A happy, close-knit team doesn’t happen automatically. When you get a group of former strangers together and expect them to work with each other, you should also expect to put some time and effort into building those new relationships.
This is where corporate team building activities come in. And before you can roll your eyes as you remember your last team get together playing clichéd games in the conference room, know that some of the best times at a company can be spent at a company retreat.
The key is in the activities you choose. Ditch boring for fun and clichéd for exciting with these 7 group building activities for adults that are sure to leave your employees talking at the water cooler for weeks to come.
Use culinary events as corporate team building activities to stimulate your taste buds and your relationships.
Your team may consist of many different personalities, but almost everyone likes food. Turn that commonality into an unforgettable corporate team building activity by holding a culinary event.
There are several types of cooking events you can take advantage of. For example, have a cook off for a particular type of food (pizza, chili, cookies, etc.), and have everyone taste test the results. The person whose recipe is judged the best by the team gets a prize. Hold an Iron Chef-like competition. Give everybody the same ingredients (including a wacky ingredient) and see who can create the tastiest recipe.
If you want to avoid culinary competitions, focus on learning a new recipe or basic cooking skills through a culinary class. If you want to enjoy great food, take a foodie tour of your town to sample the best recipes your area has to offer.
To add even more fun to your culinary corporate team building activity, add an extra element to the event. For example, PINSTACK’s culinary corporate team building activity requires participants to build a marketing campaign for their chili. You can also hold a competition to see who can best recreate the dish they learned in cooking class, or enjoy PINSTACK’s cocktail party, where everyone competes to make the best salsa and cocktail.
Use philanthropic endeavors to do good while building relationships among team members.
If you want to make a difference and increase your team’s camaraderie at the same time, consider philanthropic endeavors as your next corporate team building activity. This type of activity can serve as a powerful way to solidify your brand’s commitment to doing good, build teamwork among your employees, and make a difference in your community.
For example, have your team work together to build a Habitat for Humanity house. Have them serve together at a soup kitchen. Ask them to participate at a local nonprofit. If you want an activity that is in keeping with your brand, consider something related to your industry.
For example, are you a construction company or manufacturer of housing supplies? Donate some of your materials to that Habitat for Humanity house. Are you a marketing agency? Donate your marketing expertise to a local nonprofit’s next fundraising event. Are you a clothing company? Take some of your products over to the nearest homeless shelter to give away.
Here at PINSTACK, we offer a number of activities that allow your team to make a difference. Your team can build bikes for children in need, build rocking chairs and donate books to support literacy in underprivileged schools, or put together care packages for our troops. Each activity has both a philanthropic and a team building goal to ensure that your team bonds while changing others’ lives.
Use ice breaker corporate team building activities to get people comfortable with each other.
There are some corporate retreats that bring together disparate members of the organization. For example, remote teams may never have met each other, or an international sales branch may be meeting their U.S. counterparts for the first time.
In these cases, you might want to invest in some ice breaker activities to help everyone feel comfortable. In order to avoid boredom, keep these ice breakers short, sweet, and part of a larger plan.
For example, consider a game of teamwork such as the human knot (Wherein team members tangle their arms up and try to untangle themselves without letting go of each other’s hands), or use three truths and a lie (Wherein everyone tells three truths about themselves and one lie and the team has to guess which is which).
These games tend to be fun, help everyone learn a little bit about each other, and encourage teamwork and communication, all within a short amount of time so you can go enjoy other corporate team building activities that same day.
Enjoy some straight up fun with corporate team building activities like laser tag and bowling.
If you want your team to bond with some straight up fun, take your corporate team building activities to the next level with epic recreational games like laser tag for adults (For some good natured fun, play Lone Wolf and have everyone on the same team try to take down the boss), bumper cars for adults, indoor rock climbing, and bowling (all events available at PINSTACK).
These games are classic games of fun that appeal to a wide variety of personalities. When you choose PINSTACK as your corporate event venue, everyone can choose the game they want to play. Your office frenemies can get their angst out at the bumper cars, while new team members can let their guard down in laser tag and quieter members of the team can enjoy some bowling.
Holding a corporate retreat at a fun activities venue also benefits your team by allowing everyone to relax with each other in a fun, no pressure environment. And you might be surprised by how much you can learn about someone just by watching how they approach a game of laser tag or how they operate their bumper cars (That quiet data analyst might be hiding a serious competitive streak!).
Use strategy-based challenges to teach your team how to use their strengths together.
Strategy based challenges can force your team to discover and use their separate strengths to complete a challenge that would be impossible to do separately. Perhaps the most classic example of this kind of corporate team building activity is the Escape Room
In this game, participants are locked in a room. Throughout the room there are clues that lead them to the way out. They must band together to solve puzzles and identify clues. Typically, teams have an hour to find the way out of the room in order to win the challenge.
You can often add a fun twist to this game by nominating one person to be a “zombie” or other disagreeable character, who gets closer and closer to the team the longer they take to find the way out of the room. Often, these escape room games can be found locally, though you can create your own at the office if you wish.
Use outdoor adventures to build relationships as part of corporate team building activities.
Finally, outdoor adventures can make unforgettable corporate team building activities by allowing your team to enjoy the outdoors while learning more about each other and working together. These activities can be athletic pursuits such as tennis, flag football, kayaking, or canoeing. Or, they can be competitions like scavenger hunts that send participants across your company (or across town) looking for items that can be as wacky as you like.
If you are looking for a corporate event venue for your team bonding exercises, consider PINSTACK. We have a variety of team building packages, from game-show inspired challenges to cookoffs to races. Each corporate team building activity is designed to strengthen team bonds and create an unforgettable experience for your next corporate retreat.
