Get the most out of your team building day

Team building events have become very predictable nowadays. The usual things are always on offer – country sports, forced gaming and tedious small talk. Whatever happened to being able to have fun with your colleagues, without worrying about stigma or being overly careful about what we reveal of our true selves? As an employer, it’s important for you to get to know your employees, what their capabilities are, how they deal with leadership and authority, and how they interact with others around them. For your team-building event, why not do something none of them would expect?

How about something altogether more…fun? A cooking day always proves to be hilarious. Everyone gets involved, everyone gets a bit messy, and the jokers among the group have all the opportunities in the world to bring laughter into the recipe. The trick to this is to make sure that the person running the show has a fantastic personality and sense of humour – many of us don’t get excited about cooking, but if you have someone to get you going, this really can prove to be a fun and relaxed way to bring an element of friendly competition out of your team.

If you have a large budget, we thoroughly recommend you investigate organising a track day. There’s something about driving fast cars that brings out the animal in people – and you’ll never see anyone grin like they will when they climb their way to the top of the lap time board. This truly is an activity that suits all tastes – even the most apprehensive driver will enjoy leaing the new skills and letting loose for a while!

If you have a smaller team, and you’re feeling like you’d love to do something outrageous that will have the whole group in stiches, you can have a day of ‘whacky games’. There are some truly bizarre and unusual things such as sheepdog training, duck herding, and ferret racing on offer – if you know where to look! Also – never forget the power of sitting down as a group, and eating and drinking together. Try and get a conversation going involving the whole group, and remember to gently prompt those who are shy to speak up.