Alternative Team Building Activities for Work

by Spectrum Wellness

Looking for Alternative Team Building Activities? Look no more!
When you think of team building activities, what comes to mind first? Trust falls? Outdoor activities? A night at the dogs? We’ve been doing the same activities for decades, and many of them feel overdone and often ineffective. These days, in an era where work culture and team motivation are high on the agenda for most companies, we’re looking for more alternative team building activities that suit the personalities and interests of our highly diverse workforce. It’s important that the activity matches the needs of the workforce!

Here is a list to get you thinking about alternative team building activities for your workplace.

Dodgeball
The five rules of dodgeball: dodge, dip, dive, duck and… dodge.
Dodgeball is a high-adrenaline, very team-oriented alternative sport that will get team members working together to beat the opposite team. It gets the heart pumping, encourages team-focused tactics and promotes healthy competition among workers, and it’s fun! Why not start a tournament with the winning team being rewarded with an extra day’s holiday?

Nerf Battle
Paintballing isn’t everyone’s cup of team, but Nerf battles are a fun, safer alternative that can be played around the office. Divide employees into random teams, give them a Nerf gun and goggles, allocated bases to each team and let the battle commence. Not only is this fun, it encourages employees to work together to solve a problem, capturing another team’s flag/token, for example, a skill that can easily be adapted to the work environment. It also gets the team moving and practising their stealth and agility skills, and it’s an easy way to spot the extremely competitive personalities among the group; always good to know!

Fitness Challenge

Our corporate health screening tool, HealthScore, has shown that Irish companies rank low in terms of physical fitness and getting enough exercise. Therefore, we encourage the companies we work with to focus on fitness as part of their wellness programmes. It doesn’t have to be about boot camps and weightlifting; why not start a fun fitness challenge? There is a number of ideas to choose from:

  • The team who walks the equivalent of Kilamanjiro first wins
  • The team that organises the most lunchtime walks in a month wins
  • The team that can collectively hold a plank or wall sit for the longest wins

The list is endless! Choose your challenge, divide the group into teams and get things in motion – literally.

Treasure Hunt
Divide your group into teams and set a day aside to do a treasure hunt around the office building or in the local area. This encourages each team to work closely together to solve clues, and tactfully chase the next find without alerting the other teams. It’s a fun and whimsical way of getting your team to work together, and it creates a little bit of excitement around the workplace.

Game Night
Go old school and have a classic game night. This is a great way to promote socialising among your team members, which is an important aspect of team building. It helps individuals to learn a little more about each other’s interests and personalities, and if you select games that focus on team-playing, like Pictionary and Articulate, it encourages a little co-working too.

Memory Wall
Most companies will have company days and nights out over the years, and even some impromptu fun moments that are worth capturing. Make a memory wall somewhere visible for all to see and encourage people to add to it. This is a heartwarming and simple activity that builds a sense of friendship and nostalgia to remind the team, particularly during the more stressful times of the year, of the fun they have with their colleagues. It also gets people talking about “that time when…” which prompts the organisation of even more team-focused activities.

Skill Challenges
If you’re looking for alternative team building activities that help employees get in touch with their creative side, get an expert in each quarter to teach your team a new non-work-related skill, such as pottery, creative writing, or cross-stitch. At the end of the quarter, get your team to anonymously vote everyone’s new creations; the winner gets a voucher for a free lunch! This is a great way to get your team bonding together over a common goal, and it helps exercise the creative side of their brains, which in turn will result in more ideas in the workplace, more creative approaches to problem-solving and an overall improved atmosphere.

Have a company wellness day
Take a day out of the year to focus on company wellness. Let’s be honest, there is nothing more appreciated than a change of scenery and shift in focus in the workplace. The day should be centred around getting your employees to gather together to focus on their health and wellness, in both the physical and mental sense. Depending on the interests of your company, this day can include fitness activities, seminars, breakout sessions and any of the activities mentioned on this list. It’s a great way to get employees interacting with each other and it’s good for morale because it shows employees that the company cares about their wellbeing.

Odd couple quiz
Randomly divide team members into groups of two for a Mr & Mrs style quiz. This is a fun (and often funny) way to encourage team members to get to know each other and to bond.

Schoolyard Fun
Who doesn’t love reminiscing about the games we used to play in the schoolyard? Get your team to write down their favourite schoolyard activity and organise a fun afternoon of games. From Red Rover to Tip the Can, these games encourage bonding, team building, tactical thinking and possibly the realisation that you are definitely not as fit as you used to be. There is nothing like a game of Stuck in The Mud to make you realise you need to get back into your gym routine- trust us!

There is no reason why Team Building has to be boring or basic; if you focus on fun, you’ll be surprised by the results!