Building your company’s team activities

 Published:  17/07/2024  | Updated:  17/07/2024

A strong team is the backbone of any successful company. However, fostering collaboration and connection in today's fast-paced work environment can be challenging. This article explores the importance of team activities and provides various engaging options to build a more cohesive and productive workforce.

The Importance of Team Building

Team building activities are a vital part of any successful business. While work is the priority, taking time for fun activities that bring employees together provides immense value. Team building offers many benefits that directly improve productivity and office culture:

Improves Communication

Communication breakdowns often lead to workplace conflicts and missed objectives. Team-building activities allow employees to interact in a relaxed setting. Games and conversations help break down barriers between team members who may only cross paths occasionally, facilitating better communication overall.

Increases Trust 

Trust is the foundation of a cohesive team. However, it can be challenging to develop genuine trust when interactions are limited to meetings and rushed work conversations. Shared experiences through team building allow colleagues to show their character and personalities. Seeing each other in a new light increases empathy and trust.

Boosts Morale

Fun activities together have an energizing effect on teams. A break from routine responsibilities gives people renewed enthusiasm. Morale also improves through relationship building and positive interactions during events, sparking creativity and passion for work.

Encourages Creativity

Collaborating creatively during team-building exercises gets people thinking outside the box. Engaging different perspectives and skill sets fosters innovation, and the creative juices keep flowing even after the activities end.

Strengthens Bonds

At its core, team building aims to bring people closer together. Shared positive experiences are the glue that strengthens interpersonal bonds. Deeper connections make it easier to work cohesively despite differences, leading to greater collaboration, peer support, and a sense of community.

Types of Team Building Activities

Team building activities are a great way to unite employees and strengthen relationships. Here are some popular types of activities to consider:

Outdoor Adventures

Outdoor adventures like hiking, camping, or kayaking trips are excellent for bonding and collaboration. Being in nature provides a refreshing change of pace from the office. Challenging activities like ropes courses also encourage teamwork.  

Escape Rooms 

Escape rooms have become a popular team-building activity. Groups must work together to find clues and solve puzzles to escape the room within a set time limit, encouraging communication, problem-solving, and thinking outside the box.

Volunteer Projects

Giving back as a team is rewarding on many levels. Volunteering at a charity event, cleaning up a park, or building for a good cause enables teams to make an impact together. It also provides perspective and shows that the company cares.

Company Parties 

Company parties and picnics allow for casual fun and conversation. Themed parties featuring trivia or games are especially lively. Having good food and music helps create an enjoyable atmosphere for employees to mingle.

Group Games

Interactive group games at the office can range from simple icebreakers to more complex scavenger hunts or contests. Friendly competition helps energize employees and brings out their competitive spirit. Games that require teamwork are ideal.

Planning Successful Activities

A key part of planning successful team-building activities is understanding the personalities and preferences of your team. Get to know what motivates each person and what activities they would enjoy. You want everyone to feel included. 

It's also important to set clear goals for your activities. What do you hope to accomplish? Are you aiming to improve communication, collaboration, problem-solving, or something else? With goals in mind, you can choose appropriate activities that align. 

When selecting specific activities, have a backup plan or two as well. You never know if an activity will flop or if someone will get sick last minute and can't attend. Having alternative options prevents disappointment.

Additionally, get buy-in from company leadership before organizing any elaborate or expensive activities. Make a case for how team building benefits employee morale, retention, and productivity. With support from the top down, your events are more likely to succeed.

Thoughtful preparation allows your team bonding activities to bring everyone closer together, strengthen workplace relationships, and make work more enjoyable. Employees who connect are happier and more engaged.

Outdoor Adventures 

Getting employees out of the office and into nature is a great way to build camaraderie and strengthen relationships. Outdoor team-building activities encourage collaboration, communication, and problem-solving as coworkers navigate new environments and experiences together. Consider planning one of these outdoor adventures:

Scavenger Hunts

Send small groups into a park or downtown area armed with a list of silly or challenging items to find and photograph. The team that completes the scavenger hunt first wins a prize. This activity encourages teamwork, creativity, and friendly competition.

Obstacle Courses 

Set up a simple obstacle course in a park using cones, hula hoops, and other portable objects. Time each team as they race to complete the course, adding teamwork challenges like having the whole team go through a hula hoop at once. Obstacle courses get the blood pumping and bring out people's playful sides.

Hiking 

Find a scenic nature trail and take the whole office on a hike. Hiking is a low-impact way to enjoy nature while getting some exercise. Make sure to set a pace that is accommodating to all fitness levels. 

Kayaking

Paddle around a lake or gentle river in tandem kayaks or groups of 3-4. Kayaking requires coordination and communication between partners to steer and paddle in sync. It's a relaxing activity that lets coworkers bond while floating on the water.

Camping Trips

Plan an overnight camping trip at a state park or campground. Cook dinner over the fire, tell stories under the stars, and sleep in tents or cabins. Multi-day trips allow for deeper connections and a total escape from work. Just be sure your coworkers are up for roughing it in the outdoors!

Getting active outdoors, whether for a few hours or days, is a fun way to build trust and friendship between coworkers. These shared experiences and challenges lead to greater collaboration back at the office.

Escape Rooms

Escape rooms have become a popular team-building activity in recent years. They require coworkers to come together and collectively solve puzzles and riddles against the clock to "escape" the room. This fosters communication, creativity, and friendly competition.

To progress, participants must listen carefully, consider all ideas, and cooperate effectively. Quieter employees may find their voice as their expertise becomes essential to solving certain clues. Trying and failing together also brings a team closer.

While only a small group can participate at a time, multiple teams from the same company can be arranged to take part. Comparing times and scores between groups sparks lively discussion back at the office. Some escape room facilities even provide private bookings.

Consider choosing a themed room like Prison Break, Spy Mission, or Mystery Mansion to increase the fun. The story and elaborate sets make the experience more immersive. Costumes and props are also encouraged.

Avoid giving anyone an unfair advantage by ensuring teams have a mix of strengths. Random drawings can determine group assignments to make it fair. Offering small prizes for the winning team adds friendly competition. 

Escape rooms provide a refreshing break from stuffy conference rooms and stale agenda items. Coworkers get to know each other and bond while matching wits in an exciting, interactive setting. They promote teamwork through creativity, communication, and collaboration.

Company Parties

Company parties are a classic team-building activity, allowing coworkers to socialize and have fun outside of day-to-day work. While there are many types of parties a company can host, some of the most popular include:

Holiday Parties

As an organization, holiday parties are a great way to celebrate major holidays like Christmas, Hanukkah, or New Year's Eve. These are often formal events held at restaurants or event venues where employees can dress up and enjoy a nice meal, music, dancing, entertainment, and an open bar. Gifts, bonuses, or awards are to show appreciation for the team members' efforts and are also great ways to celebrate.

Picnics 

Companies can host a company picnic at a local park, beach, or company grounds for a more casual and budget-friendly option. Typical picnic activities include outdoor games like volleyball, sack races, or frisbee. For a potluck-style meal, everyone contributes food like grilled items, salads, snacks, and desserts.

Potlucks

Potlucks are similar to picnics but held indoors in the office or a reserved space. Employees sign up to bring entrees, sides, drinks, and other items to share. Potlucks promote teamwork through collaboration to provide food.

Happy Hours

Happy hours allow teams to connect after work for drinks and appetizers at a local restaurant or bar. An informal setting enables coworkers to socialize and unwind. Some happy hours are open invitations, while others celebrate individual team accomplishments.

Bowling Nights

For a change of pace, companies can book a couple of lanes at the local bowling alley for a bowling night. Bowling is a fun group activity that encourages friendly competition and bonding. Pizza, wings, and drinks add to the experience.

Company parties build rapport between coworkers in a relaxed setting outside of the office. They're an enjoyable way to strengthen workplace culture and morale.

Group Games 

Group games are a fun way to get your team interacting and collaborating in a low-pressure environment outside of work projects. Here are some popular options for team-building games:

Scavenger Hunts

Send employees on a scavenger hunt around the office or nearby neighborhood. Split people into small teams and give them a list of silly or challenging items to photograph or collect. The team who finds the most items fastest wins a prize. 

Trivia 

Host a trivia night and quiz employees on pop culture, sports, history, science, or even company trivia. Split into teams and compete to answer questions correctly. Consider booking a professional trivia host if you have a large office.

Charades

Everyone loves a classic game of charades! It gets people moving around and acting silly. You can use standard charade prompts or create customized ones based on your company or industry. Award points for correct guesses and see who can get the highest score.

Team Sports

Get active with some friendly competition! Sports like kickball, dodgeball, volleyball, or tug-of-war are easy to set up. They require teamwork and communication to succeed. Consider holding a miniature office Olympics.

Escape Rooms

Escape rooms are an immersive team activity where groups must solve clues and puzzles to accomplish a goal in a limited time. Many cities have professional escape room companies you can hire. Or set up an office escape room with hidden clues that lead to a "prize" at the end.

Group games help employees bond and unwind in a social setting outside of their everyday work. They encourage communication, problem-solving, and creativity. Keep the competitive spirit friendly, and recognize all participants rather than just the "winners." Most importantly, make sure everyone has fun!

Virtual Activities

With many teams working remotely, virtual team-building activities have become more popular. These activities help distributed teams bond and collaborate even when they can't meet in person. Some fun virtual team activities include:

Online Games

Playing online games together is an easy way to have fun from anywhere. Popular options include Jackbox party games, virtual escape rooms, trivia games, or multiplayer video games. These facilitate conversation and friendly competition.

Virtual Cooking Classes 

Virtual cooking classes let coworkers cook the same recipe together from their kitchens. Everyone signs on to a video call and cooks along with the instructor. This activity enables coworkers to interact and relax while learning new culinary skills.

Remote Volunteering

Giving back as a team is rewarding. Remote volunteering options include writing letters to hospitalized children or seniors in isolation. Teams can also join online mentoring programs to help needy students and promote teamwork for a good cause.

Virtual Escape Rooms

Escape rooms present fun puzzles and challenges for the group, like finding clues and codes to escape. Virtual versions provide remote-friendly team building. Participants can collaborate via video chat to crack the clues.

Remote Happy Hours

Casual virtual happy hours allow for organic conversations and bonding time. These can be done as video calls or group chats. Occasional virtual happy hours give distributed teams quality time to catch up and unwind.

Virtual activities enable remote employees to connect casually and collaborate. They build relationships and morale that carry over into better daily teamwork. A variety of creative online options make virtual team building accessible and engaging.

Measuring the Success of Team Building Activities

When done thoughtfully, team-building activities can provide a range of benefits for companies. It's important to measure team-building initiatives' success to ensure they have the intended impact. There are several key metrics to track:

Improved Communication

Communication often improves as employees get to know each other better through activities. People may feel more comfortable voicing ideas and providing feedback. Track whether team members seem more willing to communicate openly after participating in team-building activities. Notice if meetings include more perspectives and people seem to listen to each other more attentively.

Increased Collaboration 

Team building helps break down silos. Look for signs that collaboration increases through more cross-functional project teams, employees proactively helping others, and sharing resources and information. Collaboration can also be measured through surveys and tracking the number of cross-departmental meetings.

Higher Engagement

Engaged employees are essential for productivity and retention. Look for enthusiastic employees who participate in activities, interact more with colleagues, and display more interest in their work. Administer employee engagement surveys to measure the impact before and after team-building initiatives.

Boosted Creativity

When teams bond, group brainstorming and creative problem-solving often improve. Track if team building corresponds with increased viable new ideas from brainstorming activities and innovation programs. 

Stronger Relationships

At its core, team building aims to develop relationships between colleagues. Notice if employees seem more enthusiastic about interacting, mention getting to know peers better, and display camaraderie and empathy for others after participating in activities together.

Tracking these metrics can reveal the true impact of team building and help guide investments in future activities. The goal is to bring employees together and harness the power of teams for business success.