Discover how other businesses are re-igniting their culture through team bonding activities
Over the past 18 months, many employees have experienced unanticipated mental health issues from remote working due to isolation and burnout.
Remote working has been and is a common trend, it can certainly work well with the right technology and leaders in place however many businesses were lunged into the deep-end forcing sink or swim environments.
For many, we crave and are naturally wired to want and need social interactions. Belongingness is a basic human need that has been completely switched off for teams globally causing a deterioration in mental health, productivity, performance and much more.
Undoubtedly, your team has been through a lot since the start of the pandemic and now it’s time to move forward. We’ve been helping clients globally to re-engage their team whilst igniting a culture they once had using team-bonding activities.
How? Well, let’s get to it.
Team bonding is KEY right now
For many, it feels like the pandemic is taking a turn for the positive and businesses are starting to bring employees back in-house.
There will be people within your business that have never met or are meeting for the first time.
Your team may well be energised and eager to get into the office to reconnect however there is a whole new task of relearning how to collaborate in person after your team have been isolated within the digital world.
As a leader, you can help to encourage this process by doing a few key things.
Host small in-person ice breakers
Typically, team-bonding involves retreats and incentives however you can start to reconnect your team immediately through a few small changes.
Firstly, you want to start by adjusting your routine meetings to face-to-face instead of over Zoom. How nice will it be to enjoy the fact that no one is cutting in and out of the meeting due to those annoying WiFi issues!
This experience alone will help to reconnect your team and you can take it a step further with icebreakers.
It’s going to feel cheesy at first but trust the process! The following short activities will break down communication barriers and the team will be ready to work together on friendly basis.
Show and tell: here, individuals will show off an achievement from the past year. The show could be the creation of a perfect banana bread or the completion of a home renovation.
Puzzle solving: with a small puzzle they can work together to figure it out and start the morning with a small success. It could be a riddle or even a mathematical puzzle – whatever works!
Personality quizzes: Ask your team to take a quick quiz to determine what their Friends character would be, or which emoji matches their personality and use these names/characters as hosts for the meeting.
Take team-bonding outdoors
Working hand in hand with icebreakers, you can bring back those outdoor team-bonding activities that once contributed to your company culture.
We need to do more than a regular happy hour to truly spark the culture and the following outdoor activities will help with building those team connections…
Sports day: fire up your teams’ competitiveness – by working collaboratively & utilising each individuals skillset, may the best team win.
Sailing: exhilarating, thrilling and challenging… Sailing, one of the most rewarding team bonding activities.
Creative: allow the team to get in touch with their artistic side and host a paint and pour class.
Natures finest: take a hike or conquer a mountain. Relax and unwind and take in what nature has to offer.
Find safe sports to attend: from football matches to cricket matches, nothing bonds teams like a shared passion/hobby.
Adrenaline: thrilling, exciting with a small hint of danger – there’s something for everyone, from white water rafting to abseiling.
These are just a few ways you can gauge employee interest which can be built on as time goes on.
Be persistent
It’s important to understand that you will need to dedicate man hours and budget to this as team bonding will not happen overnight.
While your team might enjoy the day out and let loose for those few hours, the reality and stress of the change will be lingering, and you must respect that not everybody will be going at the same pace as the business.
What you can do, is hold a variety of activities, games and changes over the financial year so it becomes a natural way of working for your team and the company.
We’re currently helping businesses globally to implement this team-bonding strategy and can assist with anything from idea creations to implementation. Contact us today to take lead on your team-bonding duties.