Given it’s the day you’re most likely to get free food, you’d think more people look forward to team building activities. But tragically, the opposite could not be more true. Everyone flinches a little at the word icebreaker, and it’s actually been proven that poorly planned team building can damage their bonds as a whole.
With all this riding on any team building event, what is the ideal scenario? Well, grab a wizard cloak and summon the office – it’s time to find out.
Making a Universal Experience
It’s easy to make an event that’s fun for a very specific type of person; that’s how people get hobbies. However, your team – unless manned by only clones – is unlikely to have just one type of person. So how do you combat this? Well, with an open heart – and a lot of weird questions.
Getting to know what people enjoy can be tricky – for you and them, especially if they’re a private person – but it’s a must. Even the most different of people will have some shared interest – even if it’s just eating – and capitalising on that makes or breaks the event. So long as everyone can enjoy themselves – and, dare we say it, maybe even have a laugh – then you have become the king of team building.
Making it Build Teams
So, you’ve picked your activity. Cool. Now how will it help your team?
Thinking about this is one of the most important parts of planning a team building activity. You don’t have to plan it like an elaborate human version of chess, but keeping the end goal in mind is key. Do you want specific people to work better together? Make sure they work together in the activity. Is the new guy in the office a little left out? Make sure he has an important role.
Little things are sure to make a world of difference in the realm of team building exercises – and the more they work, the more your team will put into the rest of them.
Making it Fun
Last but not least, team building needs to not feel like a pacifist’s Saw game. Getting to genuinely know and trust people is a strange enough human experience without adding some boring and surreal office games to them. This isn’t to suggest team building itself is bad, though – just that common team building exercises are.
With actual budgets being set for these activities, however, there’s no excuse to not make the day jam-packed with fun. Paintballing, escape rooms, a gallery (if you’re fancy) – all super fun activities, that also help people actually connect. So long as you find something everyone will genuinely enjoy, it’s almost guaranteed they’ll connect – and non-artificially, too. Heck, you might even find some unusual inspiration for whatever you’re working on together – making the whole thing a win/win.
