Team Building Activities & Why They Matter
When you manage a team or own a business, it's your job to take a group of diverse people, each with their own personality and life experience, and help them work together seamlessly to benefit the company. At times, this can be challenging.
You want each member of the team to trust the others and work together to accomplish a single goal or project. You need to build a sense of camaraderie. This can take some work. You might consider taking a day and working on a few team-building activities. This is your guide to everything you need to know about team-building activities and why they matter.
How Team Building Activities Work
A team-building activity is an activity designed to help your employees learn to work collaboratively together to reach a common goal. It's typically a fun activity, and the goal requires the group to define the individual roles of each member.
Some corporate team-building activities require you to split up your employees into multiple teams and then have them compete against each other. With an activity like this, you might break up the team by roles within the company, such as make the sales team a group and the customer service staff another.
You can find corporate team-building exercises that take a few hours while others can be completed over the course of a weekend. It's even possible to find team-building activities in a virtual format, so your team can participate from home.
What Are the Benefits of a Team Building Activity?
Before you corral your team and take an afternoon away from the office, you need to know that there are real benefits to a team-building activity. You may find that these activities are essential for building your team and helping them to become more successful within your organization.
Here are a few of the perks that a day or afternoon of team building activities might create:
Builds trust: As each group completes their goal, they have to rely on each other to do their assigned part. This automatically builds trust as long as everyone does what they're supposed to do.
A new leader might appear: You believe that you know your employees well, but there might be a leader lurking among them who hasn't emerged yet. A team-building activity might be their chance to sign.
A new understanding of teamwork: The main goal of any team-building activity is to teach your employees how to better work together by forcing them to accomplish a group goal.
Teaches your team to work together: When your team is having fun or acting competitively to reach a common goal, they'll fall into a rhythm as working as a team. They can take this new ability back to the office, and it'll benefit your company.
Improves morale: It's stressful working in an office or some other environment each day. When you opt for a team-building activity, it improves your employees' perception of you and helps them to become more excited about your business.
A team-building activity can make a real difference in the way your team interacts and works together. It can also make a difference for your business.
Some Great Team Building Activities to Try
There are an almost endless amount of team-building activities from a weekend in a remote wilderness location to a night of board games played in teams for a trophy. When choosing an activity, you need to consider the personality and physical fitness of your employees. Here are a few team-building activities for you to consider:
Scavenger Hunts
Who doesn't love a scavenger hunt? They can be as simple as collecting things on a list or have fun components with tasks to complete. With Alley Kat Adventures, you can take your employees on a scavenger hunt around your city.
If you have a large staff, you can break them up into teams to compete against each other. As the scavenger hunt proceeds, your staff learns more about the city and discovers some hidden gems along the way.
At each location, your team completes a fun activity and sends in photos of themselves having fun. It's a great bonding experience and a lot of fun for them. If you're concerned about your team moving through the city, you can opt for a virtual scavenger hunt instead.
Virtual Scavenger Hunts for Employees
With more and more employees working from home, it’s possible you're working with a remote team. This can present its own unique challenges as working from home can make it hard for employees to feel connected to the team or group. That’s why virtual team building or virtual scavenger hunts are a great alternative. They have the same desired effects as a traditional team-building activity except now employees can participate from their own homes without even leaving the house. Your team simply works together from their individual locations and can still enjoy the fun of virtual team-building activities.
Company Olympics
If you have a large staff and space to use, a company Olympics might be a good option for you. You don't need to do all the traditional events; you can get creative. For example, tricycle or Big Wheel relay races or eggs in teaspoons passed from one person to the next without using their fingers.
A company Olympics can be a fun and amazing team-building activity, but it might take a lot of your time to organize and prepare for the events. You also want to add trophies or some other prizes for the winning team.
At Alley Kat Adventures, we can help you get your team to bond and become more cohesive, so they're more effective at work. You can opt for a private scavenger or even request a custom hunt specific to your needs. Contact us today to learn more.
