7 Ideas for Corporate Team Building Activities

Of all the factors that can determine the success of an organization, teamwork is one of the most important. Teamwork has been scientifically proven to be more effective than individuals at solving complex problems, but it brings far more to the table than just problem solving skills.

Why Corporate Team Building Matters

When employees perform like a team, progress toward the company’s goals moves more quickly. But this doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time to assemble a team, establish trust, and foster collaboration that makes a group of people work together toward a common goal.

Benefits of Team Building Activities

Team building exercises are meant to inject some fun into a work environment, but also to develop important skills. Let’s examine some of the benefits they bring to the table.

• Improved problem solving - Employees working together share ideas and benefit from hearing perspectives that may differ from their own.
• Greater productivity - Many hands make light work. Team members can divide a large task into several smaller tasks, with some of those tasks being able to be worked on in parallel rather than in sequence.
• Fewer conflicts - employees that work together achieve an understanding of one another.
• Boosted morale - this is the end result of effective teamwork when team members see difficult objectives achieved. Effective teams get to congratulate each other on a job well done.

Improving Communication and Trust

Communication is essential for a project’s planning and execution. Without team communication, managing a project with multiple stakeholders and relaying information among colleagues becomes more difficult.

Trust is at the core of both successful companies and effective teams. Emphasizing open communication and promoting collaboration can establish a strong foundation of trust that enables high-performing teams. Now let’s look at some corporate team building activities that can help encourage employee engagement.

1- Escape Room Challenge

An escape room is an activity that involves solving a series of puzzles or clues, each one getting you closer to the final puzzle that allows you to escape the room, often with a time limit imposed on the group.

Why It Works for Team Bonding

Escape rooms make it clear immediately that solving the task alone in the time allotted is impossible, and there is one very clearly defined ultimate goal: leaving the room. Teams can be divided up to find multiple clues to speed up the process of solving the puzzles that lead to an escape.

Skills Developed During the Challenge

Escape rooms allow team members to learn skills like cooperation, time management, moving with urgency, and brainstorming.

2- Cooking Competition

Cooking competitions require assembling multiple components of a meal that involve different timing and techniques of preparation, but have to come together at the same time.

Collaboration in the Kitchen

Cooking competitions have immediate buy-in from participants simply because food is a finished product everyone can get behind. It also allows team members to apply their particular strengths to whatever parts of the process they can contribute to the most.

Strengthening Problem-Solving Abilities

Cooking allows team members to demonstrate skill under pressure. Communication is key because everyone needs to know where the other team members are in the process at various points to make sure the dish comes together correctly.

3- Sports Tournaments

Team cooperation and competition are inherent in many sports. And there are so many of them that there is usually something for everyone to participate in.

Promoting Healthy Competition

Sports help identify natural leaders when organizing teams and show that everyone has something to contribute. A great shooter in basketball needs someone to call the play and to get him the ball.

Teamwork and Morale Boost

Whether in sports of life, when team members perform a skill that contributes to a win, few feelings are sweeter than a victory.

4- Volunteer Projects

Giving back to the community is becoming a part of more companies’ values and is a great way to generate positive PR for a business as well as to build teams.

Building Trust Through Service

Many charitable and community projects are too large for an individual, and employees with a heart for service would often be eager to work with each other on a project.

Aligning with Company Values

Volunteering develops selfless service skills that can easily be translated into servicing customers.

5- Innovation Workshops

An innovation workshop brings together individuals to identify opportunities for improvement and create innovative solutions to a particular problem.

Fostering Creativity and New Ideas

Innovation workshops bring together employees who love creative problem solving to focus on a single pain point the company is facing.

Enhancing Problem-Solving Skills

Nowhere is brainstorming more useful than in an innovation workshop. It also allows teams the ability to work together to prove the concepts they brainstorm on.

6- Board Game Nights

Board games like Ticket to Ride and Settlers of Cataan can be played collaboratively and competitively. Players work together to develop a strategy for connecting cities with railroads or make decisions about how best to allocate resources for a settlement.

Relaxed, Fun Team Bonding

These examples are games that offer situations that have more than one right answer and allow players to work together to achieve objectives, while playing in a relaxed, less formal environment.

Improving Communication and Strategy

These types of games develop strategic thinking, resource management, consensus building, and decision making skills.

7- DIY Project Days

DIY projects can be organized at your workplace with a minimum of materials. All that’s needed is your employees and their creativity.

Hands-on Team Engagement

DIY activities like the House of Cards have teams build the tallest structure possible using one deck of cards. These instructions give wide latitude to the team for how to solve the objective.

Encouraging Innovation and Cooperation

These activities require communication, cooperation, consensus building, and creativity. Persistence is also an important part as often the first attempt will fail, but subsequent attempts will improve.

Wrapping It Up: Strengthening Your Team

Team building activities help to create groups where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. This not only helps to accomplish tasks, but also creates bonds between employees.

Building Long-Term Connections

Employees who work well together want to continue to work well together. This benefits the employee’s relationship with his coworkers as well as the employee’s relationship to the organization.

Tailoring Activities to Fit Your Team’s Needs

Take the time to review corporate event ideas for activities that fit the skills you need to accomplish your business goals and that can help your employees grow in their roles.