When you hear “team building” you might think of outdated activities like trust falls, walking across hot coals and colleagues competing in small teams. However, plots you have seen laid out in sitcoms isn’t the best way to build a strong team, and many of these activities completely miss the purpose of team building, which is of course to build a strong team.
Unique Team Building Ideas That Work
Instead of breaking the team into pairs or groups and pitting them against each other, it’s much more useful to work as a team towards a common goal. Activities like escape rooms, laser tag or forming a company baseball team (to compete against teams formed by other companies) are all good options. You want to come up with something unique and memorable. Most of your employees have done team building activities in the past, and they may have been bored or found these activities to be a waste of time. You want to design your team building event around your employee’s interest and choose an activity that is new and exciting.
You can also plan an incentive trip for the entire team. Think a wellness trip to a spa retreat, a weekend camping trip in the mountains, or an exotic trip to Aruba if your team can increase sales by 4% by the end of the quarter, or whatever metric you most want to improve. Incentive travel is a great way to bring your team together and give them a great experience that they will talk about for years to come.
Other Great Team Building Ideas
- NASCAR racing experiences
- Deep-sea fishing tournaments
- Scavenger hunts
- Chili cook-offs
- Golf tournaments
- White water rafting
Why Team Building Is Important
As more and more companies choose to abandon the traditional hierarchical structure in favor of a more democratic, flat hierarchy structure, the concept and implementation of team building becomes even more crucial to reducing turnover and increasing overall worker satisfaction.
Three Things Good Team Building Should Do
1. Improve Communication
The foundation of a good team is good communication, and nothing improves communication like an effective team building exercise where employees must work together to achieve a common goal. The more people are encouraged to communicate, the better at it they’ll be, and that means they’ll be able to communicate better with each other, with clients, with vendors and anyone else your company works with.
2. Develop Relationships
In companies with a flat hierarchy structure, it’s even more important for employees to be able to work together efficiently and without drama. Many people can become uncomfortable without a clear organizational structure, and this is even more likely if relationships are contentious or strained. It’s in your company’s best interest to make sure that your employees are friendly to each other, and that can be achieved by the bonds that team building can form. Creating bonds and increasing empathy with effective team building will benefit your company because coworkers will be more inclined to work together in the interests of the company, instead of just to benefit themselves.
3. Motivate Employees
Employees who are recognized for their achievements, feel like their ideas are taken seriously, and have collegial relationships with coworkers are more motivated. Motivated employees are more likely to say they’re satisfied with their jobs in general, and they’re less likely to seek employment elsewhere. When employees are motivated to succeed and satisfied with their jobs, they genuinely care about the success of your business, because your success is their success.
Contact MTI Events today for more information about travel incentive programs to reward your team for successfully reaching your team building goals, or talk to us about our team building event and meeting services.
