Losing your team building virginity is sort of a right of passage once you enter the corporate/working world…
But once the ‘T plates’ come off and you’ve spent the years that followed carrying on with the same old activities with the same old people, it’s not surprising that the spark is starting to disappear.
You’ve simply fallen out of love with team building.
So it’s time for change, there’s plenty of fish in the sea and now’s the time to reconnect with the people you see day in, day out, in more purposeful ways. Here’s our simple guide on how to get back in the game:
Set some desired outcomes
Not so much ‘what do you look for in a team build’ but more ‘what do you want to get out of it’. It’s time to do a bit of self reflection. What does your team need to work on? Trust? Communication? or maybe even understanding each other’s roles better…
You’ve done the paint balling, paired up for trust exercises, launched eggs off the top of buildings with homemade parachutes and even raced your colleagues round a Go Karting track… So now it’s time to strip it all back, sometimes something as simple as exploring the local area in teams with some location based tasks and challenges to complete is all it takes to get people working and having fun together!
Content is still king
If the activity doesn’t offer something transferable or tangible that you can take back to the day job, then it can leave you wondering ‘what’s the point?’. You have a heap of work to do and you’ve just wasted your day chasing colleagues through woods with a paintball gun, with nothing to show for your day apart from some painful bruises. Incorporating valuable content into your activity creates learnings and key takeaways that give the day some purpose. It could be something as simple as incorporating company values into challenges, or a brand activation and engagement activity.
It’s all the in the delivery
You can have the most interesting, relevant content in the world to use in your team building activity – but deliver it in the wrong way and it won’t get the attention it deserves, or have the outcomes you’re expecting. Presenting your content eg. Values or key points from your new strategy in innovative ways, that truly immerse and involve your people in the process from the ground up, is the best way to see success.By incorporating technology and interactive tasks, your key business messages will shine through. Engage people through an immersive delivery and they’ll be putty in your hands!
Measure Up
Lastly, the pièce de résistance…the secret weapon to help you rekindle your romance with team building, measurability. Remember those outcomes we mentioned? It’s time to see how many have been met. Incorporating measurability tools into your activity such as in game feedback questions or bespoke challenges to test company specific knowledge can act as valuable resource, not only to test the success of the activity but even in some cases influence strategy. Extracting measurable stats from your activity is the way to go when it comes to obtaining ROI.
So next time you find yourself straying into the realms of team building, think with your head, not just your…heart and consider these five tips to help you find an activity to sweep you and your team off your feet.
Don't forget to share:
