Our recent blog, 5 benefits of corporate team building exercises [5 benefits of corporate team building exercises ], addressed key issues such as challenges, communication and relationships, which your team might be tackling on a day-to-day basis. Each of these is a thoroughly valid reason for holding a team-building event, but when you do, it’s vital to make the most of it. That means understanding the objectives you wish to set for such corporate events, and also to assess how effectively the activity then achieved them.
Pre-event
Some events will be held as a way of celebration, a congratulations for a job well done. If this is the case, then your aim is to make sure that you choose from the wide range of possibilities in a way that everyone can enjoy participating. You might also accept the fact that, for some folk, simply cheering others on is the level of involvement they are most comfortable with!
For those events where the aim is to improve skills, working relationships, and other areas, it’s important to consider exactly what you are trying to achieve. Rather than selecting an event and then trying to shoehorn your needs into it, it’s best to clearly define what you are trying to gain and then select the activity which best suits.
Participants should be briefed about your objectives and aims for the occasion; this should be separate from any safety and other briefings about how the activity is then conducted. Those participating understand the skills and behaviours that are important for their working processes and know how these will be tested and enhanced by the activity.
Post-event
After such events, there is always an informal debrief, where people share their experiences, perhaps over a meal or in the bar. This is valuable in terms of developing inter-personal relationships. However, it’s also important to have a more formal debrief, referring back to the objectives and goals, and discussing the lessons learned, and points to be actioned back in the working environment.
Through the above actions, those taking part can fully recognise the importance of the event and know how to make the best use of what has been learned as they move forward in their careers.
