I'm looking for some creative ideas regarding off-site team building exercises. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Saving Changes...
Sort By:
KC ButlerKCBI Consulting -- Sr. PM Consultant| www.linkedin.com/in/mskcbutlerAtlanta, Ga, United States
Depending on where you are located: Land Rover off road driving, treasure hunts, Dave & Busters, Survivior type excursions, Raft building and racing, Softball or vollyball games are always good, cosmic bowling. Saving Changes...
Anonymous
Lasar Tag is a great stress reliever and team builder. Saving Changes...
Anonymous
You want to try the tompeterscompany! (as in the guy who wrote In Search Of Excellence and WOW! Projects). His company has a session that relates directly to project teams. The web site is http://www.tompeters.com/implementation or call 415-673-2214 Saving Changes...
Dave McMillinSr. Project Manager| TEKsystemsWashington, Il, United States
First, you need to decide what the team wants to improve: communication, brainstorming, etc. or just getting to know new team members. Also set some ground rules with the team before going out.
A local university ran a team building seminar out in the woods with lots of different events (building a simple bridge for the team to cross, leading a blindfolded partner down a trail, etc). Two teams that had recently been merged went out. They had to choose a leader for each event. The larger half of the team always voted one of theirs in as leader until the other half walked out and went back to the office. This team building exercise did more to hurt the new team than help. Another team that was going out set a rule that anyone interested in being a leader would have their name put in a hat and they would draw at each event, giving everyone a fair chance.
Ground rules can make it productive, fun and stop office gossip if someone gets out of hand. Deciding what you want to improve can also steer you toward something that the team will enjoy and find valuable.
Saving Changes...
Bipin Lekshmanan PMPProject Manager| Wipro TechnologiesEdison, Nj, United States
In my experience, try something different and that appeals to your team. The main point that's attained is more informal bonding among team members...whatever be the event chosen. By choosing one over the other, we are just increasing/decreasing the scope of interactions that will happen there. Saving Changes...
Shawn BellingChief Technology Officer and Adjunct Faculty| Geno.Me/University of WisconsinFitchburg, Wi, United States
You've got to be careful with this. Unless you have a team similar in ages and interests, anything other than lunch is going to be tricky. I have always maintained that any firm that drags me out for rock-climbing or any "outward bound" type team building exercise is begging to be sued. I do, however enjoy laser tag. Just examples. On my current project team, our ages and interests are so diverse that we find team lunches as the best way to bond. There are sub-groups of us that bond through mountain biking, coffee brewing and other activities. Saving Changes...
I see that the original thread is quite old but never the less a very important activity in developing our project teams.
Firstly you need to assess where the team is in its maturity - forming, storming, norming or supporting and then find the right activity for the appropriate team - in the beginning you need to let the team members find each other and do some very basic events with out too much competing.
This could be just defingin the ground rules for how your team wants to work and socialise. Maybe a Belbin type indicator could be used to break some of the initial ice.
Wait with the action heavy events for later in the project (if at all) and try to find some events which are new to the group, especially if they are often in project teams they are bound to have tried the same events. Saving Changes...
"We are ashamed of everything that is real about us; ashamed of ourselves, of our relatives, of our incomes, of our accents, of our opinions, of our experience, just as we are ashamed of our naked skins."
