When you read the words, “team building”, how do you respond?

Do you let out a sigh followed by an, “ugh”, roll your eyes, or even cringe? That’s OK, we get it, team building hasn’t always had the coolest reputation. So that’s why we’d like to break down what you can actually expect from a team building activity, and some of the results your business can expect to see after participating.

 

Team Building Activities

First of all, the time of boring days out, sitting in classrooms being lectured about team building is over. At Vida Aventura, we design custom experience-based team building activities designed especially for your organization. We work with you to pinpoint the exact team building activity that will help your team come together to achieve its goals.

Some of these fun team building activities can include:
  • Ropes / Challenge Course These challenge programs offer opportunities for work teams to experience interactive team exercises all requiring: trust, effective communication, and mutual support for success. Some may involve physical activity, while others focus mainly on creative thinking and problem-solving.

 

  • Sangria Making Challenge – The Sangria Making Team Challenge delivers a fun, competitive and uniquely memorable team building experience perfect for end-of-the-day meetings. Participants take trips to the “marketplace” stocked with ample portions of fresh fruit, spices, and other beverage supplies. With the ingredients in hand, each team creates its own blend, along with everything they need to market it! They’ll develop a name, design a sangria logo and label for the final judging and presentation. They’ll also write and perform a jingle or commercial to sell their product to the judges. After the final challenge, the Sangria Taste Test Contest winners are announced.

 

  • Minute to Win It Team Minute to Win It is a very popular corporate team building event based on the popular TV show – Minute to Win It. We organize employees into teams who compete for a grand championship prize. We build ten simple but nerve-wracking games that increase in difficulty as the points increase. With 60 seconds on the clock, the pressure builds, and team pride is on the line!

 

  • Build-a-Boat Competition Imagine a competition that involves cardboard, duct tape, water, a paddle and team esprit de corps. Teams must brainstorm, plan, build, test and race a vessel that they have made for the Build-a-Boat team building exercise. Once their watercraft and team flag are built and presented to the other teams, the boats are tested in the water or pool and only the successful stay dry. This team building event is fun, high energy, engaging and helps to build rapport and camaraderie among the individuals and teams.

 

  • Adventure Race / Challenge Team adventure racing is a fun, highly engaging and interactive way to bring communication and team performance to life. Attendees are divided into teams and equipped with a set of adventure racing rules and instructions. Armed with maps, compasses, smartphones, their leadership skills and creativity, teams will pursue creative challenges and problem-solving activities. This team building adventure will inspire participants to realize that together we are better than any individual can ever be alone.

 

  • Putt Putt for Pantry Your group will be divided into teams, each of which will theme, design and construct a mini-golf green. Their team challenge will be to work together to design and create a miniature putt putt green based on a theme and using canned and packaged non-perishable food items for construction. Once the greens are complete, teams will play a lively round of putt putt and compete for final bragging rights. After the program, all groceries and materials will be donated to a local food shelter or charity of your choice.

 

  • Outrageous Olympics Remember field day from Elementary school? This event is a suped-up adult version including hilarious antics. Teams compete head-to-head in several wacky, wild, non-athletic (but competitive!) relay races. All games are designed to build team strength, facilitate communication and develop problem-solving skills using a challenge-by-choice model.

 

  • Dog House Build This fun program has teams building and decorating charming, custom dog houses. Fun team initiatives, mind-bending games, and sophisticated challenges face the group as they work together to gain supplies for the Dog House Build. Everything goes to the dogs when we present the dog house projects to a local dog rescue group committed to making a difference in the life of a dog.

 

  • Hunger Games Upon arrival, the group is divided into “Districts”. Throughout the event, entire districts, sub teams and/or individual “tributes” will be selected to compete in a physical or mental challenge against the other districts. Each District’s objective will be to accumulate the most points possible. The final scores for each challenge will be tabulated and a winning district will be crowned the “Hunger Games Champions!

 

  • I Want My MTV A memorable music video can turn a simple collaboration into a smash team building activity. Find out if your colleagues have what it takes to top the video charts an MTV hit – an engaging event that takes talent, time management, and teamwork! Each team will be tasked with recreating and filming an iconic pop video to a tight deadline using props, equipment, and supplied accessories. I Want My MTV illustrates the value of recognizing individual skills, instills teamwork principles and highlights the importance of seeing a task through from inception to completion.

Team Building Results

Besides increasing team collaboration through better communication, increased morale, and a deeper bond and level of trust among team members, a day of team building activities has some other benefits as well:

  • Happy employees are more productive providing three times more revenue growth and up to 20% more productivity than unhappy employees. Engaged workplaces yield a 38% increase in productivity and a 27% increase in profitability and improving employee satisfaction by 15% increases financial performance by 40%.
  • Team building improves employee retention. The cost of unintentional turnover is .5 to 1.5 times the annual salary. According to research from Deloitte, 25% of Millennials say they will leave their current job within a year, and with Millennials being the largest generation in our workforce, that 25% is quite a large figure! Team building improves company culture and a more solid culture, improves employee retention. When culture and strategy align, companies have 4x’s revenue growth and 12x’s the stock value.

There’s another positive result you can expect from a day of team building activities and engagement – your organization’s ability to attract top talent.

According to an article in Forbes, in today’s competitive hiring market, “companies use their strong corporate culture as a bargaining chip to recruit the best and brightest talent. When applying for jobs, millennial employees are not only assessing their salary and benefits but also whether or not they relate to the working environment and enjoy rolling up their sleeves next to their peers. As a result of this culture shift, team-building is being used as a marketing and recruitment tool.”

Experienced-based team building activities are fun and challenging and they result in a happier, more productive team that is in it for the long haul!

 

Are you ready to discover the perfect team building activities for your organization? Contact Vida Aventura, and we can chat about what type of experience will bring out the best in your team.

 

Most leaders struggle with disengagement, dysfunction, and non-productive behaviors with their teams. We deliver training that develops leaders and engages teams to increase your company results.