Team building events have a reputation for a reason and yet the same activities still get recycled year after year. Avoid torturing your employees with these stupid activities during your team building day.
Landmine
For this exercise, one person is blindfolded and instructed on how to weave their way through a field of objects by their teammate. I highly doubt you will ever have to lead your blinded colleague through a maze of cubicles to get any reports in by the deadline.
Truth train
There is such a thing as being too truthful. For this exercise, everyone sits in a circle and says what they don’t like about the other people. If the goal is tears, public humiliation and an awkward team lunch afterward, pick this one. If the goal is to bond, don’t let the truth train leave the station.
Juice cleanse
Some businesses use juice cleanses for team building. This is the equivalent of putting the whole office on a diet at the exact same time. Prepare for cranky workers, rumbling stomachs and mass headaches. Opt for bringing in coffee and pastries. I don’t have statistics, but I’m confident the results will be better, no matter how trendy cleansing is right now.
Human Spring
For this activity, coworkers face each other and press their palms together. They step back, keeping their palms together until they rely solely on the resistance of the other person to remain standing. Beside the invasion of personal space, if your hands slip, heads collide or faces hit the ground it's not going to be a particularly harmonious outcome.
If you are organising a team building event, recognise the following as you filter through the activity options:
- Blindfolds have no point.
- Athletic events alienate somebody.
- People like their personal space and privacy.
- Competition brings out the worst in people.
- No one graduated college to put together a puzzle.
- No one wants a pig loose in the office.
Some truly horrible team building exercises exist, but your office doesn’t have to suffer from this trend of team building torture. Find better ways to motivate your employees.
