By now, we all know the importance of a team building event. But whether this is your first or tenth time planning an event for your team, it can seem like putting together an engaging activity which will run smoothly, and that everyone will like – on top of your day-to-day responsibilities – can be awfully daunting.
Here at Culturally, we've worked with different groups and budgets to customize the best programmes to fit each team's dynamics. Read on for more tips from us on how to make the planning process more manageable!
Identify your goals
Having a clear and defined objective for your team building will help to ensure that it will be fun and effective. But unless you were told specifically what the goals are, you may not know where to start!
Tackling the five 'W' questions – who, what, where, why, when – are a great way to start. For example, here are some possible answers:
- Who: Team of 30 people
- What: Culinary activity (Halal? Non-halal? Desserts)
- Where: Singapore
- Why: A reward for a successful quarter
- When: December 2018
Put that all together, and you have an outline for a team building event!
Create a budget
Ask your boss for a budget and find out how much money is available for the event, as well as the expectations for the budget. If you don't have a concrete figure, ask about previous team building activities to get an idea of how much it should cost!
We suggest to budget for the following items and to leave a little room for unexpected expenses.
- Activity providers
- Food & beverage
- Venue booking fees
- Transportation
Teamwork makes the dream work
Assign responsibilities to a planning committee! Emphasize the importance of each member's contributions, how all of their responsibilities will work together to put together a fantastic event not just for themselves, but for the rest of their team! When people feel like they have influenced decisions, they are more likely to feel engaged on the day of the event.
Schedule the event during working hours
No matter how much one might love their job, no one wants to put in extra time after working hours or over the weekends to attend a mandatory company event. Employees will always be more receptive to team building if it does not interfere with their personal time. So as much as possible, schedule the activity for a workday – even an hour or two on a Friday afternoon is better than making your staff come back on a weekend!
Get away from the office
Sometimes, just stepping outside of the office walls will help your staff interact with each other much more freely. What type of environment would your team benefit from? Even if you are planning a formal team building event that could easily take place in one of your meeting rooms, taking your team to a space offsite will give off the impression that it's not just another day at work.
Make it special
Sharing fun and unique experiences are the best ways to bring your team together. Doing something out of the ordinary such as a cooking class, a cocktail masterclass, or artisanal activities like letterpressing or screen printing will serve as catalyst for discussions and interactions outside of the usual dialogue, and will help to strengthen office relationships!
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Still not sure where to begin? For additional support and advice, reach out to the Culturally team! We make the complex end-to-end process fuss-free so you don't have to worry one bit. Don't believe us? Just try it out here 😉