[Closed] Ideas for team building at work

C&H?

I can afford one or the other, not both. 🙂

I don’t get the team building at all I go to work to get paid, I don’t want thanks etc I just want the money for doing a great job. I guess that’s why I own my own business and have always worked for a price. We’re all different though but reading they’re overworked and stressed isn’t going to be solved with team building.

That's what I think as well, and my team are also getting close to stressed and overworked. Personally I like lunchtimes as a time to relax, so the idea of using that time for some organised jollies sounds about as appealing as malaria.

overworked, stressed, diverse and essentially disengaged team.

Talking from experience, "forcing" people into team building exercises can have the opposite effect to what you are looking to achieve. Trying to relieve some of the stress and workload would be a better use of resources. Some people just don't like each other and put up with each other because they have to. If they are stressed because they are overworked then address what can be done about it

Can you get the slt to give an afternoon of paid work time for this? A good chance for them to show they value the well-being of the work force- pandemic notwithstanding this concern should be heading to the top of every employers priority list.

I work on gas turbines as a QC/Inspector. We are mostly a bunch of introverted types and the last thing any of us would want would be team building guff. Sorry.

There is nothing I despise more than being forced to do social activities with work people.

The problem with team-building exercise is that the team don't want to do it and find it pointless and winds most up if they have to do it.

Go to pub.... open invite.... buy a few rounds.... start a kitty.... get battered.

Works every time.

Lunchtime teambuilding?

Lunch time is my time, if you want teambuilding it had better be during working hours 😀

The most effective thing I've done was to get the team into a room for a day and work through a load of stuff being "facilitated" by someone who helped bring out the issues. Not as much fun as an escape room or whatever but at that time I had over half the team as recent starters (less than 6 months) and staff turnover was a problem. Since then the team stuck together for nearly 3 years before someone moved overseas, not bad for a group of 12. We had a couple more sessions with the same facilitator along the way.

The difference isn't that we're all matey or anything, it's that we have a common ground for working together effectively, we can talk about issues without people getting defensive etc.

We've planned that @oldmanmtb2 🙂

I get that most people hate team building, I'm looking for something a bit more personal and innovative than the usual guff.

@Lapierrelady, I've tried, it's a no go, I am going to give a half day holiday (when I can) to each of them (we're a team of five, where this time ast year we were a team of 16).

There is nothing I despise more than being forced to do social activities with work people.

Exactly. Give me anything unconditional and I'm up for it, but the huge catch in trying to build team morale at work is... the number 1 motivation is to pick up a pay check. My previous boss used to throw money at this sort of thing and then kick off with everyone because he was a moody bugger, making the work environment a pretty miserable place to be. Glad to be working at a place now that expects me to do my job. After that, no other conditions.

Agree with thepurist. You said yourself they were stressed. Best thing would be to really demonstrate care and commitment to genuinly helping them resolve their problems at work. I mean don't just have a rushed, hashed facilitated session, token ideas on a flip and never or half heartedly follow things up after the event. Think of ways you can take time and care to really understand the real issues. Might need teasing out beyond what they say first (beyond the reflex response). Dig deeper, go and see it, get them to share it, witness the burden yourself. They will often have the solutions to their own problems too. Next trick is take the resolution seriously as hell. No trickery, tick boxing, facades, keep it real! And make sure you check the problem has been resolved. Another tip, keep the whole thing alive beyond the facilitated session. You don't need these in reality if you keep talking as a team on a regular basis. Make it daily, make it a normal part of the day at work, make it visible - you don't always need an event. Bit of a ramble, I guess these people have lived with their problems for so long, that they can easily loose energy and faith around any attempts to resolve. You need to show genuine care.

Morale is on its arse at our place. Nothing to do with team building though. It's more about being overworked and under valued. It didn't used to be like that.

Mate of mine was talking about a system called SCARF or something similar where they work. They actually invest time and effort into making sure employees find their jobs satisfying.

Just taken a look at the SCARF model. Got me thinking a bit (which is not in the plan for Fri night). Compare how you look forward to weekends on Friday and how that contrasts to the Monday feeling. There's some obvious differences like your partner's bareable but your collegues aren't, etc. But I wonder if there's something else. At the weekend you have choice, control, predictability, start to finish experience, pride in a job well done, variety. I'm sure there's more. Why can't we design work to give us the same? (sorry starting to feel like a Linkedin thread)

@andrewhbws

We do that, well, the business does, it's genuinely the most engaged business I know for that - driven partly by our accreditation, but also because it has a huge commitment to employee engagement.

We were all forced to do a madatory H&S course once... two days throwing ourselves down the Grantully rapids in dry suits. Best team building ever.

so assuming you don't need white water safety... sign everyone up to a ladder course?

the business just throws donuts, ice creams and site BBQs at everyone ... to try and improve morale.

We can’t take time out of the business

money for any ideas would come out of my own pocket

I’ve tried [an afternoon of paid work time for this] it’s a no go,

time for site based ideas would need to be during lunch time

we’re a team of five, where this time ast year we were a team of 16)

the quality department who are an overworked, stressed, diverse and essentially disengaged

Sorry, what was the question again?

quite lucky in that the site is home to the global SLT on Fridays

I'm sure the team feel doubly blessed by this. 👿

covid has given me some relief as we used to be forced to have social team building lunches in our break. i'm glad i'm not the only one who dislikes these things. i was starting to think i was a right curmudgeon.

Thegenralist

Sorry, what was the question again?

I’m looking for something a bit more personal and innovative than the usual guff.

I’m sure the team feel doubly blessed by this. 👿

Actually, yes.

The team feel blessed by having the SLT there on a Friday?
Go figure. Oh well, takes all sorts.

I think it's admirable that you personally are trying to sort something out. But IMHO the facts you have stated about the organisation will make it very tricky for you to succeed in giving them an awesome bonding session in that worked Ng environment.

Howeverz if you do manage to make any headway against the various downsides you have mentioned then that may well have a positive impact.

Good luck.

We get quartely briefs where the company shuts down and gets everyone in one place, do the brief, get fed, get drunk, challenge the MD to cartwheels that kinda thing. we've done the yorkshire waterpark, escape rooms etc.
over lock down we have been doing it via teams. always ona thursday so we can recover on friday. over lockdown the MD started up a beer and chat session every friday from 3, no obligation to check in.

One of the issues of sorting out an afternoon in works time (If the SLT went with this) is that some, many or all the team will then be a further afternoon behind with their work and are quite likely to say WTF was that all about...it's made things worse.

The team feel blessed by having the SLT there on a Friday?

They don't always lock themselves away, they're happy to speak to everyone, hand the donuts out and generally be engaged with the site.

Maybe a bonding session was a bit too 'corporate'.

How big is the team? Our best Team Builds have been to hire a couple of Day Boats and head along a canal. Nothing beats building a team like lock negotiation. Everyone loved it. Both times I've done this. Take a day and a picnic, they will never forget it.

recently taken over the quality department who are an overworked, stressed, diverse and essentially disengaged team.

Team building exercise hhmmm ... interesting but that's not going to work.

If they are overworked why not reduced the overworked whatever that may be?
Stressed? Why not find out exactly why they are stressed? Cause by poor leadership? If you have no choice with having the same leader then whatever team building exercise you will have is going to fail. Fire the leader instead. Usually the leader is the trigger point for all problems.
Diverse and disengaged team? Can you redesign your work routine? Can it be more team based? Get the team to consider their ideal working conditions.

Where I work we used to have a "leader" hired not by merit but for the "tick box" purposes and our employee turnover was so high and everyone was so stress. When that "leader" left everyone was so happy and life return to normal again. We went through nearly 5 years of stress ...

Burn shit down.

After a 'small' (read 8 fire engines rocked up) fire that might have been my fault my team gelled like you wouldn't believe. Laughing in the face of adversity and all that.

It might give you a few short term issues and a few sleepless nights that you are going to get fired but think big picture!

I'm a miserable bastard but compared to some of you lot I'm full of toxic positivity

About 7 years ago I went to Disney Paris on a team away day. We  bonded as we all hated it!

Some people just don’t like each other and put up with each other because they have to.

How about something like full contact medieval combat ?. https://www.riddleofsteel.co.uk/
Seems ideal. Beat the bejesus out of those on the team you dont like 😀

Team of 5? Escape room.

There's a lot wrong with this conversation but thegeneralist summed up most of I would have said. Team building during your lunch break is not going to have a positive effect on moral.

To make people happier the company needs to give something extra not take it away. And in the grand scheme of things, sixty quid for you to to do an escape room one evening or 90 minutes' leeway one afternoon to watch a bad movie whilst discussing it on Teams isn't going to bankrupt them.

Lunch time is my time

... and a legal obligation.

recently taken over the quality department who are an overworked, stressed, diverse and essentially disengaged team. 

Reduce the amount of overwork and stress.
That's why they are disengaged.

Anything else will mark you out as part of that unnecessary tier of management that will be first against the wall when the revolution comes.

No one likes forced jollity, apart from that bloke who's dressed by his mum and the girl who smells of digestives with the coldsore.

Reduce the amount of overwork and stress.

This. Overworked = understaffed. Start hiring.

first against the wall when the revolution comes.

Does the OP work for Cirius Cybernetics?

British bulldog in the carpark.

or British bulldog combined with itpaystobeawinner, the winning team get to keep their jobs.

".. recently taken over the quality department who are an overworked, stressed, diverse and essentially disengaged team. ..."
Were they a high performing bunch until quite recently?

"quality department"
What does the rest of the company do, make shit?

"Ideas for team building at work"
Have you considered a career in the events organising business, or entertainments industry or Butlins?

BTW if you've recently taken charge of an overworked team, what are you doing to change that? Sometimes it's just a perception of the team members, sometimes it's unrealistic expectations from others, sometimes it's just poor task management. It's never going to be easy but if you don't change the feeling within the team from "overworked" to "busy" then any team building activity is just window dressing.

'Go to pub…. open invite…. buy a few rounds…. start a kitty…. get battered.

Works every time.'
No it really doesn't . I've got stuff I'd rather do than go to the pub, plus how are you planning to get get me home if I have say a 30, 40 mile commute? Seriously it's a good way ot generate a 'pub clique', and demonstrate to the rest how unvalued they are.
Ditto escape rooms ,and the other nonsense.

'We do that, well, the business does, it’s genuinely the most engaged business I know for that – driven partly by our accreditation, but also because it has a huge commitment to employee engagement.'

You might believe that, but given the team are overworked, bad morale and they won't do anything costing more than a tenner to fix it, I don't.

You don't need teambuilding or any nonsense training models.

(we’re a team of five, where this time last year we were a team of 16).

This is why the staff are stressed and overworked. More than two thirds of the department have lost their jobs in the last 12 months. Those remaining are presumably doing way more work than they signed up for to cover the shortfall and are in constant fear of losing their jobs as well.
Most people don't actively enjoy working. They put up with it to make money so that they can do enjoyable things when not at work. Think about it this way - would you still go in to work to do your job if you weren't being paid? Most people are disengaged and disinterested at work because ultimately they don't really care about the job. Going for work beers at 3pm on thursday makes a situation you'd rather not be in slightly more pleasant, but no amount of training or teambuilding is ever going to make anyone more interested in the job.

We did a Surfers Against Sewage beach clean yesterday. I found a small amount of cash for the team to cover travel and sarnies, otherwise unfunded. It was optional, but most people chose to come.

The big benefit here is that the (big) company I work for offers two additional leave days a year under "corporate social responsibility" to do something environmentally or socially 'good'. It has to be for a registered charity and we submit a paragraph on what we did afterwards. Point here is that this seems easier to request and get approved than "time off for fun" in a corporate environment, but done well can be quite fun and rewarding.

Sounds like your position at the moment is basically impossible, so I'd keep bothering those above with these kind of options which result in actual time away from work.

I hate “team building” sessions, especially when imposed by senior management who can’t figure the root cause of the lack of “team bonding “
However I will make a suggestion for the OP,

Assuming you all work in the same building ( office would be even better ) and assuming you can make a reasonably acceptable 🌶 chilli,
Inform your team that you will supply lunch 1 day as you have a “new” recipe you would like their opinion on.
Load it into a slow cooker and simmer away for the morning ( it could be pre cooked and warmed up ) supply a pile of crusty bread, paper plates , plastic forks etc and tell folks to help themselves .
Leave a note pad for feed back ( or ask for emails )
A few days later let the team have an E mail ( or better ) verbal thank you for the feedback,
THEN
Ask if anyone else wants to do similar.... if you are very lucky 1 or 2 may and you have the start of a semi regular informal lunchtime team building session without anyone realising that’s what you have done....
(Edit) ... I know some folks may have elfin safety concerns , but cake bakes etc are common fund raisers so this should be possible even with the fussiest elfin officers

but no amount of training or teambuilding is ever going to make anyone more interested in the job.

Not necessarily. Sometimes training is woeful and just sufficient. For a stressed and overworked team, they will want to know that you are in their side, and working to lighten their stresses. Personal sacrifice (on your part) will pay huge dividends in my experience.

People join companies and leave managers. Like teachers, you never forget a good one.

As long as what you do is optional. No-one apart from the brown nosers likes this forced fun crap.

The most effective thing I’ve done was to get the team into a room for a day and work through a load of stuff being “facilitated” by someone who helped bring out the issues.

Yeah this. Team building should be about ... ummm ... buiding a team; not some excuse for a pub crawl.

How about holding a brainstorming session so staff can raise issues and come up with their solutions?

A proper piss up, not a barbie and a few boring beers, get them all ****ted.

Think you probably just need to be the leader that stops saying yes to management and relays what is realistically possible in this new normal.
Donuts are nice, but more staff/resource and less targets/deadlines makes the job easier.

After a reshuffle at work we are now missing the leader role that deflects management's rubbish ideas and avoids management getting all uppity when we give our honest thoughts on them.
As said above somewhere, people join companies and leave managers. If we don't get a lead soon, the manager will have no one to manage.

Plenty of evidence, going right back to the 1930’s and Elton Mayos Hawthorne research up to more recent on prevention of PTSD in trauma at work eg TRiM, that a manager who is genuinely engaged, present, listens, supportive, reasonable and interested in staff welfare will improve their wellbeing and ability to cope under stress and improve productivity. Pretty basic but effective human stuff really and not about the manager being a doormat but being clear what the task is, managing performance whilst supporting staff to achieve it.
Well thought out team days can accelerate the familiarity with each other as people who have lives, families, experiences outside of work rather than just being productive units which helps with the supportive team ethos but really should also be used to discuss and clarify the teams objectives and performance - the bit that’s usually missed. Too often team building days are an unfocused day off organised by a manager who then reverts to being an unpleasant dysfunctional bullying dick, lacking clarity about the task, who manages performance chaotically rather than consistently and wonders why everyone remains miserable. This was my last boss forte and we just didn’t engage in the ‘team building’ and was a waste of busy peoples time.
The mere fact you have recognised the problem and are thinking about how to improve your teams morale is great news for them.

OP - Just watch Ted Lasso on Apple TV. You will learn 10x more about team engagement from a comedy tv show than most books or forum posts.

If you really want a day out your first challenge is to fight with your management to get the funding / time off you need.

Covid doesn’t help but cheap things you can do if you really want the day:

* Climbing wall
* Go karting
* Outdoor swimming
* Blow-up assault course over water
* Trail centre with bike / ebike rental

Split into session about how you will help them solve problems and make the outdoorsy bit optional after. Maybe even let them invite family for second half of day with no forced bonding. If it happens bonus, if people want to bail for day off or pub that’s up to them. Depending on team size you can do things like outdoor swimming or climbing walls super cheap.

Anyone have any decent ideas or great experiences to have some fun/boost morale as a team?

Trying to force people to have fun is the quickest way to destroy morale and motivation. IME, having managers who are competent and set clear objectives is essential. People go to work to do work, so helping them do their work is essential. It's nice to work with colleagues who are competent and professional, so building professional respect for each other is important. I've worked with some very professional people that I would not want to hang out with socially, but they are pleasant to work with because they behave in a professional manner. I've also worked with some people that are great to go drinking with, but are nightmares as work colleagues because they think the workplace should be a party zone. Having some occasional voluntary social stuff on the weekend is fine - BBQ, karting, whatever, as long as nobody feels under any pressure to take part. I like a beer to unwind, but a lot of people don't and having boozy parties is extremely unpleasant for anyone who's not into that sort of thing.

Anyone have any decent ideas or great experiences to have some fun/boost morale as a team?

Yep, there ain't no fun like compulsory fun.

If you do organise an event make it non competitive.

We had a manager who was a keen go-carter. He organised an event and somehow even got people to pay their own way and do it on a Saturday. He then won the go-carting.

I suppose you could claim there was some bonding. Everyone shared the same opinion of him after that day.

You need to know why the team is not working in the first place. What are they not doing that a well functioning team would do.
You also need yo know the different personalities of the team before you try any team building stuff as many people (like me) are totally put off by anything deliberately team building, social etc,. but talk to me and I will tall you why the team is not working from my point of view so fix whatever that is.

I’m looking for something a bit more personal and innovative than the usual guff.

This is the inception of all the the most excruciatingly cringe team building days. It sounds like your problems are a bit deeper, and taking away a precious lunch break will probably piss people off more.

I find it ironic when a quality department has issues within itself, try a bit of fundamental quality management focusing on the issues and how to resolve them... Just a thought.

As people get older, they have more demands on their time eg families etc, so pub nights become less appealing. When my company was much younger (20 years ago) very few had families and lots of people lived in Cambridge and cycled in, so pub nights were really popular. As everyone aged, had families and moved further afield for larger houses, pub night attendance dropped and eventually we just stopped having them.

On a personal note, I just don't feel so connected to work anymore and would probably pass on a social as I'm just not that fussed anymore.

Sounds like the team aren't the problem.
Bet if you got them all together on Monday and said,

"Work diligently on the most important thing for your allotted hours and then go home. Any questions about priorities, resourcing, etc, come to me and I will make a decision and find you something you *can* make progress with.
I am aware that we have additional needs and am pulling together a proposal for senior management, so any low hanging fruit you think I might not know about, pop over this week and talk me through it".

AND THEN DO IT and let any management griping stop with you...

On Friday spend a short time summing up progress (sure, some will be "eliminated X as a possible cause of the problem" but still).

Longer term if you can fulfill genuine training needs that's always good - change of scene and perspective but clear business benefit. But clear up the worst of the shitshow before sending people on soft skills courses, as nobody likes being sent on an assertiveness course because they were doing overtime for two weeks and oddly enough shouted at someone on Day 10 eh.

If you do organise an event make it non competitive.

It's hard to be competitive at 4mph on a narrow boat 😉

Seriously, just a nice time to relax. And a pub stop. Take some food, get the group to prepare it when they aren't steering. Relax. If work don't pay, do it for yourself. The team will think even more of you and your concerns for them.

Excuse my cynicism, but the narrow boat thing is not something I would fancy. Will it be compulsory? If it's in working hours it's not fixing any problems, it's stealing time and making them worse. If it's outside hours, then f*** that, I've got my own busy leisure plans and if I wanted to sit on a boat I'd buy one-. And beer, really? You paying my hotel or 60 quid taxi home?

Stripeysocks is much closer to something that will help

This is why you need to talk to each member of the team to see what they think the problems are. You may have a team member like wbo who doesn't actually want to do anything as part of the team.

We can’t take time out of the business

If you cannot even wangle and Friday afternoon I think you will get poor response. Trying to get people to give up their free time for something that is work related, not really fair. Maybe different if you're in a big city and the team is primarily under 30-35.

Also I think it's commendable that you will stick your hand in your own pocket for this but I think it is unfair on you to be spending your taxed income on something that is for the benefit of the business. A round of drinks / ictrams / dountuts but anyother exercise like this quickly costs a fair amount of money and I for one would feel uneasy about this. Different if you're the company owner but for a employee. Not fair on you.

Problem with a lot of the above suggestions is that they don’t take into consideration people health or other physical issues. Wife used to be her office organiser/manger who had to do it due to Gov dept dictat. Trying to arrange an office of 22 to travel the 140ml round trip to attend really didn’t go well. Things like “pamper” days, many had skin conditions.Going for lunch meant dealing with all those with food allergies etc
I spent 40yrs on the tools in a factory and all the away days, trading days, SLT brainwash days were all a waste of time and money. Encouraged to share all the problems to then have the standard “we are listening” cliche trotted out saw the death of these events. The lack of money and reductions in staff over all those years didn’t help, just the same as the OP
As others have said, solving the issues and senior management truly wanting to do something is the real answer.
Happily retired👍

"You don't listen to me"
"I don't know what you want"
"You are never around when I need you"
"I'm not sure where we are going"

If your partner says that stuff to you would you suggest going ice climbing to sort it out, or doing some white water rafting, a canal boat trip or even expect it to be fixed by going to the pub? So why do you expect those suggestions to fix the same issues with people at work?

. If work don’t pay, do it for yourself. The team will think even more of you and your concerns for them.

Hmmm. I don't agree. I think they'll think of you as someone who can't interface properly with SMT and who lets themselves be treated as a bit of a doormat.

Stripeysocks absolutely nailed it here in theory:

“Work diligently on the most important thing for your allotted hours and then go home. Any questions about priorities, resourcing, etc, come to me and I will make a decision and find you something you *can* make progress with.
I am aware that we have additional needs and am pulling together a proposal for senior management, so any low hanging fruit you think I might not know about, pop over this week and talk me through it”.

AND THEN DO IT and let any management griping stop with you…

But whether that actually works anywhere outside a few perfect employers is up for debate.

Implementation of a no-blame culture through an approach to actual tasks is the way forward for me.

I don't want to go to GoApe at the weekend, as I've been forced to do previously.

I do want to be able to sit down as a group to share, fix and learn from all the sticky things with the job. This would lower stress, give a sense of achievement and job satisfaction. Doing these things as a team is "team building".

Doing this is, as I like to call it....

"Management"

We had a coffee and cake zoom staff gathering during the working day but at a time that would be considered a break. I did not attend because I had plenty to do, internet is flaky and 60folk on zoom sounds hellish, also I was not in the best of fettles and reckoned I could take back a little of that time for a flyer.
Was later asked why I didn't show up for the voluntary event. Yeah, that right there, that's why not.

Ideas for team building at work

Lots of A4 photocopies of the mugshots of any managers who are of a higher level than is being invited on the day.

A few dartboards and darts, some cheap watermelons and some BB guns.

A barbecue.

A crate of beer and a free taxi home for everyone.

Not practical in the current climate, obviously, but might be worth waiting for.

Yeah forget team building/treat type stuff for now most people hate that sort of thing (not free donuts but having to spend time with work colleagues on your own time doing something you wouldn't choose to do...) and it's just papering over the cracks.

You need to find out the causes of the team being over-worked, stressed and disengaged and, as others have said, start dealing with them. Problem is unless the department has a high staff turnover rate or is impacting the bottom line then senior managers might not care enough to help solve some of the issues.

Also gratitude and recognition go a hell of a long way and there's not much else that gives as good a bang for the buck in terms of motivation. Sure it won't fix people having to work to impossible deadlines or being expected to get 50 hours of work done in a 40 hour week but realising that their efforts are noticed and appreciated helps (at least short term until you can start addressing the actual underlying issues...)

All team building must be in work time. This may come as a surprise to learn, but most discussions about the real issues at work are not in work time. Nor are they normally done in the presence of management. If you want honest discussions, change the scenery, don't sit in a room.