Team building events are seen as important morale-building occasions by many managers and team leaders.
These individuals recognise the importance of a strong team spirit amongst workers. Many agree that getting along with each other helps workers feel better motivated to put their full effort into the task at hand.
Lord Sugar set a task of creating a team building activity in a recent episode of the Apprentice. The two teams Evolve and Endeavour both came up with ideas to entertain their participants with the aim of helping them develop communication skills in the process. Unfortunately their efforts fell flat and the participants and Alan Sugar himself were disappointed with the lack of planning and fusion in the corporate events.
With careful planning however a good team building event can help workers get to know each other and strengthen personal relationships. Here are five tips for creating an event that is really effective in doing just that.
Get active
Team building events come in a variety of forms. There’s no limit to the sorts of activities you can get your workforce involved with. However, in order to keep employees engaged, it could help to pick something which gets them on their feet. An activity which keeps everyone moving around, concentrating and communicating with others is your best bet if you want to keep morale levels high throughout the whole event.
Encourage communication with new people
As a society, Brits generally tend to feel quite uncomfortable meeting new people. We’re typically a lot more reserved than other nations – and this can often be a barrier to great team spirit across a large organisation.
A team building event presents a great opportunity to smash through this barrier. Don’t let it slip by. Organise a game which rewards those who communicate with the most people. If you play a team game, make sure teams are populated by members of different departments. Otherwise, the event will almost definitely serve just to strengthen the relationships of those who are already friends.
Set the mood
Setting the right mood is key for successfully achieving what you want from a team building event. A fun, relaxed atmosphere can make it so much easier for employees to come out of their shell, have fun and engage with new people. A formal, serious environment can do the opposite – so consider abandoning traditional workplace norms for your event.
Perhaps let your employees wear what they want or host the event in a fun non-corporate location. It’s important to set an example by making sure that you are relaxed and care-free at these events.
Be original
There are loads of stereotypical team building games that are adopted by corporations all over the world in order to improve employee relations. These games can generally become quite tiresome once employees have done it the first time and can make team building seem rather forced. Most staff members will appreciate bosses who take the time to plan something fun and original that they’ve never experienced before.
Set goals and reinforce them
For the benefit of those who aren’t sold on the value of team building events, it is often worth explaining the goals of the day before an activity begins. At the end of the day, reinforce the reason why you organised such an event and what you hope will occur in the workplace as a result. This makes it clear that the event is more than an excuse to goof off.
Those who follow the tips above will be more likely to find that their team building event becomes everything they hoped it would be and less like the efforts of Lord Sugar’s latest hopefuls.
