Organizing Effective Team-Building Events
Corporate Event Planning – Why the Details in an Event Matter
February 1, 2019
Planning a Memorable Corporate Event – Start With Your Employees
April 20, 2019
Putting the time and investment into employees’ allegiance and connection with each other empowers more productive team members who care about the goals and success of the company. This can be a tricky effort, though, as data has proven that more than 30 percent of office employees don’t like standard team-building activities. As you probably already know, traditional ice-breaker games give many people the heebie-jeebies.
These employees see team-building opportunities as cheesy or inauthentic ploys and immediately check out of participating before the event even begins. This is true even with today’s emphasis on strong and connected company culture, which leaves organizations in a sticky situation. When there are so many lasting benefits of team-building endeavours, how do you create them so that employees feel invested and interested?
Take a look at these tips for organizing effective team-building events that will leave a lasting impression on the whole group.
Bring In Outside Experts to Lead the ActivitiesThe goal of team-building activities is to build camaraderie among employees and allow them to feel understood and heard at work. No matter how cool and accepting you are as a leader, no one wants to open up or be completely vulnerable with their boss. Bringing in outside event manager to help coordinate and facilitate team building activities will actually allow attendees to feel more comfortable with participating.
When it comes to corporate event planning, we have experience with selecting exercises and activities that fit certain industry professionals better than others (i.e., we’d never have a bunch of engineers participate in a creative poetry writing contest--it just doesn’t make sense, and we’re pretty sure they wouldn’t be stoked to do that sort of activity). Passing the reigns of this type of event off to an event planning professional can open up participation for all levels of professionals within your company and free up everyone to be on the same level of interaction.
Promote Teamwork Over CompetitionNo matter what the team-building activities include, you never want to resort to games with clear cliques, teams, winners, losers or all-out competition. This sort of mindset pits individuals against others, which creates a sense of aggression and defensiveness, rather than collaboration and teamwork.
When you have to work together, the group focuses more on learning something new and solving problems, which is sort of the whole point of team-building activities. Keep things light and cooperative when planning group exercises.
A few hours of paused productivity during work hours for employees to attend a team-building event could actually lead to increased productivity over time. Plus, expecting people to dig into their valuable time outside of work in order to connect more with their colleagues is a big ask. More often than not, if you plan team-building activities outside of work hours, your attendance will suffer.
Make it as easy as possible for your team to make it to this company culture-boosting soiree. If it’s some kind of lunch-and-learn or breakfast event, be sure food is provided. Take a look at vacation time before scheduling a date, too. If you plan a team event close to the holidays or over a big travel week in the summer, it won’t be worth it if 10 percent of your staff are out of office.
Come Up with Clear Expectations and Let the Team In On ThemThere should always be a driving mission behind team-building events, even if it’s just for team members to get to know one another better and feel more familiar with more of the group. Or, maybe the company needs a new mission statement, more inclusive policies or redefined vacation standards.
If there’s a pain point at your organization, get everyone involved with defining a solution at the team-building event. Let them know that their opinions matter, and fixing problems is best done in collaboration.
Team-building events can transform the culture at companies large and small. We’d love to be the corporate event planning team that helps you achieve collaborative magic and lasting success with your next team-building endeavour. Contact us today to learn more about the corporate event we can execute with your team for a more productive and flourishing future.
