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Why Corporate Team Building Events Can Be Terrible

Team building events are terrible, right? You’re thrust into a room with your colleagues and pushed out of your comfort zone for as long as a full working day.

Corporate Team Building Events

Team building events are terrible, right? You’re thrust into a room with your colleagues and pushed out of your comfort zone for as long as a full working day. Either that or you’re subjected to an overenthusiastic David Brent like host, who talks incessantly about how The Secret changed his life and forces you to do silly things like trust falls and role play.
Even the thought of all the above has us cringing – and we’re team building events experts!

But we don’t think team building events should be terrible. We do acknowledge that they can be terrible…if done wrong. And this can happen for a few reasons. Here, we’ll explore why a lot of team building efforts fall flat. We’ll also give you some ideas of how to plan and host your own team building events that are memorable for all the right reasons.

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Why Team Building Events Can Be Terrible

There’s No Clear Goals

Team building fails a lot of the time because it’s aimless. Like anything, having a goal in mind is paramount to the success of team building. It is simply not enough to choose an exercise and hope that it does the job in bringing the team together. Effective team building events are carefully organized and consider the strengths and weaknesses of the team as a whole.
In doing this, you can focus on the skills that need developing and home in on then. Team building events can then be built around these skills and focused on them.

Not Everyone Is Taken Into Account

It’s easy to get carried away with planning a team building event, especially if you’re looking for the all-singing, all-dancing kind. But it’s crucial not to forget who the event is actually for.
Medical conditions or disabilities can leave individuals feeling left out, particularly if adjustments aren’t made to accommodate them. This will very quickly defeat every carefully planned out objective.

While you can’t please everyone, you can ensure your event is accessible for everyone. And it’s important to do so to get the most out of a team building activity. For example, all of our treasure hunt team building events can be completed either by car or on foot, which ensures everyone has the opportunity to get involved without missing out.

They’re Too Wacky

Wacky can be fun, but not always. Team building activities that are a little bit too out there can instead feel a little bit bizarre and cringe worthy. Often, the most effective team building activities are ones that are based around solving real problems. Of course, a little bit of storytelling and some suspension of disbelief is fun. However, push it too far and your attendees may start to disengage a little bit.

This does depend on your team and the workplace culture you operate with. But, more often than not, choosing a team building activity that is relevant and relatable has a much better chance of success.

They Get Too Competitive

Again, this one depends on your team. In some circles, a competitive edge can fire up participants and immerse them in the experience. For others, it has the opposite effect and causes them to disengage because they feel embarrassed or self-conscious.

Competitive team building activities are often well-suited to those in sales roles or more high-pressure, fast paced work environments. But it’s important to keep the end goal in mind. It’s about developing the skills of a team to work together, not pitting individuals against each other and leaving the ‘losing’ party demoralised.

At the end of the day, every participant should walk away from a team building event feeling energised and motivated. If it fails to do that, then you can be sure that individuals are possibly walking away with a bad taste in their mouth.

They’re Hosted In The Office

Team building activities and icebreakers absolutely can be used in-house as a part of training sessions or staff meetings. But the most effective team building events get participants out of the office, in both body and mind.

Mind-set is everything and getting participants to buy into the experience is half of the battle. Take your team away from their desks and they’re more likely to give head-space to your event.

They’re Not Part Of A Bigger Approach

Finally, one of the biggest reasons a team building activity falls flat is because they’re not carried out as part of a bigger approach. Strong teams aren’t built solely through team building. They’re shaped by the workplace in which they operate. Specifically, environments that see people working together towards a clear goal with the guidance of strong leadership and regular constructive feedback.

Within these types of teams, with the right planning and considerations, team building events actually don’t suck at all. In fact, they’re heaps of fun! During them, team members work positively with one another to exercise those core skills such as communication, collaboration, and creativity. And, most importantly, they walk away feeling energised and motivated, ready to apply what they’ve learned in their day-to-day routines.

How To Plan Team Building Events That Aren’t Terrible

Team building events don’t have to be terrible. In fact, they shouldn’t be terrible. Here at KDM Events, we work tirelessly to create team building activities that engage participants while supporting them in refining core skills. What’s more, we work with you to ensure that your next team building event takes into account the strengths, weaknesses and capabilities of your team.

In our line of work, no team building activity we deliver is ever the same twice. And we take great pride in going above and beyond to organise team building activities that most definitely aren’t terrible. To find out more about our team building activities, contact our team today. We would love to hear from you!

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