With Christmas just around the corner, discussion will undoubtedly be coming to the traditional office party. How low will the bar tab reach? Will it top last year’s? It’s always highly anticipated and a great opportunity for a team bonding experience.
Unfortunately, once a year often isn’t enough to keep team morale high. There are lots of other easy team bonding activities you can be doing throughout the year to help create a positive working atmosphere. Also, organizing big fancy events isn’t always the best option – financially, logistically or effectively. Sometimes simply getting the employees chatting to one another in a new environment can be the best way to move forward.
Here are 6 of the best team bonding ideas you (hopefully) haven’t heard of before!
1. Homemade Boat Racing
This may be an unorthodox workforce event, but it’s guaranteed to be a fantastic team day out. A normal boat race would be great fun and get a team working well together, but by putting a twist on it and using homemade boats, it also facilitates thoughtfulness and creativity.
The act of trying to communicate and work together allows the whole team to enjoy themselves. But the most important aspect from this activity is analyzing how the team works together and improve without any work pressure. Not only that, it’s always healthy to get outside!
2. One Question Ice Breaker
This is one of the best alternative ways of getting different groups within a company to bond. Create new mixed teams that don’t often work alongside one another, then give the whole group a set of scenarios to answer questions. Things like: being the CEO of the company, being a baby sitter, or being married always work well.
Pair everyone up and then allow them to put just one question to one another, finding out the other’s suitability for the original scenario. It’s a great way of getting people chatting and importantly finding out how the others thinking process works.
3. Sumo Wrestling
For most employees at one stage or another they will have been extremely frustrated with a colleague. The pressures of work will get to us all. So why not give your employees an opportunity to vent some of that frustration in a safe environment.
Sumo wrestling in giant inflatable suits is a perfect avenue for this. It is great fun and a chance for everyone to see colleagues looking a little ridiculous. There’s no better way to build a healthy rapport with senior colleagues than pinning them down in a padded fat suit, with everyone else cheering you on!
4. The Problem Solver
This is a straight forward task and is super-fast in getting teams to bond over short periods of time. Find some tough puzzles or quizzes online (why not quizzes about “The Office?”), then set up teams to tackle them. You can either pair employees up to work on difficult puzzles, or into larger groups to tackle it pub-quiz style! This should improve communication, and also means teams learn each other’s strengths and weaknesses.
5. 30 Second Life Highlights Reel
This is a great icebreaker activity and works especially well if you’ve just recruited new team members. Start by having everyone think about the best moments of their lives so far. This can be different things for different people, but will hopefully give everyone an insight into what kind of things people enjoy.
Once everyone has thought of their highlights, ask them to discuss just 30 seconds of their life that they would wish to relive. Getting people to talk about what they are most passionate about in an intimate setting could be a risk, but sometimes one worth taking.
6. Office Clubs
Bringing employees together outside of work is one of the easiest ways to get employees gelling – plus, it has the added bonus of taking up no work hours! A sports team, book club, or even after work pub quizzes are some of the best group activities. Having people work together, in a less tense pressured environment, will boost morale and camaraderie, which they can then bring back into the office.
Having a positive team vibe can work wonders in an office environment. If people feel part of a team and are all focusing on working towards the same goal, then productivity will be higher than ever before.
And remember, you don’t have to spend thousands of pounds renting the most extravagant setting or buying the most expensive alcohol, but simple tasks like the ones here can really boost team spirit and save your business time and money.
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About the author
Edward is a journalist who went to university in Sheffield and now resides in London. He writes extensively about business, HR, finance business training, as well as business trading on behalf of anyoption. Edward is keen on surfing, is big into football, and is a massive movie buff at the pub quiz.
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