Team building events are important financial and time investments for any company or group. That is why you should strive to ensure that your team derives maximum value and benefit from the occasion.
So how can you do this? How can you set it up so your team is prepared for the experience that lies ahead and understand its importance?
Here are five strategies that I recommend so you can get maximum value from your team building event.
1. Discuss the key objectives with your team building provider
It is important in the planning stage that your provider understands what your key outcomes for the team building exercises are, so they can recommend and structure a program to achieve these.
2. Set the scene with your team
Discuss with your provider the option of having a brief facilitated session before and after the event. This is a timely opportunity to communicate with the participants so they understand what they can gain from the team building activities. You can then tie it all together and reflect on the event at the end, so everyone leaves with knowledge of what they have achieved.
3. Lead by example
To truly show your team the importance and value that you place on this group team building activity, you as a manager or leader should actively participate. Not only will you gain some valuable insights into how members of your team perform, you will have some fun too.
4. Incorporate a theme
If you incorporate a theme or title for this event, you can help guide your teams’ expectations for the day. For example, ‘The ACE Company Team Bonding Day – an exploration into our why versus our what’ or ‘The ACE Company – a discovery of how our culture affects our performance’. A theme can add intrigue about the event and subtly reinforce the desired outcome.
5. Promote how fun it will be
The most important factor in any team building workshop or event is that it’s fun. Everyone learns more effectively in an environment where they are relaxed and bouyant. As Plato once said, “you learn more about a person in an hour of play than a life time of conversation.”
Remember the main purpose of a team building event is to have fun, and reinforce the organisational culture and importance of working together. As Henry Ford once said, “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”
Dwain Richardson is the Managing Director of Corporate Challenge Events – a leader in the delivery of team building programs and corporate events in Australia and New Zealand for 21 years.
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