Kev Woodward asked:
Friday morning and the office is buzzing – but for all the wrong reasons! Your staff cannot wait to leave work and begin their weekend. There is no motivation to do their job; that is why your sales targets for the last quarter were not met. So just how can you spice up the office? Clued-in managers will recognise de-motivation early and head it off at the pass by using a corporate event to revitalise flagging enthusiasm.
But surely, I hear you say, I really need a team building event to boost morale? WRONG. Mention team building and half the office will already plan their sick notes for the day. On the other hand, mention a company ‘Jolly’ and they will be getting their bags packed. These days team building needs to be subtle and sophisticated to be effective. It needs to be enjoyable and challenging but without excluding people. A carefully chosen corporate event will deliver team building by stealth.
A popular activity now is the treasure hunt. But some are better than others. A good treasure hunt will deliver skills that are essential to business teamwork. Look for a company who will force the winning team to think, there should be elements of planning, communication, problem solving, the opportunity for everyone to contribute and also a degree of internal organisation. Not every treasure hunt will provide these so choose carefully.
The event needs to be memorable in order to have a long term effect on your work force. Having a hunt on site or in the familiar surroundings of your home town or city is not ideal – it will not have the same effect as an away day, or even better, an away few days! Perhaps combine a company product conference with your treasure hunt and take your staff to a decent hotel for a couple of days. They will feel looked after for starters.
Take an example of a company based in London needing team building, instead of having all of the staff from your regional branches come to head office, meet up in Edinburgh or maybe Oxford or Cambridge, cities with some appeal for everyone.
But even better – take your team abroad; how about a corporate event in Paris? Have a treasure hunt amongst such iconic landmarks as the Eiffel Tower, Louvre and Notre Dame followed by a meal in a Parisian restaurant – that would be talked about for months, if not longer. Or maybe take them to Venice, where they can search for clues and scavenger items amongst the canals, squares and spectacular buildings built by the wealthy merchants of the middle ages. Top it off with a meal and your team will feel highly valued. That all-important motivation will return and targets will be met again!
But to make your corporate event work, you need to put in some effort too. Make sure that the teams are well mixed, with people from different departments, different layers of management and different backgrounds. By doing that, you will begin to gel your whole organisation and it will function more smoothly.