So you’re searching for a team-building destination and you’re stomped. You have something in mind, but you can’t really make a decision. Finding a good destination for business travel can be quite difficult: you need to consider the needs of the company and the employers. You need to take into consideration everything, from the activities they will take part in and the time they have to spend on each event and activity. The thing you need to keep in mind when choosing a location for a team-building is that it needs to have the potential to be the host both work and fun activities (don’t take them to Vegas if you want to see any of them sober and not wasting their money on gambling). If you know what you want to achieve with your team-building experience, then you may know what you’re looking for in a destination.
How to Choose the Team-Building Destination
First of all decide what you want to achieve with the team-building. Do you want to focus on actual team-building activities, do you want your employees to attend seminaries and workshops that will improve their skills or do you just want to have fun and maybe do a little work on the side?
Start your search online, there are plenty of companies who have specialized in organizing team-buildings for companies. Ask them for an offer and then compare and see which ones you like best. There are so many resorts and hotels that offer great deals for team-building for companies – the best way to choose where to go is to make a poll and have your employees vote. There will be talks, people might actually argue about it, but in the end a good old democratic vote is the best – offer them at least five locations to choose from and let them think about it for a day before starting the voting process.
Team-Building
Companies have been doing team-buildings for decades. They are a great way of improving communication and bonding between employers, boosting their morale, increasing motivation, learning new strategies and overall improving productivity. All the studies are correct: team-building activities do just that, build a better team – and a better team works better.
There are four types of activities practiced during a team-building event: problem solving and decision making activities, communication activities, adaptability and trust-building activities. All these must also be fun for the employees as they will bond together during the course of the activities.
Primarily, the activities are meant to improve the employees’ communication skills and we think a great icebreaker activity is a game called Two Truths and a Lie. In this game every team member writes down two truth and one lie about themselves on a piece of paper – the lie shouldn’t be blatant (don’t say you’ve been on the Moon!). After everyone has finishes writing down their truths and lies, people mingle and start talking about their lives and what’s written on their pieces of paper. People will want to convince their colleagues that the lie is actually a truth. Keep your answers secret until the game requires you to reveal your answers. After the mingling time is over, everyone sits down in a circle and one by one, people read out their statements and the group votes on whether each statement is true or false. Points may be awarded for each truth and lie one guesses, but mainly this is a great tool to break the ice and get people to know each other better. You’d be surprised how many new things people will learn during the game about their colleagues with whom they have shared an office for years.
One of the most popular team-building activities is paintball. People can’t wait to shoot each other in the face after months of staying cooped up in an office. It helps them blow off steam and it makes for great fun. Others that are also great are, bowling, horse riding, karaoke, and adventure trails. People like to take advantage of the company’s money in times of team-building, so don’t be cheap and go for something special.
No matter what your team-building destination is, no matter what the activities are, just keep in mind that people need to be entertained and that if you consider giving them a say in choosing their team-building destination, they might just like it more. Have you had any experience with putting together a team-building trip? Is you have, then why don’t you drop us a line and tell us how you’ve done it.