Team building is a vital aspect of a healthy office environment. In fact, team-building excursions and exercises tend to increase overall employee performance and create healthy bonds between the workers. Despite the fact that these two words tend to sound dreadful, team building, if applied properly, can be extremely efficient in boosting your team’s morale and motivation.
1. Keeping everyone in mind
Organizing a soccer match as a team-building exercise might sound awesome to you, and it might even end up boosting the overall team spirit, but you have to keep in mind that not every Aussie is physically active or a fan of sports. If your entire office (and I do mean entire) is up for a game every now and then, this can be a great team-building exercise, but if there are individuals who would stand aside and pout while the rest of you enjoy kicking the ball around, you might want to leave soccer (and other sports) out of your team-building agenda. If you’re really down for some physical activity, you might want to consider a light hike instead.
2. Problem-solving
A dominant part of a workday for most of your employees likely revolves around solving problems that constantly arise, which is exactly why problem-solving team exercises are so popular. Create an imaginary situation that’s relatable to your work and have your team try to solve it. This might seem a bit trivial, but in this way, you get to know how each individual member will likely act under certain amounts of pressure and in certain situations.
3. Outdoors and excursions
Sometimes, an excursion is the very essence of a team-building exercise. By taking your entire team on a trip, you’re actually creating a real opportunity for team members to bond. It is also very important that your entire office travels together, by coach, as this boosts the team spirit even further—you’re all in this together. Of course, it is essential that the bus remain fully functional throughout the trip in order to avoid inconveniences and frustration. So, if you’re setting off from Queensland, make sure to have a mobile mechanic from Brisbane check out the vehicle before the trip; you don’t want to end up stranded halfway to your destination.
4. Organizing the team-building event
Merely setting your mind to it won’t work – a team-building event won’t plan itself. You need to keep several things in mind, such as planning ahead, setting the purpose, goals, and objectives of the event, coming up with a budgetary plan, calling up ahead, and settling on the particular venue, hotel, or motel, etc. In truth, team-building events are very difficult to plan, which is exactly why many companies look for a professional event management agency. If you’re down with planning everything on your own, however, by all means, go for it, but bear in mind that team building requires dedication, patience, and focus.
5. Emphasize fun
Sometimes, the management (you) gets so caught up in the entire process of planning things out that they forget that every event of this type needs to be fun first! The best advice here is to focus on your employees; be empathetic, listen to their impressions, wants, and needs, and, above everything else, make sure that you’re having fun. Your team will love this and will follow suit.
It is vital that you keep every team member in mind when planning your team-building event, but putting emphasis on problem-solving pretty much goes without saying. Whether you’re planning a hike, an outdoor event, an excursion, or a series of exercises, setting things up properly and making sure that everyone is having a good time are the very pillars of every team-building event.
