7 Corporate Team Building Activities That Actually Work

You have six members of your team standing in a straight line. With their lower bodies in sacks and a sheepish grin on each of their embarrassed faces, you give yourself a mental pat on your back, thinking what a great job you have done bringing your team closer together.

Of course, they aren’t likely to actually tell you the truth, which is that they hate you for making them move around like kangaroos in the name of ‘team building’.

How can you really tell when a team building activity is actually working and that your team isn’t secretly cursing you under their breath for weeks after the activity ends?

When it comes to managing a team, it’s a task that’s rife with challenges, and this becomes even more demanding if your team works more like a bunch of individuals without any cohesiveness whatsoever.

However, smart leaders and managers know that team communication is something that seldom develops easily. It is one such aspect that has to be worked upon consciously and built over time – and perhaps the easiest way to achieve this is to conduct team building activities with your team.

These activities will motivate teams to work better as one entity while effectively ensuring that the entire structure of your business is intact.

In this piece, we’ve compiled a list of team building activities that will work wonders for your troupe.

The Shrinking Vessel

If you want to strengthen teamwork and problem-solving skills in an efficient manner, then this activity is what you’d refer to as ‘deceptively simple’. What’s more, it’s perfect for groups of any and every size! The goal is pretty straightforward – the team has to find out ways to continue occupying a space that keeps shrinking.

Eventually, everyone is going to end up packed, hopefully in ways that are rather amusing and creative! All you need to do is define the boundaries of the area where you’ll be holding the activity and also figure out the equipment you’ll need to make the most of it.

Blindfold Driving

Want to build more trust amongst team members? If so then Blindfold Driving has to be your go-to activity as a manager. Here the team has to literally place their trust in the blindfolded member and help them navigate their way around the course with clear and direct instructions. There’s going to be lots of chaos but the team will have to make sense of it all to reach the finish line. This team building activity is guaranteed to make a team out of fiercely independent individuals.

Opposite Steer Buggy

In this activity, a buggy will be given to the team but driving it around comes with its own set of challenges. You steer left the buggy swerves right and vice versa. To nail this activity, team members will have to unlearn all the driving rules and sincerely hope that they make it to the finish line.

It’s one activity that requires great focus because when team members participate in this activity, they’ll find out soon enough how quickly the other member will lose his/her patience and how calmly one can channel their concentration while steering the opposite buggy.

Battle of the Airbands

This activity is a brilliant way to make work meetings and retreats insanely fun! This becomes even more interesting when you’ve got a team with hidden talents. You can start by pairing up teams of 3-4 people and asking them to select a role – one could be the lead singer, another could be the drummer, while someone else could be the guitarist.

Give them some time so that teams can rehearse lip-syncing to a song that suits the work environment. You can make it more fun by encouraging teams to use props and costumes. Once the ‘pretend concert’ is done, everyone can vote for their favourite airband and it’s generally implied that you can’t vote for yourself too…

Giant Jigsaw Puzzle

In this activity, teams have to put their heads together to solve a puzzle as quickly as they can! Teams will be divided into sub-groups and separate bags will be handed over to them with puzzle pieces.

Initially, the teams will think that they have to make sense of the puzzle individually. But, they will soon realise that they won’t be able to complete it if they don’t work with sub-teams as they’re likely to hold the missing pieces!

The Giant Jigsaw Puzzle is one of the most effective team building activities as teams are challenged on leadership, team and organisational skills!

Bears, Cowboys and Ninjas

This activity is the lifesize version of rock, paper, scissors as team members go ahead and pick a pose to strike. The rules are simple – bears eat up ninjas, ninjas can beat up cowboys and cowboys can shoot bears!

If you want to go with an activity that’ll make everyone laugh themselves silly while putting everybody at ease, this game is it!

Paintballing

Paintballing is forever going to be one of the most popular team activities! It’s an activity where two teams go up against each other and shoot their opponents with paintballs. Specially prepped game sites allow teams to battle for ultimate supremacy.

This team building activity requires members to be sneaky and strategic with a flair for using their initiative and teamwork in order to win.

With this, we wrap up our list of activities that involve team participation. If you’re looking for something fun and adventurous, at Avalanche Adventure, we’ve got you covered.

Get in touch with us today and we’ll help you map the perfect day that’ll bring your teams closer!