With spring well underway, this time of year always makes me want to be outside enjoying the beautiful weather rather than being inside at work. However, sometimes we’re lucky enough to have the best of both worlds through a team building event.
In my experience most office workers tend to belly ache when it comes to team building events, but perhaps that’s because the participants’ strengths are not being considered when the group activity is selected.
For example, last summer the Beyond.com team participated in a boot camp at the Valley Forge Military Academy. While we have some athletes on the team that loved it, not everyone was as successful as our marathon runners. The event was great in my opinion—it was like being a kid at camp—but when planning a team building activity here are few tips to keep in mind.
- Pick something that the majority of the team will like. Accept that you won’t be able to please everyone, but if you can make most of the team happy—consider it a success.
- Get out of the office. Putting the team in a different environment together could be just the thing that cultivates the bonding among the staff.
- Make the Activity Fun. Don’t disguise actual work as a team building event—that’s SO NOT COOL! The purpose of doing an event like this is to get the team to get to know each other on a different level.
- Offer activities that let the team be silly. Activities that remind your staff of their childhood are always a hit. Take the team roller skating, go-karting, mini-golfing, etc... Activities where grownups get to act like big kids take the cake!
Speaking of fun team building events, one of our clients, Ascension Health just put on an awesome event. In anticipation of the Indy 500 (the other week) they put on a tricycle race. They had employees trip out a trike and then race them. A few pictures from this awesome event are below.
Thanks to Dana Reed, National Recruitment Consultant at Beyond.com for attending this event and providing us with pictures—looks like a great time!
