Fool-Proof Team Building Ideas

Looking for Team Building Ideas that work?

Many teams work better when they are able to spend some time away from work interacting with each other and letting their hair down. Here are 5 great team building ideas for your team to ‘play’ together outside of work and at work. These are great alternatives to the regular Friday Night Post-work drink sessions that so many of us opt for.

All these team building ideas have the same objective, bringing your team closer together and reinforcing the principles of teamwork and what constitutes a good team. Ensure that you talk about these principles and their importance as a debrief after these activities.

Take your team back to their childhood: Are you looking to encourage some creativity in your team, find a local pottery centre, which allows people to come in for a few hours and learn how to make a vase or a bowl. There is something about mucking about in clay that makes people relax and puts them in a good mood. Post class the things they made will serve as a great reminder of a fun afternoon spent with the team. Talk about how relaxing and doing something creative can stimulate creativity at work. You will also have team members who help each other out or motivate each other, some that may have been reluctant to get their hands dirty but did so after a little encouragement. Discuss how these same behaviours are applicable even at work.

Go camping for the weekend: assign roles to each team member (one to read maps, someone in charge of shelter, food, entertainment etc). Make sure that the role you assign to a team member is not one they are extremely comfortable with. Only by working together can your team have a safe and fun camping trip, talk about how it is important for each team member to uphold his responsibilities and commitment else the entire trip can go drastically wrong. E.g. if the person in charge of food forgets to pack any.

Lunch and Learn: One of the biggest complaints team members have is that there is little time for learning at the end of the workday. A lunch and learn event can be a great way to build team spirit and learn at the same time. Have one team member a week prepare a short 20 minute session on something they are interested it, a book they have read, or something they can ‘teach’ to their co-workers. Follow this up with lunch for the entire team, even takeout from Subway or McDonald’s works here. This activity really gives team members an insight into the interests and passions of their co-workers and helps them to get to know one another better.

Have a team theme day: show your spirit to the rest of the office. You can designate Friday and Team Friday and have a different activity or theme for each week which the team needs to contribute to. Activities can range from dressing up in a certain color, to compliment day, to potluck etc. This is a great way to make the team stand together in the eyes of the entire organization and helps them interact and bond with each other. You can also rotate the planning of the week’s activity amongst team members to encourage creativity and participation.

More team building ideas:

Do you have a paintball centre close to work: paintball is a fun and creative activity for teams to do. Divide your team into two groups, give each team 5 minutes to choose a leader, and plan a strategy to win over the other team. Let the games begin. The team with the most hits wins. Post the session you can talk about how teamwork was an important factor, watching out for each other’s backs, and the importance of creativity, fun and passion at work.

More related articles:

Free Team Building Activities

Team Building Strategies

Team Building Skills