Away From the Corporate Mountain:

Building a Team-Building Excursion That Works

With most of our employees working from home, we can almost forget about forging that team spirit. It is important to remember that morale is about people feeling like they are a team. As restrictions start to lift in some parts of the world, we may begin to wonder about what we can do to get people back to the office. But also, we need to realize that there will be times when people may not want to come back to the office. However, it’s important to bring a team spirit to the business, wherever they are. This is why a team-building weekend can still be a wonderful thing to foster collaboration. It can actually gets people to work together better, even though they are not in the same building anymore. What does it take to organize a great team-building event?

Take Them Away from Anything Representing the Corporate Landscape

One of the best ways to make an effective team-building event is to take everyone away from what they know. You can use a local minibus and coach hire company to transport everyone. This is a very good choice for day-long events. That way, you’ve got everybody under one roof, interacting and getting to know one another in a more informal context. When you start to take them away from the typical office or home environment, you begin to see people for what they are really like, and you will notice personality traits that could go in your favor. These are especially true for the people you’ve hired since the pandemic started but you’ve only interacted with them over the telephone or computer.

Set Clear Goals

The fact of the matter is that we can become somewhat myopic regarding our corporate goals. But this runs the risk of turning the event into a very dull and vanilla approach to team-building. Everybody has their attitudes that team-building is one of those things that just feels like work away from work. You need to accomplish the goals to bring them back to the business, but this is why it is so vital to establish clear focus areas that you want your team to work on. When you set basic guidelines, you can then think of the appropriate activities and challenges to suit the focus. 

Involve the Right People 

Some people need more help than others. If you take your team away, and they comprise the entire company, you will notice where people need more support. Some people don’t have the best people skills, and some prefer to stoke the fires by inflicting conflict, however, you’ve got to make sure that everybody is engaged in the event. Otherwise, you will run the risk of people lurking in the background, while those that have bigger mouthpieces take over the entire thing. This will only work to segregate your team and to make things appear worse. 

Use the Outdoors If Possible

While it is a very cliched term, team-building in the outdoors makes the event more fun. It is a great way to get people out in the fresh air, but it’s also the perfect opportunity for people to step out of their comfort zone. There always be someone who is an amateur camper, or someone who knows how to build a raft out of matchsticks, but these people need to step back. It’s about using the outdoors to get people involved in the processes. The outdoors is an automatic change of scenery, but it’s also a change of pace. 

While it’s not always possible to go outdoors, there are plenty of indoor team-building exercises if you can take them indoors. You might want to go left of center, and set up an escape room, this is a wonderful way to see how people can solve puzzles in a different environment, but also work together. There are also simpler things you could do, such as team quizzes. But if you are going indoors, it has to be exciting. Something like an improv class can be a great way for people to get to know each other, and step out of everybody’s comfort zones.

Why It’s Important for People to Get Out of Their Comfort Zone 

Team-building events can be very awkward because some people don’t like to expose themselves. This is important to remember, but we can maintain a positive atmosphere at the same time. If everybody feels that they are out of their comfort zone, this is where we begin to see what people are really made of. And you can factor this into the events you choose. Comfort zones are something that we build around ourselves, and this is why, when we set up a team-building event, we have got to make sure every attendee is out of their comfort zone. If one person is in their element, this can make it somewhat unfair. 

While it’s not always possible to make everybody feel like they’re out of their depths, this is why many team-building exercises involved the great outdoors. The goal is not to scare your employees, but, like in the army, it’s about almost breaking them down so you can see what people are made of underneath. In a working environment, we can put up a barrier between us and our colleagues, and the world. The benefits of having a team-building event are not just to have people interact, and engage when they normally wouldn’t. It gives you the opportunities to see what people are made of and how this can benefit the business in the long run. Some people may not have had any initiative within a certain environment, but you see something completely different outside of work. And this gives you fantastic insight into how you can make the business better. 

Team-building exercises are a great way for you to see your employees in a different light, but they will also prove to be the way to boost your business forever. Team-building events should be one of those compulsory boring weekends away, but it should be something that can make everybody feel rejuvenated and forge stronger working relationships.