be served to families that aren’t doing quite so well and who could really benefit from a good meal. Not only will it put your company in a positive light, it will also help your employees to have some fun whilst also realising how good they have it compared to other less fortunate.
There are a ton of different team building events that don’t have to follow the same old formula of those that have gone before. If you are going to ask your employees to get creative and think outside the box, then you have to be prepared to do the same thing.
Finding New Approaches to Teambuilding
It’s been some time since we looked at the off-meter people management side of business. We realise that here, we spend a lot of time dealing with day-to-day management of staff and personnel, meetings and schedules, as well as how technology is helping businesses string it all together.
But what about the softer side of management? The sort of stuff that many of us never have time for: the after-hours get togethers and the fun, social activities that can help transform a department or an office into a true team?
You may remember the story we covered late last year, about the web developers that gave everyone Friday afternoons off and saw overall staff productivity increase week-on-week. As the comments on that thread showed, a lot of businesses wanted the results. They just didn’t want to sacrifice the staff time!
Luckily there are other options. A new wave of team building activities is making its way across the country , with more and more organisations beginning to realise that team-building isn’t all about organised sports with an open bar at the end.
Organised sports have their place in workplace culture – and, let’s face it, so does an open bar. You don’t tend to see many work functions, birthdays or end of year parties that aren’t awash with complimentary alcohol. But team building games and activities with a softer, more subtle approach are gaining popularity as they encourage the sort of teambuilding and collaborative thinking that sports typically encourage, but without the openly competitive elements that give people cause to switch off or detach from competitive team building games.
The emphasis on these activities is fun, educational and practical. Participants are given tasks to complete in a way very much removed from traditional business setups: we’re talking racing through the city streets (think The Amazing Race and you’re on the right lines), whipping up culinary delights on portable stoves in the middle of a city park, or working on a great tour around city landmarks to showcase the very best of team building Melbourne has to offer.
The landscape is changing for these kinds of activities. By scheduling even half a day per year from a busy organisational schedule, the benefits roll on in and one of the reasons the benefits last is the way in which these teambuilding courses are so different from the bog-standard, predictable corporate fun day stuff we’ve all become too familiar with.
But what about the softer side of management? The sort of stuff that many of us never have time for: the after-hours get togethers and the fun, social activities that can help transform a department or an office into a true team?
You may remember the story we covered late last year, about the web developers that gave everyone Friday afternoons off and saw overall staff productivity increase week-on-week. As the comments on that thread showed, a lot of businesses wanted the results. They just didn’t want to sacrifice the staff time!
Luckily there are other options. A new wave of team building activities is making its way across the country , with more and more organisations beginning to realise that team-building isn’t all about organised sports with an open bar at the end.
Organised sports have their place in workplace culture – and, let’s face it, so does an open bar. You don’t tend to see many work functions, birthdays or end of year parties that aren’t awash with complimentary alcohol. But team building games and activities with a softer, more subtle approach are gaining popularity as they encourage the sort of teambuilding and collaborative thinking that sports typically encourage, but without the openly competitive elements that give people cause to switch off or detach from competitive team building games.
The emphasis on these activities is fun, educational and practical. Participants are given tasks to complete in a way very much removed from traditional business setups: we’re talking racing through the city streets (think The Amazing Race and you’re on the right lines), whipping up culinary delights on portable stoves in the middle of a city park, or working on a great tour around city landmarks to showcase the very best of team building Melbourne has to offer.
The landscape is changing for these kinds of activities. By scheduling even half a day per year from a busy organisational schedule, the benefits roll on in and one of the reasons the benefits last is the way in which these teambuilding courses are so different from the bog-standard, predictable corporate fun day stuff we’ve all become too familiar with.