A successful team is about much more than having the right people in the right jobs. Communication, trust, confidence and strong working relationships all play an important part in how effectively people work together.
That's where a well-planned team building day can make a genuine difference.
Getting colleagues away from their normal working environment gives them an opportunity to communicate differently, tackle new challenges and simply enjoy spending time together.
At Adventure Sports in Warwick, we regularly welcome businesses looking for everything from a relaxed corporate away day to a competitive multi-activity team building event.
So, what can a day away from the workplace actually achieve?
Here are seven key benefits of team building.
1. Improves communication
Good communication is at the heart of almost every successful team, but it is also one of the most common challenges faced by the groups we meet.
Away from the workplace, people tend to communicate differently. Job titles, departments and established routines become less important when everyone is concentrating on a completely new challenge.
Team activities encourage colleagues to discuss tactics, listen to one another, offer advice and celebrate success.
It doesn't have to involve formal communication exercises either. Give a group a challenge and a shared objective and the communication often develops naturally.
Whether they're planning how to tackle an activity, comparing scores or encouraging a colleague to have another attempt, people are communicating without it feeling like an exercise in communication.
2. Builds stronger relationships
How well do colleagues really know each other?
In a busy workplace, conversations can easily become focused entirely on work. People may spend years working for the same organisation without having much opportunity to get to know colleagues from other departments.
A team building day changes the environment.
People have time to talk, laugh and share experiences without emails, meetings and everyday workplace pressures getting in the way.
Those shared experiences can help create stronger connections between colleagues, particularly when bringing together people who don't normally work closely with one another.
3. Builds trust within the team
Trust is an important part of teamwork.
Activities and challenges give people opportunities to rely on one another, offer encouragement and recognise the abilities of their colleagues.
This can be particularly useful for newly formed teams or businesses that have recently expanded, reorganised or brought different departments together.
Trust doesn't have to come from elaborate team exercises. Sometimes simply seeing how colleagues react to an unfamiliar situation can help people understand one another better.
4. Reveals different strengths
The workplace only gives people certain opportunities to demonstrate what they're good at.
Put the same group into a completely different environment and you can see a different side of people.
Someone may remain exceptionally calm under pressure. Another person might naturally start encouraging everyone around them. Someone else may carefully analyse a challenge before deciding how to approach it.
And the person who barely says a word during meetings might turn out to be extraordinarily competitive when somebody hands them a bow and arrow!
Activities such as archery, axe throwing, clay shooting, pistol and rifle shooting, karting and 4x4 off-road driving can give people very different challenges to tackle.
Because many participants are trying these activities for the first time, everyone effectively starts on much more equal terms.
5. Encourages teamwork and collaboration
Team building works particularly well when people have a shared goal.
Dividing a group into teams and introducing challenges, scores or competitions encourages people to work together.
Colleagues begin discussing strategy, sharing ideas and supporting other members of their team.
Importantly, this collaboration develops naturally because everyone wants to achieve the same objective.
It can also demonstrate something that's equally relevant back in the workplace: teams don't necessarily perform best when everyone approaches a problem in exactly the same way.
Different skills and different approaches can complement each other.
6. Boosts morale and rewards employees
Not every team building event needs to have a complicated business objective.
Sometimes it's simply about saying thank you.
Taking employees away from their normal workplace for an enjoyable activity day can be a great way to recognise hard work, celebrate a successful year, mark the completion of a project or simply give everyone something to look forward to.
A fun shared experience can provide a welcome change of pace and help employees feel appreciated.
And when people enjoy themselves together, the positive atmosphere often continues after everyone returns to work.
7. Creates shared experiences and memories
This is perhaps one of the most underestimated benefits of a team building day.
People remember experiences
Weeks or months afterwards, colleagues may still be talking about the unexpected clay shooting champion, the person who somehow mastered axe throwing immediately, the competitive karting battle or what happened during the 4x4 challenge.
These shared stories become part of the team's history.
They give people something in common that isn't connected to a deadline, meeting or spreadsheet, and those connections can contribute towards stronger working relationships.
Team building doesn't need to feel like team building
For some employees, the words "team building" can immediately create visions of awkward icebreakers and forced corporate exercises.
It doesn't have to be like that.
Some of the most effective team building happens when people are too busy enjoying themselves to notice they're doing it.
Give colleagues an enjoyable activity, introduce a challenge, add some friendly competition and let the interaction develop naturally.
People are communicating, collaborating, encouraging each other and building relationships, but they're doing it because they're genuinely engaged in the experience.
Corporate team building at Adventure Sports, Warwick
At Adventure Sports in Warwick, we create corporate team building events and activity days for groups looking for anything from a few hours away from work to a full multi-activity day. Groups can range from a small team of 4 people to large corporate events for up to 250.
With a wide range of activities available at one location, programmes can be tailored around the size and interests of the group.
Our Triple Target Challenge, for example, combines archery, axe throwing and pistol and rifle shooting, giving teams three very different disciplines to master.
Alternatively, a Mixed Activity Day can combine several activities, allowing groups to experience driving, shooting, target sports and team challenges during the same event.
And you certainly don't need a team full of athletes. Many of our activities reward concentration, accuracy, communication and judgement rather than physical strength or fitness.
Ready to get your team out of the office?
Whether you're planning a corporate away day, staff reward, team building event, company celebration or departmental get-together, a day of shared activities can offer much more than simply a break from work.
The seven benefits are clear:
1. Improved communication
2. Stronger relationships
3. Greater trust
4. Recognition of different strengths
5. Better teamwork and collaboration
6. Improved morale and employee reward
7. Shared experiences and lasting memories
Most importantly, achieving those benefits doesn't have to involve uncomfortable exercises or forced participation.
Sometimes the best way to build a stronger team is simply to give people the opportunity to do something memorable together.
