Team Building Activity Day
Corporate team building events are becoming more and more popular in the UK. Management now appreciate and recognise that workshops and team building experiences, whether they be for a few hours, a full day or a whole weekend, change the way in which corporate teams face challenges, improve collaboration and communication and enhance the decision making abilities of their employees.
Last summer our management took the decision to send a group of 16 of us for a full day team building workshop. We would essentially be the pilot group. If the results were positive for us both as individuals and as a team, a decision would be taken as to whether to send groups of employees to such events on an annual basis.
My manager was put in charge of choosing the type of venue. He contacted a Corporate Event Production Company who were able to suggest the best type of activity to meet our company's budget and team building requirements.
The main idea behind the team building event is to place employees in a safe and fun environment where they can work as a team in challenges and competitions, testing out new concepts of how to work together more effectively. The obvious benefit and aim is that the new lessons and skills learnt will enhance communication and problem solving skills in the business environment.
An event manager from the Corporate Event Production Company was put in charge of planning a full day of fun and imaginative team building exercises and games. The range of challenges chosen dealt with workplace issues like delegation and communication and time management, amongst others.
A coach was hired to take us from our corporate headquarters on the short, one hour journey to the workshop venue in the Cotswolds. Upon our arrival we were served with tea and coffee and given a short introductory talk about what the day would entail and other information about elements of safety during the activities.
The activities we undertook where novel and diverse. For the first exercise we were split into two teams. Each team had to construct a land raft from basic materials that would transport the whole team from Point A to Point B. The task tested our time and management skills. Our team won the challenge in the shortest time, but winning was not the most important element. It was how we all collaborated together through leadership and delegation to complete the task in the most effective and time efficient manner. We were of course permitted to laugh – and we did plenty of that.
We continued the day with some archery, quad bike riding over a very interesting obstacle course and reverse steer driving, and a minefield crossing game, breaking only for a picnic lunch. These are only a small selection of activities that can be done on activity days. There are numerous others which include treasure hunts, spy days, clay pigeon shooting, cooking days, chocolate and cocktail making and sailing – to name a few.
It has to be said that from the outset some of the group were openly or maybe inwardly concerned and a bit apprehensive that they might be embarrassed by some of the activities because of differences in sex, age, weight etc. The activities actually made the most of my colleagues' individual strengths and drew out the best possible result from each individual member of the team. We all thoroughly enjoyed a memorable day, and all felt like we benefited both individually and jointly from the activities. Our final report recommended team building events for all employees on at least an annual basis.
