How to Plan Team Building Activities that Your Team Will Enjoy

Team building exercises can help a team work more effectively, bringing people together in fun and effective ways. Forcing collaboration and relationships in the workplace can push classing personalities together, resulting in subpar work. However, team building exercises stand as a way to enable problem-solving which offers a natural flow in establishing a relationship, without the added pressure of a deadline.

Take your office culture into consideration when deciding which team building activities to implement. If many employees frequently chat about their affinity for board games, perhaps start there. Alternatively, if the office is abundant with conversations about sports and physical activities, then forming a kickball league may be a good idea.

Additionally, scour your locale for fun amenities, such as go-kart racing and escape rooms. Your city likely provides great team-building options in its available amenities and businesses.

Some fun and effective team building activities to consider are:

Kickball

It’s unrealistic to expect the entire office will participate in a sport like basketball or soccer, where some people will certainly have more experience than others. A viable alternative is playing kickball, which essentially anyone can play. Athleticism isn’t much of a factor when kicking a ball. Even better, companies can form a kickball league with other local businesses, providing a great way to meet people and form productive partnerships.

Board Games

Board games provide another form of accessible team building. Sure, the office may have its resident Settlers of Catan expert, though anyone can learn such board games. In fact, the process of learning a new board game encourages team building, since the more experienced players can establish relationships with others in helping them overcome the game’s learning. Board games, in general, are reliant on teamwork on communication, making it an ideal form of team building activity regardless of the board game.

Go Kart Racing

If go-kart racing is available in your area, it can be a great method for team building. Go kart racing involves competing against your coworkers in a fun and low-stress setting, gunning for top speeds and finishing positions in addition to playful bumps. Friendly competition tends to result in quality team building, which makes activities like board games and racing ideal options.

Hiking

If weather permits, hiking can be a great way to bring a team together. Especially since most businesses require employees to work indoors and out of the sunshine, hiking forces staff to get outside and explore Mother Nature together. Plus, sunshine has a variety of health benefits. Keep the hike at a moderate pace to accommodate varying degrees of athleticism.

Beer Tour

Have you thought about bringing a team on a beer tour? A beer tour is a great way to strengthen team building and become more familiar with the local area. The craft beer industry is exploding, with most cities having a variety of craft breweries that specialize in a variety of styles. A team can have a great time discussing various beer styles as well as tasting them together, with beer’s role as a social lubricant aiding any awkward potential.

Karaoke

Karaoke tends to get some people out of their shells, as they go from meek bookworm to belting out their favorite ‘80s anthem. Everyone tends to have a song they love to sing — karaoke lets team members show off their personality and musical inclinations. It’s doubtful the office is host to American Idol contestants, so everyone’s amusing level of mediocrity when singing will prevent anyone from feeling like their talents pale in comparison.

These fun team building activities can help companies get more efficiency out of their team. From beer tours to hikes and board games, there are a variety of team building activities that businesses can consider.

Author:

Scott Huntington

Scott Huntington is a writer from Harrisburg PA. Find his work on Business Insider, Yahoo Autos, Time, INC, and more. Follow him on Twitter @SMHuntington.