While corporate event planning such as team building events is usually associated with cheesy activities and awkward games, that doesn’t have to be the case.
If done correctly, team building can be not only exciting for everyone involved, but also have huge benefits for your company, which is why they are growing in popularity every year.
While a lot of people are still skeptical about team building and what it can do for office culture, the fact remains that many companies are seeing success with it. Team building helps employees form a stronger bond, learn to communicate better, improve trust, and boost productivity.
And as any professional conference organisers will tell you, you can even incorporate team building activities into your conferences and other business-related events so that you get the most out of every situation.
So, to help you get started with your own team building event, here are a few activities that have proven very effective at achieving agreed upon goals.
Give Back to Your Community
Team building activities can be a lot of fun, and you can give them, even more, meaning if you incorporate a way to give back to the local community in the process.
People want to contribute to society, so you can be sure that your employees appreciate the chance to help out those in need, and it will serve as an excellent opportunity and work towards a common goal.
And there are plenty of options for doing exactly that.
For instance, you and your team could participate in a volunteering event or contribute to charitable events that raise funds for or otherwise help communities in need. Whether it’s helping to raise funds or doing actual labor to make a difference, you can be sure that it will not only serve as a great way to get your staff closer together but will provide a huge morale boost as well.
Volunteering is rewarding in of itself, but it can be especially useful when you do it as a team – the sense of achievement will bring your group closer together, and that comradery will transfer to the workplace as well.
What’s more, by organising charitable activities, you’ll show your employees that your company cares about more than just making money, which can create a stronger bond and increase employee loyalty. Charitable activities demonstrate shared values between employees and company and a dedication to a good cause as a thing to share beyond the work itself.
Get Outdoors!
If you want to get people excited about corporate team building activities, you can’t go wrong offering to get them out of the office and do something fun outside.
And it’s not hard to see why – people love spending time outdoors, and often don’t have enough time to do it as much as they’d like. You can be sure that it’ll be appreciated if the company offers it as a team building activity.
Now, whether you decide to just go to a specific location, organise a sports match, or even go out for a hike, there are endless possibilities of the activities that you could do, which will be enhanced by the fact that you’re spending time outdoors instead of in the office.
Another option that’s very popular as an outdoor activity is a scavenger hunt – you can hide various objects in an area or even all around the city and have your team look for them based on clues. You can separate people into groups, which will encourage them to work together and look for the best strategy to win.
If you want to make it even more interesting, the scavenger hunt could be based on challenges or activities. Participants would need to perform certain actions, like interacting with random people, to reach the goal of the scavenger hunt. These activities add a bit more excitement and encourage people to get out of their comfort zone.
Take a Cooking Class
An appreciation for good food is something that all people share, and making food is a big part of the process.
That’s why a cooking class may be the perfect activity for your team building event – it encourages teamwork, requires problem-solving and instruction following. A cooking class helps colleagues bond over a common challenge and provides a delicious reward in the end, so you’d be hard pressed to find an activity that can match up.
A big part of success in the workplace is people trusting each other and knowing how to collaborate and communicate with one another. A cooking class provides an excellent environment for learning those skills and bonding with each other without the stress often present in the workplace.
Since not everyone is equally adept at cooking food – especially if your cooking class involves cuisine from different cultures – people will need to rely on each other and work together in figuring out how to prepare various dishes.
This challenge will not only be a lot of fun but also helps develop the types of skills that are crucial when faced with projects at the office.
Finally, a cooking class can help people gain more confidence in themselves, by being challenged in a way that’s not familiar to them and succeeding. Your employees will bring that newfound confidence back to the workplace and may become more assertive and trusting in their judgment, which is a crucial aspect of being able to move past various hurdles.
Conclusion
Above activities will definitely help any organisation in leveraging their employee’s productivity. These activities stand out from the traditional awkward games which are usually considered very casual. Along with increasing productivity, they’ll help in developing a good bond & values amongst your employees which will make your workplace more exciting
Author Bio
Sarah Hill is a content writer at Seven Events Ltd – one of the leading event agencies in London UK, providing conference and incentive travel, conference venue finding services, and corporate team building services. She started her career in the events industry almost a decade ago; as time progressed she became an avid event blogger sharing her insight on corporate event planning.