Some successful examples of corporate team building, to stimulate collaboration and motivate employees.
Corporate team building: how does it work?
The most innovative companies often use team building as an HR tool to improve the performance of their employees: but do we exactly know the meaning of corporate team building?
A team building consists of an extra-work activity organized with the clear purpose of facilitating the dynamics of teamwork, improving communication and cooperation, smoothing out conflicts and learning to manage comparisons and feedback, stimulating productivity and the achievement of common goals. It can be organized internally or externally to the company, involving top management only or specific work teams or extended at company level as a people engagement initiative: the most important thing is that it has to be aligned with the participants’ characteristics and the targeted objectives.
Let’s see the 10 best examples of corporate team building
- Sports activities and adventure parks
The sport metaphor, especially for teams, is one of those that best match the business and organizational dynamics. A common goal, the respect for roles and rules, a good communication are just some of the elements of assonance between the world of sport and the workplace: it will be necessary to choose the most suitable sport, also based on the composition of the team and the single aptitude for physical activity. In fact, it is important for the excellent success of team building that no one feels uncomfortable or judged, but everyone to feel involved and stimulated. A more playful alternative, still with training / didactic feedback, can be the adventure park, which combines physical abilities with the need to overcome fears and obstacles together with one's colleagues, an experience that can unify and stimulate integration between members of the team;
- Show cooking - tastings
Combining pleasure with duty is an easy equation. Yet this type of team building, whether it is a cooking class, or a challenge to cook dishes or a simple tasting together (it is a matter of selecting the most suitable mode for the goal you want to achieve), are activities that allow you to create a pleasant and soothing atmosphere, even with the possibility of creating a pinch of competition to stimulate the orientation towards the group result;
- Escape room – murder party
One of the mostly used techniques for team building is to solve puzzles, enhancing the ability to communicate effectively and integrating the skills of the individual with the logic of collaboration / cooperation. Escape rooms or murder parties both lend themselves very well to promoting these dynamics within groups, helping to understand the reciprocity of roles and the effectiveness of good collaboration to achieve the expected results together;
- Volunteering activities
Volunteering and assistance activities are an excellent way to combine team building with solidarity and social commitment vocation. There are many examples: waste collection, planting of green areas, charity fundraising, Christmas raffles or participation in events organized by specific non-profit organizations. The dynamics of group work are optimally stimulated by feeling part of a noble and positive goal, moved by feelings of altruism and generosity;
- Quiz games
In the era of smart working and remote work, one of the most popular online team building activities is certainly the participation to virtual group games or challenges. Gamification techniques are easily applicable to the logic of company operations and are suitable for promoting integration and development of relationships as well as training activities, even if not in person;
- Artistic activities
Drawing courses, active painting or a mural creation - these are just some examples of team building aimed at stimulating people's creativity and promoting moments of sociality and sharing with an artistic imprint, promoting communication and learning from working together in various art forms;
- Photography and theatre courses
As artistic activities, photography or theatre activities can also be taken into consideration. There are many possible approaches, depending on whether it’s preferable to focus on the ability to listen to each other, on the interpretation of spaces and roles, on the ability to give / receive feedback, or on managing emotions and stress;
- Treasure hunt
Another activity that shows various similarities with business dynamics is the treasure hunt. Perfect example of a common goal to be achieved by improving communication, mutual listening and developing intuition and problem-solving skills;
- Singing / Music in choir
The therapeutic power of music is generally known. And it is surprising how an activity that includes sound or choir singing is perfect to help understanding and internalizing the logic of cooperation, coordination, alignment and respect for roles/breaks, with incredible similarities in team and supervision dynamics (let’s think about the role of the choir director);
- Cocktails / Corporate events
Celebration unifies. One of the simplest and most immediate team building events is the organization of social corporate events to celebrate anniversaries, to award deserving colleagues, to celebrate moments or create meeting opportunities to stimulate mutual knowledge and facilitate integration and inclusion, especially for new hires.
It is essential to remember that there is no recipe for a "perfect" team building, but each team building has to be designed and calibrated based on the characteristics of the team, in terms of quality, skills and attitudes of the individual members, as well as the final objectives and levers to act on. It is therefore important to rely on HR professionals who cab suggest the best setting for the success of your corporate team building, involving all participants with a motivating and inclusive approach, with a perfect Employee Experience perspective.
Glickon Glow, within its innovative solutions, offers companies some practical tools and models to support them in creating a unique and unrepeatable Employee Experience, for employees and HR.
