The most common reason for organising a team building activity is to improve collaboration. Some teams are naturally collaborative and others are less of a match, but either way, team building can help boost team trust, understanding, communication and collaboration.
A team building event can be fun to organise but sometimes it’s in the details. Your employees will be grateful for you applying this list of tips:
- Schedule the event during working hours. After a 40-hour week, people are not waiting to be asked to spend more time with their colleagues after hours or on the weekend. Do them and yourself a favour and plan the activity during work hours. They will appreciate the thoughtful effort.
- Consider CSR work. Making an impact together can be very powerful. It doesn’t only give more meaning to the activity, but it truly creates stronger bonds. People will discover other sides from their colleagues and find common interests.
- Encourage collaboration, not competition. A little bit of competition doesn’t hurt, but too much can ruin the purpose of the activity. There will be more valuable results when collaboration is stimulated, rather than competition.
- Make the activity accessible for everyone. If your activity may exclude someone from the team and there is no way around, then refrain from organising it. Team building is about building a team, not part of it.
- Set clear expectations. Make sure your team knows what the activity is for, even if it’s just for fun, so they have the right mindset coming to the activity. Encourage collaboration and keep it light.
- Gather feedback. It’s important to learn if your team enjoyed the activity and the way it was organised. You can do this by distributing anonymous surveys or by asking them personally, depending on the relationship you have with them.
Here’s to well-planned team building events!
PS: here are the best team building activities for collaboration
