You're tasked with leading a team-building event. How can you make it a success?

My experience has taught me to: -Set the goal(s), and clearly define what success looks like -Document the anticipated path to success allowing for changes along the way -Set clear expectations and responsibilities for the team -Expect the unexpected, but plan ahead for as many project risks as possible -Make having fun part of the planning process remembering to celebrate small successes as you go Make the team event inspiring and reflective of the people that comprise the organization. Create opportunities at the event for every individual to contribute in ways that they are comfortable. Encourage engagement in various formats with a goal of offering multiple chances to build trust and comraderie among the participants.

What type of event are you looking for? Team Bonding: When teams do something lighthearted and fun with the intention of re-igniting that desire and commitment to work together (a.k.a. PureFun). Cost ranges from $25-$75 per person. Team bonding activities are not an appropriate solution for teams who need to improve communication, accountability, alignment, trust, engagement or any of the essential elements required for effective teamwork. Team Building: Helps teams explore and practice the core competencies required to be an effective team (a.k.a. SeriousFun). Cost ranges from $50-$185 per person. Team building activities will not be well received for groups looking for some time to just relax and have some fun.

One thing I have found helpful is to be an active listener or observer. Sometimes we get ahead of ourselves by acting prematurely

Pose questions to the team they likely haven't heard before, or thought about, such as: "What is the story of this team?" "What's the narrative we want to tell in the future?" "How could our team-building event fail? What are the things we don't want to do during our time together?"

Communicate your goal with team, assign task to each member of your team, utilities their skills, keep them motivated, analyse if they fail to deliver, support them to deliver.Alway a motivated and valued team gives better result.

Being a leader is not about taking charge of everything. It is about shining a light on others. How can you empower others to take the lead? This will help everyone to take ownership and come together in the creation of the event and consequently the event itself. This might sound like the easy option delegating all the tasks out… But don’t put your feet up just yet. To be successful you will need to lead by example, taking action yourself, whilst also coaching and supporting others in their event management roles.

Out of the Box Approach: Use a 'theme generator' where team members can suggest and vote on various unconventional themes for the event, like a retro 80s day, a sci-fi future, or a fantasy kingdom. This makes the planning process itself a team-building exercise, fostering creativity and excitement.

Identify the most charismatic individual in the group and assign an emcee role of sorts. For a virtual event where people tend to accidentally talk over each other, the emcee can select people to contribute - provided that expectation is set at the top of the event. Engaging team members intentionally and setting expectations that the event is not just listening to the 3-4 leader share inside jokes improves team cohesion for the coming year!

Incorporate activities that aren't typically seen in team-building, like an amateur film-making session, where teams script and shoot short films, or a cook-off challenge where team members must work together to create dishes. This can be a fun way to foster teamwork, creativity, and can even be tied to learning about different cultures and cuisines. Both encourage storytelling, creativity, and collaboration in a fun, relaxed environment.

Consider organizing a "Virtual Escape Room" team-building event. Team members collaborate to solve a series of virtual challenges within an online environment. The virtual aspect allows for remote participation, accommodating distributed teams and promoting inclusivity. Challenges can include knowledge-based questions focusing on company, team, or co-worker goals and roles. Participants use online resources, working together to unlock clues, crack codes, and achieve specific objectives. This activity promotes problem-solving, communication, and teamwork in a dynamic and engaging way while instilling pride in initiatives and unique skills each individual brings to the team.

Team building is more than alcohol. Often these events seem to forget this point. If alcohol is on the agenda e.g. for dinner later. Make it easier for those of us that choose not to drink and have a non alcoholic option thought through. Strange thing to write in 2023. As a person who does not drink at work functions this still baffles me.

Teaching team members how to visualise their ambitions is both a lot of fun and super useful. By creating images themselves through business drawing, the end goal becomes crystal clear and concrete for everyone. Moreover, everyone enjoys drawing, once they start using useful tips and tricks. Even those who think they really can't draw will be converted after a Business Drawing Workshop! They will be amazed by the results ;-) Lots of fun and inspiration guaranteed!

Team-building activities can be fantastic tools to foster collaboration and trust but they can also be stressful events if not tailored for your group. Cookie cutter activities can have a disingenuous feel. Have a clear goal for the outcome of the team building activity, identify the tangible outcomes that you expect from the activity, and it's extremely important to ask for feedback from the team.

If possible, hire an outside facilitator so that everyone, including the leader, can fully participate. If you don’t have the budget for that, then the leader should delegate and divide up the facilitation of the team retreat to different members so they have more ownership. We’ve been doing that for the past two years for our annual 2 day team retreat and it’s been very effective. We start a few months before asking who wants to do what part. Sometimes a few people partner on one activity. We determine how much time each activity needs and how to order the activities. As the leader, my only duty is to open the retreat by asking us to share reflections of the past year and to end the retreat w sharing hopes for the next year.

This is goofy but it's worked for me: Adopt different personas throughout the event - like a game show host, a detective, or a wizard - to introduce activities and guide discussions. This keeps the energy high and can help deliver instructions and feedback in an engaging way.

I recently facilitated a team-building event for a client who was struggling with encouraging collaboration. The team felt splintered. This wasn't your typical games and activities event, we focused on building understanding and acceptance, and explored what makes each team member feel truly seen and valued. We touched on principles of compassion, empathy, and active listening. It felt good to witness the team grow in their understanding of one another and laughing together. Attendees said they felt they knew each other now as humans first who have similar struggles and felt the support of coworkers more now than in the past.

A key facilitation skill: deputization. When working with a large group, it may be hard for everyone to hear and there may be distractions making it hard to disseminate information appropriately. In order to help avoid this and increase participant buy in, try to identify a few engaged participants who seem motivated to succeed. Deputize these participants with extra information, specific roles, and responsibilities. For those not engaged, it may mean more to see one of their colleagues pushing everyone up and encouraging participation versus a stranger. Empowering others is of course a risk, but with practice you will be able to identify leaders instead of ring leaders.

Since you are an integral part of the team, you should have an outside facilitator manage the event. Professional facilitators have experienced with how to respond and adapt to the issues that will inevitably arise during your session.

Make sure to get feedback (anonymous) from as many participants as possible. Make visible adjustments to the next event and communicate these to the team. Reflect on the wins from the event, identify areas for improvement in the group as a whole and individuals and generate an action plan to empower them to achieve.

After an event it is critical to do several things: 1. Review the original goals for the event and be clear and honest on if you hit them or not 2. Ask for feedback and incorporate that into your next event 3. Thank the team for participating 4. Remind the team of any goals, tasks or outcomes from the event that may need follow up. You don’t want to lose traction coming off a successful team building event.

Post event coverage is as important as the pre event. Evaluation of the event is also very important. The same time, post event action can give more publicity and highlight the outcomes of the event. I strongly recommend a well prepared post event program of relative actions.

To maximize the success of a team-building event, prioritize the follow-up phase by gathering feedback, creating actionable plans, and assigning responsibilities for implementation. Regular check-ins, celebrations of progress, and adaptability are key elements of this phase. Encourage continuous learning and maintain open communication to ensure that the positive effects of the event are sustained over the long term, transforming the team positively.

For a real team building event, try a late night ghost hunting adventure with a hired professional ghost investigator. Nothing brings a team together like being scared at the stroke of midnight in a graveyard. Everything else at work seems trivial at that point… ??????

Annual team conference is definitely a key highlight of the year. It is a unique opportunity to remind teams of our purpose, demonstrate and recognize cultural attributes. And of course the ??play hard ?? element brings awesome memories especially the gala dinner !

(Dry humor) Nothing builds a team like working together to deliver a difficult task on an aggressive timeline! (Serious) Think about your culture and approach to teamwork and commit to a process of continuous improvement. One approach might be to look for opportunities to inject "micro team building" into your day-to-day activities.

Building a team is an activity that is often seen as fluff. I could not disagree more! I would also suggest that there is a stage before setting goals, and that would be purpose. What is the purpose of your team-building activities? What stage of development is your team in? Are you forming, storming, norming, or working towards performing? It is critical that the activities that you facilitate, or have someone from the outside lead so you can be a member of the team, fit your team and their development stage. Awareness of your team as a whole is critical to planning your team event. Get it right, and BOOM you can be rocking. Get it wrong, and you could disenage your team entirely. When in doubt find a thought partner to help.

There's an expression in French "Ca go?te qu'est ce que ?a co?te" This translate to "it tastes what it costs". This applies to team-building as well. If you plan on spending about as much per person as a trip to a fast-food restaurant, you are not likely to achieve much in terms of results. Qualified, experienced team-building facilitators can adapt to groups and situations and don't simply offer canned speeches.

Team building is a process that never ends. If you are not working during the normal days to create, motivate and constantly develop your team, you will fail. However, when you believe a team building event is what you need or deserve, never ever over-design the event. Build in time with no agenda and let people fill the space. One of the best team building events I ever had was during a post merger integration phase when the heads of departments from the two previous organizations met in a hotel to work on the future organization. Tricky? Tricky. However, a campfire and a box of beer did the job at the first evening. Next day, we could work extremely well together. The secret? Time to getting to know the colleagues.