by Nigel Hilton
Image Credit: Pexels
Your company relies on its staff. It doesn’t matter what you do or who your clients are, the real core value of your business comes from the people who bring their energy, intelligence and creativity to work each morning.
Constructing a dream team is all about selecting a complementary and diverse group of people to ensure that whatever the problem you are trying solve is, you get a wide range of opinions. But given that you aren’t all going to agree all the time, how can you keep your working relationships on track?
The simple answer is to take time to get to know each other more personally.
Do Something New Together
One brilliant way of bringing a group of people together is to present them with something new. It might be something silly like constructing a giant novelty cake together which would require creativity, teamwork and communication and comes with a pretty good reward at the end of the day. But you might also try something totally different like FireWalk Adventures which combines personal development with a really challenging activity.
In the end, it doesn’t actually matter which activity you pick. As long as the whole team has a chance to come together and encourage each other to do well, your day is going to strengthen social bonds and help even the most opposed team members build some empathy for each other.
Forget About Work for an Afternoon
While a structured team building event certainly has its advantages, just letting your team have an afternoon together is a really good idea. An office party is a good way to get people in the mood for fun and you can choose whether to host in-house or take the team out. Just remember that no-one wants to stay at work for extra time, so make this a daytime thing!
There are plenty of fun office party ideas out there but the cheapest are often the most successful. Taking the team for a picnic in the sunshine is a nice way to bring everyone together, get out of the office and have time to properly relax. Grab some delicious food from your local deli (okay, deli counter at the supermarket) and make sure you have enough cutlery and napkins to go around.
Build Social into Work Life
A big mistake companies often make is assuming that team building is a one-off day. The reality is that you need your team to talk to each other all the time so they need to be strengthening those bonds all the time too. Even taking 5-10 minutes after lunch to do a silly activity or play a game can make a big difference.
Another really good idea is to encourage your team to eat together. The first step is to create a comfy area in your office where they can eat away from their desk but you might also go as far as putting on a weekly buffet style meal everyone is expected to attend. Make the food delicious and it won’t take much persuasion!
