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It’s officially autumn. Your team is probably spending a lot of time staring out of the window, dreaming of the summer that was and winter that will be. Productivity will be down, as will morale. But with a few team building activities it’s easy to recapture the synergy and energy of the summer and holiday months.
To help you with that, we’ve put together this short list of fun, stress-free team building activities you can do with your team to get them re-energised and focussed this autumn. Alternatively, if you’re spending some time at a conference or event, why not try a few of these as a session between talks? KDM Event Management is an experienced event management and team building company, with almost 30 years’ experience.
Hackathons are something of a hallowed tradition in the world of coding, and they’re something that we think every office should embrace.
If you’ve never heard of the term before, a hackathon is a great team building exercise. Simply put, they’re events where teams explore a problem using creative means — making them ideal for team building.
Hackathons traditionally start with a presentation outlining the problem to be solved, after which the people taking part are left to solve the problem using whatever means and methods they want to use. Also in attendance will be an administrator (normally a manager or senior engineer) who will be able to answer any questions. Hackathons can take place over several hours or days depending on the nature of the problem to be solved.
Hackathons are great, not only because they help with team building but also because they teach teams new ways of going about their work and solving problems. Old, ineffectual ways of working are pushed aside in favour of new, more productive ways. Hackathons have led to numerous developments and new start ups.
So why not harness some of that energy at your company and use it in your team building efforts and productivity drives? You never know what you can discover.
That’s right. Do nothing. Let the team building and re-energising happen naturally.
Take your team, find a space — a couple of comfy bean bags, a set of chesterfield couches – and encourage your team to do nothing like they’ve never done nothing before. They shouldn’t check their phones or emails. All they have to do is take a deep breath, get comfortable, and think about all the things that went right for them this week.
Tell your team to think about every keyword that started ranking again after being in freefall for the last month. Or the goal they scored in Sunday’s game. Or that really great cup of coffee they had this morning. Tell your team to take a moment and revel in their success.
Doing nothing sounds counterintuitive (especially when it comes to working and team building) but that’s where the genius of this advice comes from. In our day-to-day lives, we tend to concentrate on our failures more than we do on our victories. We sit and let them fester. But failures aren’t open wounds, they’re lessons for next time, just like victories.
As a manager, it’s up to you to show your team how to embrace their victories. But it’s up to every member of the team to keep those victories in mind. By doing that, your team’s morale will soar, their stress levels will drop, and your team building efforts should start to see some positive results.
If the only reason why people ever went to work was the work, offices around the world would be quiet, dull, and cold places.
It’s conversations and interactions between people that makes an office space and really builds teams, and you should encourage that. Encourage your team to have a laugh together. Take your team (whether your team at the office or your conference teammates), sit them down, and relax together.
For an amount of time of your choosing, take all the stress away from work and encourage your team to enjoy each other’s company. Not only will your team appreciate the chance to step away from their work (even if for a little while) but it’ll have a noticeable effect on morale, productivity, and help your team building efforts immensely.
And aren’t those positive effects worth having to listen to Sarah’s joke about the two estate agents and the bad driver named Will for the third time since Christmas?
Healthy snacks are great for building energy. Nutrients, proteins and vitamins really are the building blocks when it comes to a great day (or making a dark afternoon bearable). So, as a manager concerned with your team’s happiness and productivity, you should be encouraging (and organising the acquisition of) healthy snacks.
The great thing about this advice, though, is that you don’t have to just hand out healthy snacks randomly, just to make the morning that little bit more interesting. You can do it in tandem with some of the other team building activities on this list and really make those events special. Take it from us — a highly experienced Event Management and Team Building Company – all the best events are catered.
And you don’t have to keep it confined to healthy snacks, either. Chocolate has known effects on mood, with most people agreeing that chocolate makes people feel better. So why not mix it up every once in a while and provide your hard working staff with some chocolate or sweets? Not only will it be a popular move (who doesn’t love candy?) but it will also help to provide a sense of camaraderie amongst your staff and ultimately help with team building.
The final activity that you should do with your team is not one that should be done once. It’s a new way of working — something that you should be doing continually.
Instead of falling into simple routines and rotas and allowing morale to fall, take some time out of your day to be spontaneous with your team. Encourage them to have a laugh, hold a hackathon, and organise refreshments. A poet once wrote that ‘variety is the spice of life’ and he was right. Not only will spontaneity raise morale and help with team building, but it will also make work and spending time with your team all the more enjoyable.
This advice is just as true if you and your team are working together, face to face in an office, or remotely. We’ve had some great success with our virtual team building events — the success we can replicate for your organisation. For expert team building and event management advice, get in touch with KDM today. Our dedicated and experienced team will be able to help you plan and organize a team building activities designed to bring your team together and re-energise them.
