What makes the best venue for team building exercises?

Team building activities are crucial in enhancing team cohesion. The best performing teams regularly spend valuable time together, creating key relationships. However, most of the time organisations do not have the capability themselves to facilitate team building activities.

So, what makes the best venue for team building activities? Here we take a look at Roffey Park’s top tips in choosing the right venue, as well as examples of challenging but fun team building activities for you to try.

What is meant by team building?

Team building is the process of a group of people working together effectively as a team, especially by means of activities and events designed to increase motivation and promote cooperation. A strong team is crucial to the success of any organisation.

Building a high performing team requires individuals to have self-awareness and knowledge of their different behaviours and to develop more open and empowered ways of working. Team building activities help develop these characteristics.

Without question, the greatest asset in any organisation is its people and their ability to collaborate in achieving strategic goals and objectives.

Roffey Park’s top 5 team building activities

Orienteering

After a short talk in orientation (which can be natural navigation) teams will be given their destination and they need to beat the clock to get there before the other team(s).

The clock is ticking!

Your team must work together to solve problems, crack codes and de-fuse the ticking time bomb. Teams are split into ‘operatives’ and ‘field agents’. The operatives have to crack codes and then send their agents out and about to retrieve the information needed to complete the final challenge. An outdoor activity to pit team minds against the clock.

Team Puzzles

Team puzzles are great for getting teams to work together. With a selection of mind-bending activities, instructors will be on hand to supervise and collect scores. These activities can also be incorporated between sessions to energise your staff through your event, indoors or outdoors to suit the weather.

F1 Challenge

This team building game requires teams to construct a kit car. Working from a set of construction plans, each team has to use their collective skills to turn a ‘flat-pack’ kit of materials into a cardboard driving machine. Once construction is complete, the teams present their cars with brand advertising, corporate messages and company values. The challenge concludes with a head-to-head racing Grand Prix!

Fire on Earth

Could you survive in the wild? In this challenge, participants will learn how to make a fire without artificial aid and then put their skills to the test. They will use the fire to feed and water themselves and their team.

What do venues need to facilitate team building activities?

It is important to create an environment where employees are comfortable and able to focus on the team building activity.

The goal of the facilitator is to explain and deliver activities in an environment with as few distractions as possible. This maximizes your group’s ability to succeed and increases the positive impact of your workshop.

With an outdoor venue, the unexpectedness of the weather can be a concern. The temperature, wind, and/or rain can make conditions challenging and sometimes unenjoyable.

In a purpose-built indoor space, such as a large meeting room, it is easier to eliminate distractions so everyone can focus on the team building activity. The climate is controlled, the sound system is built-in, and tables and chairs can be easily arranged to fit the programme.

On the other hand, having access to an outdoor area, when conditions permit, can be extremely beneficial in facilitating certain activities. Challenges like Fire on Earth and Orienteering cannot be done in an indoor environment, for example.

When choosing the right training venue for your team building activities, consider what activities you think would best suit your team and whether the venue can facilitate them.

The Roffey Park experience

As an internationally renowned leadership institute, we know how important a strong team is to the success of any organisation.

We offer a range of services to help you develop effective teams, ranging from facilitated team development workshops to a range of half-day team building activities. Those included above are only a fraction of the team building activities we provide.

Our venue is a contemporary conference space which is designed to be conducive to learning and lends itself perfectly to team building activities. From smaller meeting rooms to large conference rooms, we have the capabilities to facilitate activities for teams of all sizes.

Set in 40 acres of stunning West Sussex countryside, our venue provides a welcome contrast to the frenetic workplace. This calming environment encourages teams to work together, learn together and simply have fun together.

Categorised in: Team Building