A new year, a new opportunity to incorporate engaging and innovative team building activities into your meetings and conferences. While team building should certainly be fun and entertaining, the goal should be to create a memorable experience that lasts well beyond the event itself while building relationships and reinforcing your messaging.
Often, team building activities focus on vulnerability – pushing our comfort zones, challenging our abilities, and putting us in situations which require support from those around us – ropes course anyone? There are certainly upsides to this style of team building, but often if the activity does not align well with your team, once the adrenaline fades away, so too does the memory and purpose of the event.
The best team building activities elaborate on the strengths of your team and give each member the opportunity to demonstrate how they uniquely contribute to the group. Employees who receive strengths-based development demonstrate 7%-23% higher engagement, 8%-18% increased performance, and 20%-73% lower attrition [Source: GALLUP]. That is the real ROI you get from a great team building experience. For this reason, before planning team building activities, consider your audience and the types of activities that best showcase their abilities. From there, you can tie-in your messaging and purpose to determine the optimal team building activities.
Here are our top 5 recommendations for conference team building experiences in 2019:
#5 Physical
Got a particularly athletic or outdoorsy team? Look for opportunities that allow team members to challenge themselves through sporting and outdoor activities. Be sure to consider everyone’s abilities to determine the appropriate level of physicality. While you could certainly take on a Spartan Race together, this need not be extravagant. Even a picturesque hike gives teams the opportunity to recharge and get to know one-another while exploring the outdoors together. And you can always add a layer of competition with scavenger hunt or geocaching elements.
#4 Experiential
If you’ve got a team that likes to get their hands dirty and try new skills, consider a team building activity that allows them to experience or make something together. Culinary challenges similar to Iron Chef or maker challenges give them the thrill of team competition and demand strong bonds in order to achieve success.
#3 Strategic
When you have a team of thinkers, team building activities that enable group problem solving are particularly effective. Consider an ‘escape room’ or simulated society experience which challenge your teams to use their collective strategic strengths to think their way to a solution. The strengths they will discover about each other will carry over into the workplace and provide new channels for creative problem-solving.
#2 CSR
We particularly love team building activities centered around good will. There is something about helping others that brings out the best in people and can apply to just about any team. Whatever the activity, you’ll find your team opening up on a personal level, relating to each other, and bonding in ways that only philanthropy can inspire.
#1 Creative
No matter the makeup of your team, team building activities that promote creative interaction are a good all-around choice. These types of activities encourage teams to ideate, innovate, and build something original together. Coupled with the right subject matter, these experiences can be some of the most powerful when translated back to the workplace.
Take any of these experiences to another level using music.
How? SongDivision has over fifteen years of experience delivering music-driven team building experiences to Fortune 500 companies worldwide. Musical experiences are uniquely flexible to the strengths of your team, and our ‘no experience required’ programs use the science of music to emphasize aspects of memory, happiness, and relationship building at your conferences. Best of all, because our programs center on your company’s purpose in a fun and engaging way, they deliver real ROI, translating into workplace engagement, increased performance, and lower attrition.
Song Slam – Engage in some friendly competition in this ‘Battle of the Bands’ style event where your teams write and perform songs to express your company’s purpose.
Team Anthem – Teams create a memorable song that captures the voice of your company and meaningfully communicates your message.
Culture Club – Bespoke, music-fueled working sessions help your teams identify, associate with, and communicate your purpose, resulting in a more integrated corporate culture.
Rock & Roll Game Show – Embrace your competitive spirit through this interactive and highly entertaining experience designed to test your music knowledge while magnifying your brand messaging.
Looking for more engaging team building experiences for your 2019 conferences?
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