Alternative Team Building Ideas
If you’re in the loop and read Goho’s blog (you’re a cool mofo), then you will understand how critical team building exercises are if you want a happy workforce and a successful business. In last month's blog, we covered the many positives of staging team building exercises for your company employees, and the constructive effect this can have on both the wellbeing of your staff and ultimately your profits. So, let's take that one step further this month and delve into some great alternative ideas for team building exercises, that will ensure your company is running smoothly, happily and firing on all cylinders.
Straight out of Goho’s book entitled ‘The best team building exercise in the known universe’, we start with a cocktail tasting masterclass, bringing your team together to have a good time outside of the workplace, where they can casually gossip, sip random alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, and create magical concoctions together, a foolproof way of bringing people together and having a good time, whilst also strengthening relationships.
Led by experienced mixologists, cocktail tasting/making workshops are great fun. You will get to try delicious drinks with your teammates, and learn to shake a mixed drink like a master bartender. You’ll also discover the secrets of making the best cocktails, with both conventional classic recipes and exciting new creations too! These classes are participatory and fun, with easy-to-follow instructions so everyone can get in on the action, with many laughs to be had.
Another great thing about this idea is that the workshop can be brought to your workplace completely, or alternatively, set up in one of your company’s favourite meeting spaces, giving you the flexibility to make this exercise practical and easy to execute, with minimal planning and loss of down time. This event has many benefits, it will help you stimulate creativity within your workforce, helping to strengthen communication skills through participation and collaboration within the team, all while mobilising and tightening team spirit via an interesting and fun activity.
If drinking alcohol is not suitable for your team building events (hmmm) then look no further than the great outdoors. There is no better way to cure a demotivated office than getting the whole team into the great outdoors for a day of fun team building. It’s a simple strategy, offices detach human beings further from their natural habitat, and this can have a negative effect on people's health. Reconnecting with nature and exposing them to the elements, focusing on activities that are both fun and emotionally rewarding, is a sure fire way to help the team communicate, bond and develop themselves into a closer and more effective team.
Sure, obstacle courses, go karting and paintball are fun, they are really good fun, but your chosen activity doesn’t have to be the same old generic offering. Think outside the box, there are many unusual activities you can pursue that could be excellent for team building exercises, such as camping, archery, axe throwing, bungee jumping or even skydiving! Many outdoor activities are likely to take your team out of their comfort zone, provide them with an incredible day, and contribute to them growing as a team by sharing such a great experience together.
Think surfing, what better day trip is there for getting out of the office than going to the beach … it's perfect! The sun on your face, the wind in your hair, the sand between your toes, those powerful waves crashing under the circling sounds of hungry seagulls, the apex predator of the fish ‘n’ chips you’ll be eating after the session. Surfing is an exhilarating, emotionally satisfying experience, working hard using both brain and body to time correctly, then launching yourself into an oncoming wave, as it picks you up and whisks you on your way. The connection with our planet when surfing is extraordinary, at one with mother earth as you harness nature's power and head back to the beach at incredible speed. Surfing is a great team building exercise that develops a bond like no other, it will leave everyone in your team with a shared beautiful memory that will last a lifetime. Now, where's those fish and chips?
Perhaps heading to the beach is too far from your workplace, or perhaps it's just too cold for outdoor activities, so visiting an escape room is another great alternative. Escape rooms offer a unique experience for your staff. By putting your workforce in a situation where they must think constructively and work as a team to solve the many puzzles and problems to get out, escape rooms offer the perfect team building exercise, and they are great fun too.
Escape rooms come in many different styles and variations, with plenty to choose from as their popularity grows. They can help your staff build key skills within your team, such as communication, problem solving, decision making and collaboration, providing the opportunity to not only bond and develop into a more effective team, but also provide you with a chance to establish how different individuals respond to difficult situations, and notice leaders emerge within your group during challenging moments.
So, there we have proposed a few alternative team building ideas for you to ponder. Team building exercises can be small, and easily done in the workplace without much expenditure using simple exercises, but if you require more for your ideal team building event, it helps to think outside of the box and deliver something that not only helps your team develop into the greatest team on the entire planet (besides Goho), manifesting your staff into a united and unstoppable force that will blow back trees, crack statues and be impossible to defeat, but also lets them have a fun time doing so.
Team building is an essential element of developing a successful company. Never underestimate the power of a great team, talent wins games...but teamwork wins championships!
