Why Team Bonding Activities are Important

All successful teams have the right balance of people who are prepared to work for the common good of the team, showing respect for each other. When you are building a new team, one of the first steps needed is to get the individual members of the team to bond into a cohesive unit. It is important to generate an easy going friendly atmosphere. You have to try to create an atmosphere where all ideas are respected and conversation is open to all suggestions. This is easier if team members can relate to each other as people rather than simply as colleagues. This can only be done if they spend time outside of the usual environment where they work together.

Team bonding activities are a way of allowing the team members to spend time together to get to know each other. As people get to know one another better, they will relax and start to feel at ease with the team. This will allow a sense of loyalty and cohesion to develop.

What Form Should Team Bonding Activities Take?

Traditionally, team bonding activities were seen as going on a team building session where the team had to endure some arduous activity that most hated. There are truly limits to taking people out of their comfort zone!

“What works well for team bonding activities are those activities that happen away from the normal workplace and where the team get to have a shared learning experience.”

When planning team bonding activities, you have to know the physical abilities of the team, as well as their tastes and preferences for different activities and pastimes. Team weekends and corporate retreats are a good way of facilitating team bonding. A corporate retreat should not be considered to be a vacation. Although you can provide the incentive of time on a golf course, maybe skiing in the mountains or being somewhere exotic, staff should be made aware that they are there for a specific purpose.

Whichever form of corporate retreat you decide to undertake, ensure that you communicate a clear and defined purpose or goal.

Provide the Right Environment for Creativity

Ideas for Team Bonding Activities

Learn a new sporting activity

Learning a new sport is a good way to get your team to bond. Some people may not have done the sport before, whilst others will have a varying degree of expertise. Encourage those with skills to teach the beginners. Buddy up beginners together so that they learn together. This will foster a strong bond through the shared experience and most likely having a laugh together. It is important that everyone respects the skills that others do and don’t have. Avoid ridicule. You want to foster a supportive environment.

Team Cooking

Food is always a good idea when getting a team to bond. Most cities have somewhere to go for group cooking sessions. You can find some that specifically cater for team events and parties. Your team can work together to cook up something wonderful, or compete in smaller groups to encourage that competitive spirit.
For teenagers and students, you can organise a restaurant fund raising evening where the youth plan, prepare, cook and serve a three course meal to paying guests. I have run several of these and they are always successful at getting the team to bond, as long as there is some oversight to keep the team on track. Any squabbles should be dealt with quickly and solutions found.

Sailing

One of the best team building activities is yacht sailing. A team of 8-10 on board a 40 foot sailing yacht have to learn to work together simply to get the boat moving, so not only is it obvious when the team is pulling together but it is a brilliant, fun day out!

Your team will have to listen to the skipper’s instructions to understand their role in the bigger picture, they need to perform their own role but simultaneously communicate clearly with their team mates. As the yacht gains speed, the wind-noise makes conversation harder, so clear communication is key – using words that sound different and avoiding instructions which could be mis-interpreted (such as “Go!” and “No!”).

Team Bonding Games

Team bonding games are another way to get a team to gel. Games that often work well are those that everyone can do but has a more level playing field. Instead of soccer, you can play crab football. Crab football is played just like soccer, but all players have to be on their hands and feet facing upwards at all times. This makes it much more fun and a good for team bonding.

Blanket volleyball is another good team bonding game. Use a large tarp or blanket for the net so that the teams cannot see the other side. This makes it a bit more surprising every time the ball comes over the net.

Other team games such as chariot races where all team members have to work together to achieve a goal are good. Games such as capture the flag don’t always work because it allows some people to drop out or not participate.

More Ways to Develop Team Bonding

For more good ideas for team bonding activities, read the full team building activities list.

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Outdoor Team Building Activities Ideas

This is just a brief introduction to outdoor team building.  For a complete guide, I have set up a website dedicated to team building. You can find over 100 ideas for outdoor team building activities and free guides for team building activities for kids, teens and adults.

The most popular team building activities tend to focus around team coordination, trust, leadership, communication and team bonding.

Use the resource list below for more specific ideas for outdoor team building activities:

• Ice Breaker Games
• Quick Team Building Activities
• Team Building Activities for Kids
• Team Building Activities for Teens
• Team Building Activities for Adults
• Leadership Skills
• Problem Solving Activities
• Physical Team Building Activities
• Team Bonding Activities
• 40 Popular Outdoor Team Building Activities
• Corporate Events
• Corporate Retreats
• Team Building for Sports Teams
• Military Team Building

What are Outdoor Team Building Activities?

Outdoor team building activities and games are designed to create a challenge that enables you to show how you work in a team. You can discover whether you are more comfortable as a team leader or as a team player.  Doing team building activities outdoor enables everyone t get away from the normal work or educational environment and discover more aobut themselves on neutral ground.

Taking part in outdoor team building activities and working as part of a team helps you to develop personal skills, leadership skills, team skills, communication skills and problem solving skills.

Part of the team building challenge is to actually get on and work out how to solve the problem given to you. In the early stages, it helps to encourage all members of your team to come up with ideas on how to solve the task given to you. If you pay attention and listen to what they say, you will be able to work out what strengths each member of the team has.

Why Bother With Team Building Activities?

Life is full of challenges, and one the biggest challenges is to work with others in society. To get the best from your working life, you will need to work out how to work in a team. So, when those team building activities are thrown at you, rise to the challenge and show them what you’ve got.

How to Run Successful Team Building Activities and Games

Define the Purpose of the Team Building Activities

The team building challenge should have a clearly defined goal to strive for. To be worth doing, the goal should be challenging but achievable. If the goal seems too impossible, it stops being challenging and becomes demoralising.

Team building activities should be relevant to the team.

Motivation

There needs to be some motivation for undertaking the challenge. Give the teams a reward, prize, the thrill of doing it (fun stuff and adventure), or the satisfaction from achievement and winning.

Fun

Fun should be a primary factor in all team building activities for teens and adults. These free fun team building ideas are proven to develop teamwork. Some team building courses focus on taking people out of their comfort zone to see how they perform under stress. They end up alienating people who then disengage from the team building process.

A lot of people need an incentive or motivation to participate in a team building game. Some are shy, or just not outdoors people. Not everyone enjoys physical exercise, especially if it exposes your weaknesses.

Work to Your Strengths

These team building activities for teens will help teens to identify their strengths and also how they can improve. If there are problems in the team, then the team should be mentored to demonstrate how things could be done. Rather than point out mistakes and weaknesses, advice and guidance should be given. This should be done positively, and help to show how things should be done and how it is achievable by working as a team.

Outdoor Team Building Activities Ideas

Team Building Ice Breakers

The aim of ice breakers is to enable team members to get to know each other better. Sometimes you may go away on team building days or team building weekends where you have never met anyone in your team before. This can be a bit daunting. Fear not, there is a simple way to do it.

As you talk, you may pick up on skills that they have that will help in your team building activities. Can they tie knots? Are they good at swimming? Can they do first aid? Are they fit? Are they clever?

Read the full list of Ice Breaker Games.

Team Building Activities Ideas

• Human pyramids – How high can you build a human pyramid or tower?
• Egg Toss – How far can you throw a raw egg to a partner who successfully catches it?
• Obstacle courses – Create an assault course or obstacle course and get the teams to race over it. Get them to carry a bucket of water adds to the fun.
• Toxic Area Canister Retrieval – This is one of the most popular team building activities. With equipment provided, rescue a container from a taped off area. Rather than moving toxic waste, I prefer to fill the container with a reward such as sweets, or even dinner that has to be cooked over an open fire.
• Bucket Swimming relay – Get the team to do a swimming relay collecting things from the other end of the pool wearing a bucket on their head, which is actually a real challenge to swim with as it fills up and slows you down.
• Blanket Volleyball – Set up a volleyball court using blankets or large tarps for the net. The teams on either side cannot tell where the ball is coming from, so have to work together to win.
• Crate Stacking – You need proper climbing gear for this one. Rig a safety line and pulley high above the place where you will be stacking your crates. The stacker has to stack the crates into a tower as tall as they can, whilst balancing on the top.
• Bucket on a rope water obstacle course – Get a very long piece of rope or string and weave it across a series of obstacles. Up trees, through bushes, across mud, over walls. Then, feed one end of the string through the handle of a bucket that is full of water. The team then has to get the bucket of water to the other end of the piece of string without spilling any water.
• Firemans relays – Each team has to form a relay chain to get all of the water from one big barrel across an obstacle course and into another barrel at the other end. The race is timed of course.
• Target Practice – Use any projectile to hit a target. Water, paint or flour bombs are the best. The team has to build their contraption for launching their ammo. See which team can fire it the furthest, or get closest to a target.
• Chariot racing – The team builds a chariot and then races across a course.
• Sedan Chair Racing – Sedan chair racing is the same principle as the chariot race, but the team have to carry the sedan chair off the ground with their rider sitting on it.
• Orienteering – The team has to work together to navigate a course finding markers along the way. They have to keep together. The fastest team wins.
• Go Karting – The team can make go karts, or just go somewhere and race proper go karts. They work as a team to see who is fastest.  For a bit more of a rush, try grass karting.
• Geocaching – Using a GPS, you can find hidden caches all over the world using the geocaching.com website. A hitech treasure hunt.
• Scavenger Hunts and Treasure Hunts – Give your teams a list of scavenger hunt items or tasks they have to complete in the time given. To make your teens think, make the description of the items cryptic. A picture of Thomas Jefferson ($5 bill), or a portrait of the Queen (a stamp or money). If completing tasks such as visiting places, they can take a picture to prove they were there.
• Sailing – One way to get the team to work together is to send them on a sailing day. The skipper will teach them how to work as a crew, and they will not only learn how to work together, but also learn a new skill.
• Drops – Drops are where you drop off the team of teenagers somewhere. They then have to work out how to get to a given location in a time limit.  There are plenty of other games you can play using OS Maps.
  You can make it easier by getting them to travel to a tall building that they can see from the start point. Or you could make it harder by blindfolding them when taking them to the start, so that they don’t know where they are.
• Soap Box Cart Gravity Racing – Use a wooden soap box crate, stick some pram wheels on and race them down hills.
• Now Get Out Of That Challenges – Now Get Out of That was a UK TV programme where teams had to navigate to a given location. There they would be given a puzzle or challenge to solve. Successful completion would give the teams the clue to the next location. The outdoor team building activities included river crossings and working out how to boil some water using only a sheet of paper and a candle.
• Swamp Crossing – Create a swamp, and then the teams have to cross it without touching the ground. They can be provided with a variety of useful and unhelpful equipment. Planks and bricks are commonly used. You can also get the teams to make a bridge.
• The Great Egg Race – Invention to solve a problem such as build a device to carry an egg the furthest over a course, or a rocket/parachute that can bring an egg back safely to earth.
• Monopoly Runs – Monopoly Runs are a race around a virtual Monopoly board. This is easy if you are in London. The team has to visit all of the places named on the Monopoly board as quickly as possible. If you aren’t in London, you can create your own board with place names of where you are.
• Balance on a brick – How many people can balance on a brick at once? You can use any surface to hand, such as a milk crate. Or how many can you get in a phone box or in a car.
• Blindfold tent pitching – This is straightforward, but is prone to lots of cheating and peeking.
• Blindfold instructions – This trust building game involves a member of the team being blindfolded and guided by voice around an obstacle course. If more than one team goes at once, this adds lots of confusion as the people who are blindfolded are not sure if the instructions are for them or not.
• Construction – Get the team to build something. Anything.
• Lego structure copy – Make a Lego structure out of different coloured bricks and place it in the next room. Each team is given a set of bricks to build an exact copy of the Lego structure.
• Follow the plans – Give each team a set of plans that tell them how to do or build something. What you don’t tell them is that you have not given them a full set of instructions. Take one page from each set of instructions and put it into the instruction for another team.
• Be dramatic – If you live in NYC or San Francisco, there are some great theatre improvisation sessions that you can go to. The team building sessions get everyone working together, having fun, and even performing some comedy.
• Human Marble Run – Give each member of the team a length of gutter or drainpipe. The team has to convey a tennis ball or golf ball from one place to another by rolling the ball from one piece of gutter to the next.
• Learn a new sport – Sharing the learning experience is a great way to get a team to bond.
• Chocolate making  or cooking– Make a giant bar of chocolate
• The Search Party – Practice carrying out a search party. You could even get the real emergency services involved for the practice and education.
• Raft Building – Give them lots of poles, ropes and large barrels to lash together to form a raft. Then have a race or get them to cross a river.
• Egg Tower Construction – Yes it’s the “build a tower using drinking straws and tape to support an egg.” No need to say any more.
• The levitating Stick or Helium Stick – This team building activity involves the team getting into two rows facing each other. Everyone holds out their index finger and you place a lightweight cane or stick so that it rests on everyone’s fingers. The team then have to lower the stick to the ground whilst keeping their fingers in contact with the stick. What happens is that someone will usually apply more pressure on the stick and it will go up a bit. Someone else realises that their finger is not longer touching the stick so they raise their finger. The stick then ends up magically levitating up into the air as everyone lifts their fingers.
  It takes coordination to get the stick to the ground.
• Bridge Building and other river crossings – Create a virtual river using two long pieces of rope. Give the teams equipment to make a bridge. If you are feeling adventurous, do it over a real stream or river.
• The Wall – Find an assault course that has a ten foot wall in it. The team has to get everyone over the wall.
• Water Barrel Swap – Tie a pulley to a tree branch and pass a rope through it. Tie a barrel to each end of the rope. Fill one barrel with water. Then fence off an area around the barrels. The challenge is to swap positions of the barrels without anyone touching the floor inside the fenced off area, or touch the barrels.
• Human Knot – Everyone crowds together and randomly holds someone else’s hands. They then have to unravel themselves without letting go.
• Circle Lap Sit – Get everyone into a circle. Everyone then turns to face the person to their left. They all then sit on the lap of the person behind. If done at the same time, everyone ends up sitting on a lap self supporting. If not, people fall on the floor.
• Parachute Games – Take one large parachute and play team building games with it.  A brilliant bit of kit for teamwork is the Artoflifer Hole Tarp.  This is a tarp with colored holes of different sizes that the team has to hold to direct different sized balls down the correct holes.  Really challenging but excellent for team building outdoors and indoors.
• Location Hunt from Photo – Give the teams a set of photos of places in the area. They then have to go to those places and prove they were there.
• Dragon Boat Racing – Get the team working together to paddle a dragon boat in a race. Rowing is another idea.
• Canoe catamaran trust – Using two canoes, balance beams between them and the team leader sits on the beam. Teams then canoe a course around the lake
• Canal Lock Navigation – Guide a canal boat through a lock
• Technology Transmissions – Get the teams to use technology to solve a puzzle or challenge.
• Group plank skiing – You need two planks with loops of rope attached to them. The team stands with a foot on each plank holding the rope. They then have to walk the plank skis to the end of the room or field.
• White water Rafting – Send your teens white water rafting. They need to listen to the instructor and work together to paddle in the right direction.
• Paintball – Paintball can be a great way to get teams to work together. They will need to formulate plans, adapt them during the game, and work together to win.
• Water Fights – Using water fights as a team building activity gives you plenty of scope to adapt to your environment. You can use rivers, lakes, boats, or just two large barrels of water at each end of a field for them to refill from.
• Wide Games – Games played over a wide area, usually at night. The most popular is capture the flag.
• Balance Board – Balance a ball on a large sheet of hardboard. As a team carry it around a course without the ball falling off. A bit like egg and spoon races.

This outdoor team building activities list is an ever growing free resource, so bookmark this page for when you need ideas for more team building.

Read my Team Building Activities page for a complete guide to team building for all ages, business, education and military.

The post Outdoor Team Building Activities appeared first on Active Outdoors.

As I come across more team building activities for teens, I will add and update this post so that you get the best ideas for your team building exercises.
You will find out:

1. The best approach for delivering team building activities for teens
2. How to keep teens engaged during team building activities
3. Safety Considerations
4. Types of Team Building Activities
5. 53 team building activities for teens

This step by step guide on how to run more than 50 fun team building activities for teens makes your job easy. The free printable worksheets show how to avoid disasters and keep things on track, with instructions, rules, equipment, aims and outcomes. The team building exercises go way beyond just the usual obstacle course ideas, swamp crossing, water bucket and rope pulley swap, and the favourite toxic waste canister.

Types of Team Building Activities

There are a few different types of team building activities that you can use to develop teamwork for teenagers.

• Problem solving,
• physical challenges,
• Team Bonding Activities,
• Military team building activities

There are also the good old team building games that everyone loves to do time and time again.
There are plenty of more specific team building activities guides for teens including the popular team building activities for teenage athletes.

If you are planning your team building activities for outdoors or summer camps, I’ve compiled 40 of my best outdoor team building activities in one post for you.

The real benefit of teen team building activities is providing youth with those essential life skills of problem solving, working as a team, understanding others, and youth leadership. These character building activities need to be run in just the right way to elicit the very best from each teenager.

The Best Approach for Team Building Activities for Teens

If anyone tells a teenager to go and do some task, often the response is “No” or “Why?” However, if you present the task as a challenge you are pretty much guaranteed a positive response.

The second key factor is to ensure that every teenager can clearly see what they will get out of the team building activities. If you sell it purely on improving their teamwork or youth leadership skills, then you aren’t going to win their attention. Present it as fun, provide some reward for succeeding, or even give them the opportunity to feel that they have achieved something.

The aim of a team building activity is that there is some goal that is worth the effort to attain, but it should be achievable. If your group of teenagers perceive the team building activities to be impossible, they won’t even bother and will be completely demoralised.

You have to make the challenge attractive. Rather than ask if they can get a bucket of water from one end of a field to the other, ask if they can do it faster than another team whilst negotiating an obstacle course. Teenagers will definitely be up for that.

Teenagers are at a stage in their lives when they are trying to work out who they are and where they fit into society. The effectiveness of outdoor team building activities for difficult youth is proven, as long as those organising it are encouraging and supportive. Help them to rise to the challenge, giving them support and encouragement to develop as they discover their true potential.

Safety

As with any team building activities, make sure that you take care that all of the teenagers are safe during the challenges you set. The spirit of competitiveness may cause some teens to over stretch themselves and do something too adventurous just to win. Clearly state to the youth group what the rules are and make sure that they stick to them. You will always get those who innovate, cheat or break the rules just to beat the opposition.

The List of Team Building Activities

This list is not the usual boring team building games for teens that you will find all over the internet. You won’t find “lining up in birthday order” here!

Whether you want It’s a Knockout type games or Crystal Maze activities, these outdoor physical team building activities are for teens to really get to develop what they’re made of.

1. 1. Human pyramids

      Teenagers seem to love the physical element of this is they are good friends. How high can you build a human pyramid or tower?

   2. Run Mats

      

      Run mats makes a great team building activity. The team stand inside the fabric loop and have to move forward together as a team. The sturdy material works well inside or outdoors. This has been field tested by over 500 students in a single day without any snagging, tearing, or complications. You will probably want to buy three run mats to race teams in relays. An absolute hit with teachers and students!

   3. Obstacle courses

      Create an assault course or obstacle course and get the teams to race over it.

   4. Bucket Swimming relay

      Get the team to do a swimming relay collecting things from the other end of the pool. Include a bucket, which is actually a real challenge to swim with as it fills up and slows you down.

   5. Blanket Volleyball

      Basically, you set up a volleyball court using blankets or large tarps for the net. The teams on either side cannot tell where the ball is coming from, so have to work together to win.

      You can play this team building game standing up or sitting down on the floor, depending on how high you can make the net.

   6. Crate Stacking

      You need proper climbing gear for crate stacking. Rig a safety line and pulley high above the place where you will be stacking your crates. The stacker has to stack the crates into a tower as tall as they can, whilst balancing on the top. They need to wear a climbing harness, and helmet, with someone belaying them from the ground.

      The team have to pass the crates up to the stacker. Takes guts and teamwork.

   7. Bucket on a rope water obstacle course

      Another teen favourite. Get a very long piece of rope or string and weave it across a series of obstacles. Up trees, through bushes, across mud, over walls. Then, feed one end of the string through the handle of a bucket that is full of water. The team then has to get the bucket of water to the other end of the piece of string without spilling any water. Good teamwork is needed to pass the bucket up and over high obstacles.

   8. Capture the Flag

      
      
      
      Capture the Flag as a team building game for teens is one of the easiest to run. Plus it will wear out the energetic ones whilst those who don’t feel up to running around can adopt different roles within the game.
      Capture the flag involves placing two flags at a distance from each other within a defined play area. Each team starts from their game base where their flag is and try to capture the flag from their opponents and return it to their base. The first team to get the enemy flag to their base wins, regardless of whether they still have their own flag. Very quick and easy to setup. Even more fun at night.

   9. Firemans relays

      Each team has to form a relay chain to get all of the water from one big barrel across an obstacle course and into another barrel at the other end. The race is timed of course.

   10. Chariot racing

       The team builds a chariot and then races across a course. The course can be as long as you like. I have raced cross country over several miles before.

       The chariot can have wheels, or be dragged like a wooden frame.

       

   11. Sedan Chair Racing

       Sedan chair racing is the same principle as the chariot race, but the team have to carry the sedan chair off the ground with their rider sitting on it. A lot more tiring.

   12. Orienteering

       The team has to work together to navigate a course finding markers along the way. They have to keep together. The fastest team wins.

   13. Go Karting

       The team can make go karts, or just go somewhere and race proper go karts. They work as a team to see who is fastest.

   14. Geocaching

       Using a GPS, you can find hidden caches all over the world using the geocaching.com website. A hitech treasure hunt.

   15. Sailing

       One way to get the team to work together is to send them on a sailing day. The skipper will teach them how to work as a crew, and they will not only learn how to work together, but also learn a new skill.

   16. Drops

       Drops are where you drop off the team of teenagers somewhere. They then have to work out how to get to a given location in a time limit.

       You can make it easier by getting them to travel to a tall building that they can see from the start point. Or you could make it harder by blindfolding them when taking them to the start, so that they don’t know where they are.

   17. Soap Box Cart Gravity Racing

       A soap box cart originates from the good old days when kids used to get a wooden soap box crate, stick some pram wheels on and race them down hills. Get you teams to design and build their soap box carts and race them down a hill.

   18. Get the Canister from Toxic Area

       This is a popular team building challenge. Set up a can inside a taped off area. Give the team some equipment to retrieve the can without touching the ground inside the area. One variation I have done is to attach an ammo box up a tall tree containing supper for the team. They have to use climbing gear to climb up the tree, retrieve the box and return without dropping it inside the area. Inside the box can be anything you want that they can cook over an open fire. We had two chickens in ours. We plucked and prepared them while others in the team made the fire. Lovely.

       If you aren’t that adventurous, you can just put sweets in the can.

   19. Now Get Out Of That Challenges

       Now Get Out of That was a UK TV programme where teams had to navigate to a given location. There they would be given a puzzle or challenge to solve. Successful completion would give the teams the clue to the next location.

       The team challenges included river crossings and getting a cassette recorder to work when the power wires were too short (use the earth lead to extend the others). The sort of tasks teens will love are things like working out how to boil some water using only a sheet of paper and a candle. They have to fold up the paper to make a container. The water soaks into the paper a bit, but this is countered by the flame. It doesn’t burn the paper if they are careful.

   20. The Great Egg Race – Invention to solve a problem

       Give the teams a problem where they have to build something to solve it. It could be a device to carry an egg the furthest over a course, or a rocket/parachute that can bring an egg back safely to earth.

   21. Scavenger Hunts and Treasure Hunts

       Give your teams a list of items or tasks they have to complete in the time given. To make your teens think, make the description of the items cryptic. A picture of Thomas Jefferson ($5 bill), or a portrait of the Queen (a stamp or money).

       If completing tasks such as visiting places, they can take a picture to prove they were there.

   22. Monopoly Runs

       Monopoly Runs are a race around a virtual Monopoly board. This is easy if you are in London. The team has to visit all of the places named on the Monopoly board as quickly as possible.

       If you aren’t in London, you can create your own board with place names of where you are.

   23. Balance on a brick

       How many people can balance on a brick at once? You can use any surface to hand, such as a milk crate. Or how many teens can you get in a phone box or in a car.

   24. Blindfold tent pitching

       This is straightforward, but is prone to lots of cheating and peeking.

   25. Blindfold instructions

       This trust building game involves a member of the team being blindfolded and guided by voice around an obstacle course. If more than one team goes at once, this adds lots of confusion as the people who are blindfolded are not sure if the instructions are for them or not.

   26. Construction

       Get the team to build something. Anything. Just the act of cooperative work improves their team work. This is a great way to support troubled teens, as they will often work well when given physical tasks where they can see the results of their labour. Community projects may be ideal.

   27. Lego structure copy

       Make a Lego structure out of different coloured bricks and place it in the next room. Each team is given a set of bricks to build an exact copy of the Lego structure. The rules are that only one person from each team is allowed to go and have a look at the structure. When they come back to their team, they cannot touch the bricks, but they can tell the others how to build their copy. Anybody from the team can go and have a look, but only one at a time. Once another person comes back from having a look, the previous person can then touch their bricks to help build.

       What you don’t tell the teams is that you have swapped one brick from each of their supplies with another team. This means that they cannot complete their copy unless they get the correct brick from another team. Of course, the other teams will not be willing to give away their bricks until they know which ones they have spare. Negotiation comes into play.

       One amazing thing I once saw was when I did this team building activity with ten teams. Some of the teams grouped together and all worked on completing one model. They could then copy the model within the room as they had a copy in front of them. All I had said is that there was a prize for every team that completes their copy of the model. It is not a race, but most teams usually want to be first and don’t help the greater group.

   28. Swamp Crossing

       Create a swamp, and then the teams have to cross it without going in it. They can be provided with a variety of useful and unhelpful equipment. Planks and bricks are commonly used. You can also get the teams to make a bridge.

   29. Follow the plans

       Give each team a set of plans that tell them how to do or build something. A prize is given for every team that completes the task in the time limit.

       What you don’t tell them is that you have not given them a full set of instructions. Take one page from each set of instructions and put it into the instruction for another team. So team A may have pages 1, 2, 4 and 5; Team B may have pages 1, 2, 3 and 5. The teams will need to work this out to finish the task. Sometimes they will improvise and work out what the missing instructions might be.

   30. Be dramatic

       If you live in NYC or San Francisco, there are some great theatre improvisation sessions that you can go to. The team building sessions get everyone working together, having fun, and even performing some comedy. A great laugh.

       If you are not so fortunate, give the teams a silly phrase on a piece of paper. The teams then have to create a short play that includes that sentence. The other teams in the audience have to guess what the sentence was.

   31. Human Marble Run

       Give each teenager in the team a length of gutter or drainpipe. The team has to convey a tennis ball or golf ball from one place to another by rolling the ball from one piece of gutter to the next. Make it interesting by making the team get the ball to traverse an obstacle course or to go up and down stairs. Not as easy as it sounds.

1. Learn a new sport

   Just have a look at the full outdoor activities list to discover a new sport they all might like to try. Sharing the learning experience is a great way to get teens to bond.

2. Chocolate making

   Make a giant bar of chocolate

3. The Search Party

   This team building activity is a great way for teens to learn and understand what is involved with organising a search party. You could even get the real emergency services involved for the practice and education.

   Two people are to act as the missing persons and wait at a known location in the woods. Everyone else is given a rough location of where they might be and they then have to form a search party to find them. To make it harder, you can have the rule that the missing people do not answer to any rescuers’ calls. Or do it at night. You will need to have a clear signal that the missing people must respond to in case the rescuers cannot find them.

4. Raft Building

    

   

   A favourite amongst teens for team building. Give them lots of poles, ropes and large barrels to lash together to form a raft. Then have a race or get them to cross a river.

5. Egg Tower Construction

   Yes it’s the “build a tower using drinking straws and tape to support an egg.” No need to say any more.

6. Target Practice

   Use any projectile to hit a target. Water, paint or flour bombs are the best. The team has to build their contraption for launching their ammo. See which team can fire it the furthest, or get closest to a target. You can also have a battle firing at each other. Eye protection is advised. Get building those trebuchets, catapults, water bombs slings and ballistas.

7. The levitating Stick

   This team building activity involves the team getting into two rows facing each other. Everyone holds out their index finger and you place a lightweight cane or stick so that it rests on everyone’s fingers. The team then have to lower the stick to the ground whilst keeping their fingers in contact with the stick.

   What happens is that someone will usually apply more pressure on the stick and it will go up a bit. Someone else realises that their finger is not longer touching the stick so they raise their finger. The stick then ends up magically levitating up into the air as everyone lifts their fingers.

   It takes coordination to get the stick to the ground.

8. Bridge Building and other river crossings

   Create a virtual river using two long pieces of rope. Give the teams equipment to make a bridge. If you are feeling adventurous, do it over a real stream or river.

9. The Wall

   Find an assault course that has a ten foot wall in it. The team has to get everyone over the wall. It takes planning, as the strongest person who can lift the other up onto the wall may not be the best person that everyone else has to then pull up the wall.

10. Electric Fence

    This is one of the most popular trust building activities for youth groups. Set up a fence made of rope with large squares. This can either be ready made or you can use several pieces of rope to make a spider’s web sort of arrangement. The team then have to get every teen through the electric fence without touching the ropes. Lots of trust required.

    

11. Water Barrel Swap

    Tie a pulley to a tree branch and pass a rope through it. Tie a barrel to each end of the rope. Fill one barrel with water. Then fence off an area around the barrels. The challenge is to swap positions of the barrels without anyone touching the floor inside the fenced off area, or touch the barrels.

12. Human Knot

    Everyone crowds together and randomly holds someone else’s hands. They then have to unravel themselves without letting go.

13. Circle Lap Sit

    Get everyone into a circle. Everyone then turns to face the person to their left. They all then sit on the lap of the person behind. If done at the same time, everyone ends up sitting on a lap self supporting. If not, people fall on the floor.

14. Parachute Games

    Take one large parachute and play team building games with it. There are some great parachute games books on Amazon.

15. Location Hunt from Photo

    Give the teams a set of photos of places in the area. They then have to go to those places and prove they were there. The photos can be obvious or obscure, depending on the skills of your teens.

16. Dragon Boat Racing

    Get the team working together to paddle a dragon boat in a race. Rowing is another idea.

17. Canoe catamaran trust

    Using two canoes, balance beams between them and the team leader sits on the beam. Teams then canoe a course around the lake

18. Canal Lock Navigation

    Guide a canal boat through a lock

19. Technology Transmissions

    Get the teams to use technology to solve a puzzle or challenge.

20. Group plank skiing

    You need two planks with loops of rope attached to them. The team stands with a foot on each plank holding the rope. They then have to walk the plank skis to the end of the room or field. This requires coordination and teamwork to lift the plank.

21. White water Rafting

    Send your teens white water rafting. They need to listen to the instructor and work together to paddle in the right direction.

22. Paintball

    Paintball can be a great way to get teams to work together. They will need to formulate plans, adapt them during the game, and work together to win. If you don’t give any guidance, it will often end up as a general free for all.

23. Water Fights

    Using water fights as a team building activity for teens gives you plenty of scope to adapt to your environment. You can use rivers, lakes, boats, or just two large barrels of water at each end of a field for them to refill from. Allow a free for all, or work out a points system for achieving some goal such as capturing a flag.

24. Wide Games

    
    Capture the Flag on Amazon

    Wide games are team games played over a large area, usually at night. The most common wide game is Capture the Flag. One team of teens defends a base, whilst the other has to enter and retrieve an object such as a flag and return it to their base. I have a powerful rotating beacon connected to a car battery and fire alarm switch. The switch is held open by a block of wood. The players have to get into the camp and remove the block of wood which turns on the beacon. That way it is obvious when the game is over.

Need More Team Building Activities?

If these team building activities don’t meet your needs, you can find many more ideas in the full team building activities list containing worksheets for all of the team building activities to make it easy for you.
If you want to help teenagers to get to know each other better, try these team bonding activities.

The post Team Building Activities for Teens appeared first on Active Outdoors.

Physical team building activities are great for all ages, and enable team members to gain immediate feedback on how well they are doing. Physical team building activities are defined as any team building exercise that involves physical effort from the participants. It could involve building something big, carrying a casualty on a stretcher, or orienteering.

I have broken this guide to physical team building activities down into four sections:

• What works well
• Team Bonding
• Physical Challenges
• Military Team Building Activities

Be VERY aware of your team’s physical abilities

Before planning any physical team building activity, you must carefully consider the opinions and abilities of your team. It is all too easy to dictate that everyone is going on a 20 mile hike across wild country carrying heavy packs in challenging weather conditions. The end result will be to completely alienate and defeat quite a few members of the team. This is disastrous for your efforts to bring the team closer together. Adversity does not necessarily work.

There will be times when adventurous activities create the right conditions to bring team members closer together by sharing experiences, learning together and supporting each other.

You need to know the characters within your team before you embark on anything too strenuous.

Ideas for physical “shared experiences” team building activities

To get your creative juices going, here are a few ideas for physical activities that can be used as a day away from your normal environment where team members can share new experiences together.

Ropes Courses

High ropes courses provide your team with some physical challenges where they have to get across various obstacles high up in the trees. You used to only be able to find ropes courses at outdoor activity centres, but Go Ape has set up lots of ropes courses all over the UK and US.

Go Ape ropes courses involve rope swings, challenging crossings up in the trees, and great zip wires at the end of each section. You can also go Segway trekking, Zip Trekking (lots of zip wires one after the other), and mountain biking.

You will have a dedicated host who will build a day that suits your team and budget. You get exclusive use of a forest shelter, food and drink, and conferencing facilities if you need them.

The Go Ape treetop adventure lasts between 2 and 3 hours. It is suitable for all, so everyone will be able to do it. At some points there are different routes, so the more adventurous can take the extreme routes. You wear safety harnesses at all times, and get a full briefing on how it all works.

Play in the Snow All Year Round at an Indoor Ski Centre

You don’t have to travel to the Alps to take your team skiing. You can take in the alpine experience at snow centres across the country. You can learn how to ski, snowboard, and have fun doughnutting in big inflatable rings or sledges.

Whitewater Rafting

You can experience the thrills of white water rafting at locations such as the London Olympic competition course at Lee Valley just outside London. Your corporate team building day would consist of tackling 300m of fast and furious white water, obstacles and drops in a big inflatable raft.

Your team will have a qualified rafting guide steering and telling you exactly what to do. You get to learn how to control the raft under a variety of conditions, and get to rush down the rapids, surf the waves, and even pull huge wheelies when everyone sits at the back of the raft.

This is a fabulous outdoor team building day. The team building day I took part in was at Nottingham Water Sports Centre. There is the risk of capsizing the raft, which happened once to us, but all you do is lie on your back and float down river. Before you know it, the raft guide has got the raft upright and someone is pulling you back in.

If you are in the US, there are lots of rivers where you can go white water rafting, such as the Colorado River.

Paintball Team Days

Paint is a strategy game played by running around in the woods firing paint pellets at each other. This is not everyone’s cup of tea, but a great opportunity to get your own back on those you don’t get on with in the office.

You will need to plan the game strategies and organise a debrief afterwards if you want to actually develop teamwork. Otherwise all of the games risk just being a free for all shoot out where everyone looks after themselves.

Some youth organisations do not allow paintballing, as they prohibit shooting at people. But, if you are a corporate team, it is all system go! One word of caution – paintball pellets can leave some big bruises depending on how close you are when you get hit.

Sailing, Tall Ships or Yacht Charters

Sailing is a really good way to develop team work. Charter a sailing yacht with a qualified skipper, and your team will learn how to sail. The skipper will direct you all how to get the yacht to go where you want to. You will get to practice different areas of responsibility. Tasks include steering at the helm, manning a winch or handling a line, supporting and coaching your colleagues, share risk-taking and increase trust.

Adventure Associates in the US specialise in blending adventure activities and interactive experiences with team building. They can plan and host some great work team sailing days.

Assault Courses and Obstacle Course Races

Team building obstacle courses come in many forms. They range from the races at a school sports day, to something big like Total Wipeout on the TV. The military use assault courses to test the ability and endurance of personnel. These have gained notoriety with the public, and consequently events such as the Tough Mudder, Spartan Race and the Dirty Dash have become great events to take part in.

Physical Team Building Challenges

1. Firing Blind

   This is a very effective physical team building activity that requires leadership, coordination, trust and good communication. At one end of your playing field, lay out a large target area, about 3 meters in diameter. At the other end of the field is the fire team. They sit behind a large tarp held upright to block their view of the target. They have a water bomb launcher and a stack of water bombs. Using direction given by their observer who stands on the target side of the tarp, they have to try and get as many water bombs on target as possible.

2. Human pyramids

   How high can you build a human pyramid or tower?

3. Egg Toss

   How far can you throw a raw egg to a partner who successfully catches it?

4. Get the Canister from Toxic Area

   This is a popular team building challenge. Set up a can inside a taped off area. Give the team some equipment to retrieve the can without touching the ground inside the area. One variation I have done is to attach an ammo box up a tall tree containing supper for the team. They have to use climbing gear to climb up the tree, retrieve the box and return without dropping it inside the area. Inside the box can be anything you want that they can cook over an open fire. We had two chickens in ours. We plucked and prepared them while others in the team made the fire. Lovely.

   If you aren’t that adventurous, you can just put sweets in the can.

5. Bucket Swimming relay

   Get the team to do a swimming relay collecting things from the other end of the pool. Include a bucket, which is actually a real challenge to swim with as it fills up and slows you down.

6. Blanket Volleyball

   Basically, you set up a volleyball court using blankets or large tarps for the net. The teams on either side cannot tell where the ball is coming from, so have to work together to win.

   You can play this team building game standing up or sitting down on the floor, depending on how high you can make the net.

7. Crate Stacking

   You need proper climbing gear for crate stacking. Rig a safety line and pulley high above the place where you will be stacking your crates. The stacker has to stack the crates into a tower as tall as they can, whilst balancing on the top. They need to wear a climbing harness, and helmet, with someone belaying them from the ground.

   The team have to pass the crates up to the stacker. Takes guts and teamwork.

8. Bucket on a rope water obstacle course

   Get a very long piece of rope or string and weave it across a series of obstacles. Up trees, through bushes, across mud, over walls. Then, feed one end of the string through the handle of a bucket that is full of water. The team then has to get the bucket of water to the other end of the piece of string without spilling any water. Good teamwork is needed to pass the bucket up and over high obstacles.

9. Firemans relays

   Each team has to form a relay chain to get all of the water from one big barrel across an obstacle course and into another barrel at the other end. The race is timed of course.

10. Chariot racing

    The team builds a chariot and then races across a course. The course can be as long as you like. I have raced cross country over several miles before.

    The chariot can have wheels, or be dragged like a wooden frame.

11. Sedan Chair Racing

    Sedan chair racing is the same principle as the chariot race, but the team have to carry the sedan chair off the ground with their rider sitting on it. A lot more tiring.

12. Orienteering

    The team has to work together to navigate a course finding markers along the way. They have to keep together. The fastest team wins.

13. Geocaching

    Using a GPS, you can find hidden caches all over the world using the geocaching.com website. A hitech treasure hunt.

14. Drops

    Drops are where you drop off the team of teenagers somewhere. They then have to work out how to get to a given location in a time limit.

    You can make it easier by getting them to travel to a tall building that they can see from the start point. Or you could make it harder by blindfolding them when taking them to the start, so that they don’t know where they are.

15. Now Get Out Of That Challenges

    Now Get Out of That was a UK TV programme where teams had to navigate to a given location. There they would be given a puzzle or challenge to solve. Successful completion would give the teams the clue to the next location.

    The team challenges included river crossings and getting a cassette recorder to work when the power wires were too short (use the earth lead to extend the others). The sort of tasks teens will love are things like working out how to boil some water using only a sheet of paper and a candle. They have to fold up the paper to make a container. The water soaks into the paper a bit, but this is countered by the flame. It doesn’t burn the paper if they are careful.

16. Swamp Crossing

    Create a swamp, and then the teams have to cross it without going in it. They can be provided with a variety of useful and unhelpful equipment. Planks and bricks are commonly used. You can also get the teams to make a bridge.

17. Scavenger Hunts and Treasure Hunts

    Give your teams a list of items or tasks they have to complete in the time given. To make your teens think, make the description of the items cryptic. A picture of Thomas Jefferson ($5 bill), or a portrait of the Queen (a stamp or money).

    If completing tasks such as visiting places, they can take a picture to prove they were there.

18. Monopoly Runs

    Monopoly Runs are a race around a virtual Monopoly board. This is easy if you are in London. The team has to visit all of the places named on the Monopoly board as quickly as possible.

    If you aren’t in London, you can create your own board with place names of where you are.

19. Balance on a brick

    How many people can balance on a brick at once? You can use any surface to hand, such as a milk crate. Or how many teens can you get in a phone box or in a car.

20. Learn a new sport

    Just have a look at the full outdoor activities list to discover a new sport they all might like to try. Sharing the learning experience is a great way to get a team to bond.

21. Raft Building

    

    A favourite amongst teens for team building. Give them lots of poles, ropes and large barrels to lash together to form a raft. Then have a race or get them to cross a river.

22. Bridge Building and other river crossings

    Create a virtual river using two long pieces of rope. Give the teams equipment to make a bridge. If you are feeling adventurous, do it over a real stream or river.

23. The Wall

    Find an assault course that has a ten foot wall in it. The team has to get everyone over the wall. It takes planning, as the strongest person who can lift the other up onto the wall may not be the best person that everyone else has to then pull up the wall.

24. Dragon Boat Racing

    Get the team working together to paddle a dragon boat in a race. Rowing is another idea.

25. Canoe catamaran trust

    Using two canoes, balance beams between them and the team leader sits on the beam. Teams then canoe a course around the lake

26. Canal Lock Navigation

    Guide a canal boat through a lock

27. Group plank skiing

    You need two planks with loops of rope attached to them. The team stands with a foot on each plank holding the rope. They then have to walk the plank skis to the end of the room or field. This requires coordination and teamwork to lift the plank.

28. Water Fights

    Using water fights as a team building activity for teens gives you plenty of scope to adapt to your environment. You can use rivers, lakes, boats, or just two large barrels of water at each end of a field for them to refill from. Allow a free for all, or work out a points system for achieving some goal such as capturing a flag.

29. Zombie Combat Experience

    Run around abandoned warehouses or shopping malls fighting for your life against hordes of zombies. This adrenaline-pumping team building experience is not for the faint hearted. Your team of thrill seekers get a detailed mission briefing before receiving a combat training session and being issued with airsoft weapons and ammunition. You then head into battle.

    Your mission is to work with a team of doctors, military personnel and other civilian survivors to defeat the evil zombies and end their reign of terror. Your team has to complete a series of military based tasks to find a cure for the life-threatening zombie infection and ultimately save the human race – just make sure you don’t get left behind!

30. Wide Games

    Wide games are team games played over a large area, usually at night. The most common wide game is capture the flag. One team of teens defends a base, whilst the other has to enter and retrieve an object such as a flag and return it to their base. I have a powerful rotating beacon connected to a car battery and fire alarm switch. The switch is held open by a block of wood. The players have to get into the camp and remove the block of wood which turns on the beacon. That way it is obvious when the game is over.

Military Team Building Activities

It is essential in the military that all personnel work in strong effective teams. Leadership, trust, communication and coordination are critical. If these physical team building activities ideas aren’t enough for you, you’ll love my guide to military team building activities.

The post Physical Team Building Activities appeared first on Active Outdoors.

1. communication,
2. leadership,
3. understanding and respecting individual’s roles,
4. knowing each other’s abilities to predict positions and play,
5. trusting and depending on each other
6. morale and motivation.

I have chosen team building activities for teenage athletes that are not just about playing games, but specifically improve key teamwork skills that boost overall team performance as well as individual skill. as part of an outstanding team.

Team Cooperation

One of the key challenges that coaches face in training teenage athletes for teams is to get the players to work together. In young children, you will always see every child following the ball around a sports pitch all trying to get it themselves. By the time they are teens, they are beginning to learn that by spreading out and passing the ball around they have a better chance of winning.Understanding and sticking to a particular role on the athletics team will also help teens to be better at working together as a team.

Sports Team building games that develop cooperation

Human pyramids

Teenagers seem to love the physical element of this is they are good friends. How high can you build a human pyramid or tower?

Egg Toss

How far can you throw a raw egg to your fellow teen so that they can successfully catch it?

The levitating Stick

This team building activity involves the team getting into two rows facing each other. Everyone holds out their index finger and you place a lightweight cane or stick so that it rests on everyone’s fingers. The team then have to lower the stick to the ground whilst keeping their fingers in contact with the stick.

What happens is that someone will usually apply more pressure on the stick and it will go up a bit. Someone else realises that their finger is not longer touching the stick so they raise their finger. The stick then ends up magically levitating up into the air as everyone lifts their fingers.

It takes coordination to get the stick to the ground.

Trust and Prediction

Getting to know what your team mates will do in a situation is vital to winning and outperforming your opposition. Teen athletes have to be given some special team exercises that encourage them to learn each others strengths, abilities and behaviours. By doing so, teens can then begin to trust one another, and know how thir team mates will respond to situations.

Knowing how other teen athletes perform on the team enables players to pass the ball into space knowing that their team mate can run fast enough to get there and know that they will be expected to find that space.

Teen athlete team building trust exercises

The Wall

Find an assault course that has a ten foot wall in it. The team has to get everyone over the wall. It takes planning, as the strongest person who can lift the other up onto the wall may not be the best person that everyone else has to then pull up the wall.

Electric Fence

This is one of the most popular trust building activities for youth groups. Set up a fence made of rope with large squares. This can either be ready made or you can use several pieces of rope to make a spider’s web sort of arrangement. The team then have to get every teen through the electric fence without touching the ropes. Lots of trust required.

Canoe catamaran trust

Using two canoes, balance beams between them and the team leader sits on the beam. Teams then canoe a course around the lake.

Getting teen athletes to communicate with their team

Teens are very good at keeping their intentions to themselves. Oh yes they post everything on social media, but when it comes to being on the playing field, teachers have to really encourage them to tell each other how to work together during a game or competition.

Shouting out and calling for a ball, or giving directions will help teens to improve. These team building activities give teen athletes the opportunity to try out new skills by improving their communication techniques and understanding just how important to success communication is.

Communication team building activities for teen athletes

Crate Stacking

You need proper climbing gear for crate stacking. Rig a safety line and pulley high above the place where you will be stacking your crates. The stacker has to stack the crates into a tower as tall as they can, whilst balancing on the top. They need to wear a climbing harness, and helmet, with someone belaying them from the ground.

The team have to pass the crates up to the stacker. Takes guts and teamwork.

Sailing

One way to get the team to work together is to send them on a sailing day. The skipper will teach them how to work as a crew, and they will not only learn how to work together, but also learn a new skill.

Get the Canister from Toxic Area

This is a popular team building challenge. Set up a can inside a taped off area. Give the team some equipment to retrieve the can without touching the ground inside the area. One variation I have done is to attach an ammo box up a tall tree containing supper for the team. They have to use climbing gear to climb up the tree, retrieve the box and return without dropping it inside the area. Inside the box can be anything you want that they can cook over an open fire. We had two chickens in ours. We plucked and prepared them while others in the team made the fire. Lovely.

If you aren’t that adventurous, you can just put sweets in the can.

Motivating teen athletes through team building activities

To make it easier to motivate teams to win and concentrate on improving, the hypothesis used to be that teens should learn about what they did wrong when they failed or lost. Research has shown that teams dramatically improve their morale and winning chances by actually focussing on what they did well and expanding on it. Scientists had athletes watch replays of every game where they performed well, and compared their season’s results with teams who tried to learn from their mistakes. The positive focussed teams significantly outperformed their rivals throughout the season.

So, to boost teen athletes morale, you need to run some challenging team building activities for teenage athletes where they are likely to succeed by working together. You will have to show them at first how to succeed, but once they get it, their morale will begin to lift and you can start increasing the level of challenge. You will be quite pleasantly surprised by the positive outcomes from all of the teens. Smiles all round and high fives.

Morale boosting team building activities for teen athletes

Balance on a brick

How many people can balance on a brick at once? You can use any surface to hand, such as a milk crate. Or how many teens can you get in a phone box or in a car.

Target Practice

Use any projectile to hit a target. Water, paint or flour bombs are the best. The team has to build their contraption for launching their ammo. See which team can fire it the furthest, or get closest to a target. You can also have a battle firing at each other. Eye protection is advised. Get building those trebuchets, catapults, water bombs slings and ballistas.

Parachute Games

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Take one large parachute and get your teen athletes to use it to flip a ball as far as they can. Coordination and communication is key. You can also use two parachutes to pass the ball back and forth.  As a coach, observe carefully how the team communicate with each other to coordinate their moves.  Does a leader emerge who encourages and directs  rest of the team?  Does the team develop an intuition to read each other?

Alternatively, you can buy [amazon_textlink asin=’B079DNVKF8′ text=’strength training parachutes’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’activoutdo-21′ marketplace=’UK’ link_id=’19eaa9e2-4d7f-47f3-9f8f-a045be104b37′] for athletes.  These are attached to you by a belt and creates resistance when running.  They are perfect for team building relay games.

More team building activities for teens

Team building activities for teens.

Physical team building activities

Team Bonding Activities

The post Team Building Activities for Teenage Athletes appeared first on Active Outdoors.

To help keep this machine well-oiled it is important to make sure business processes are in place, but it is equally important to look after the human element. That is why regular teambuilding events are vital to success.

On the Water Teambuilding for Visible Results.

A teambuilding day is an opportunity to create space away from the usual working environment to focus on improving the way people interact with each other, help your team get to know each other better and foster a supportive environment.

One of the best team building activities is yacht sailing. A team of 8-10 on board a 40 foot sailing yacht have to learn to work together simply to get the boat moving, so not only is it obvious when the team is pulling together but it is a brilliant, fun day out!

Your team will have to listen to the skipper’s instructions to understand their role in the bigger picture, they need to perform their own role but simultaneously communicate clearly with their team mates. As the yacht gains speed, the wind-noise makes conversation harder, so clear communication is key – using words that sound different and avoiding instructions which could be mis-interpreted (such as “Go!” and “No!”).

Britannia Corporate Events, a specialist provider of company team building days describes a typical team building sailing day “No experience is necessary and mostly teams are complete novice sailors. From the moment the team step onboard the usual office hierarchy dissolves and everyone has a chance to be equally involved, learning something new. The smiles and obvious camaraderie at the end of the day really say it all!”

A Level Playing Field

Most crews don’t have any previous experience, creating a level playing field; so everyone is learning the ropes, quite literally.

Every yacht has two professional sailors onboard to keep an eye on safety and make sure no-one gets hurt. So after a hearty breakfast and a yacht safety familiarisation, the teams are settled in and ready for action.
Britannia uses racer-cruiser yachts. This means that whilst they are comfortable on board (complete with mini kitchen and bathroom) they are designed to be sailed by a team.

One of Britannia’s regular skippers Charlie smiles as he notes “Quite often the quietest person in the office really comes out of their shell. Junior people who may have never met or even spoken to senior managers are communicating effectively as equals. You can see the barriers breaking down – and you know that on the return to the office that junior person will have far more confidence.”

Communication, Co-ordination and Timing

So how does sailing develop team work? Consider the first ‘simple’ task of the day – hoisting the mainsail. This requires co-ordination between several of the team; the ‘mast-man’ will pull on the main halyard (rope) so that the ‘pit-person’ can winch it in quickly. The pit-person needs to give feedback to the mastman regarding the speed to make sure their timing is in sync. Meanwhile the person on the ‘helm’ (steering) doesn’t touch the sails, but it is essential they drive in a nice straight line otherwise the wind will fill the sails and make the job so much harder for everyone else!

Finally a 4th person with a better view will look up and keep the rest of the team updated on how much more they need to do; “Nearly there!”, “a little more!” – this continuous feedback is invaluable and allows the other 3 to focus on their roles.

Everything is a team effort, and the day is spent learning and perfecting sailing manoeuvres; working together and improving communication throughout. Everyone will rotate roles during the day to help develop empathy and trust between team mates as well as keeping the day interesting and fun!

A Racing Element

The format of the day can be adjusted to suit the group; choose to maximise time on the water with a packed lunch on board, or pop into picturesque Cowes on the Isle of Wight for a lunch ashore. For groups of more than 10 people, the group is split into teams for a race in the afternoon.

The racing is great fun, and provides an opportunity for each team to put their new skills into practice – to not just work together, but work well as a high performing team to win the race!

The Evidence

Dreams Ltd (the bed retailer) took their new management team on a teambuilding day on a Britannia First 40. The team hadn’t been working together as well as they needed to, and after their day Mike, the CEO reported “In a business turnaround situation it is vital to get the leadership team working together quickly, this was time well spent and we learnt more about each other in 1 day than the previous 2 months.”

Likewise, global insurance specialist Brit Insurance took representatives from different departments and even countries on a multi-day sailing event; “Britannia were extremely professional. The event manager worked seamlessly with a number of people at Brit to establish a format which met our objectives. Our event was a huge success and working relationships have improved immeasurably.”

A Day To Remember

With or without the racing, sailing on the Solent on a beautiful yacht isn’t something most employees get to do every day! Not only is it a genuinely constructive way to improve working relationships but it also a day to remember!

Your team will talk about it for days to come and probably remember it for years. Such a positive association with work and their team mates will further enhance a positive working atmosphere with improved working relationships.

Find out more about Team Building Sailing Days

If you feel that sailing days are something that your company could benefit from, get in touch with Britannia Corporate Events for a quote for your teambuilding day out.

The post Team Building Sailing Days Company Incentives appeared first on Active Outdoors.

I have developed and used these military team building activities for army cadet and scout team building. Some of the team building activities simply have a military theme, whilst others are specifically aimed at skills useful for military personnel.

The team building activities are suitable for all arms of the military, cadet forces, scouts and also civilians and students.  You will find ideas for military team building workouts, teamwork exercises, physical activities and team building activities with a military theme.

Military Themed Team Building Activities

Projectiles

Water Bomb Launchers on Amazon

Lobbing and launching objects is always great fun, especially if it is aimed at another team. Each team is given a selection of materials so that they can build a catapult, trebuchet, sling or other launching device.  These can be used  to fling water balloons or eggs at a target. At Halloween, pumpkins can be used for a bit of seasonal fun.
If you want some detailed plans on how to make effective catapults, the book “Plans for catapults and balistas” shows you step by step instructions on how to make several different designs.
Amazon also has plenty of potato cannons and other launchers made from plumbing pipes using bike pumps to create the air pressure and valves to fire the potato.

Firing Blind

Firing Blind is a very successful military team building activity that I created based upon military artillery fire teams and field observers. At one end of a playing field you lay out a large paper target on the ground. At the other end of the field, you suspend a tarpaulin upright using paracord to act as a screen to block the team’s view of the target area. The team is given a water bomb launcher and a large supply of water bombs.

The team has a time limit to get as many water bombs to hit the target, even though they cannot see it because they are behind the tarp. One member of the team acts as an observer and is located between the tarp and the target. They direct the fire team to get the water bombs onto target.

You can adapt the exercise by using walkie talkies for the observer to communicate with the fire team. Or the observer can sit with the fire team and use a pocket sized quadcopter drone to provide a video feed of the target to see where the water bombs land.

This team building activity is really effective at developing team cohesion, leadership, strategy, communication and also coordination. This exercise can also be used by military personnel for a fun way to practise what they do for real which is quick and easy to set up and can be deployed on any open piece of ground.

River Crossings and Bridge Building

Obstacle or river crossings are something that the military will have to deal with on a campaign. It takes teamwork to plan and build the construction of a bridge to get across the river.

You can make your own river defined by two ropes laid out on the grass, or if you are able, use a real river that they have to cross.

Work out in advance how they can use the equipment you provide to make a bridge. It has to be feasible, and it is better if you give them enough equipment to create a variety of different designs. This allows their teamwork and creativity the scope to develop.

Bridge building is one of the best team building activities for teaching and developing leadership skills. The team leader has to recognise individual’s skills and allocate roles accordingly. No team member should be left out.

Depending on the team members, you can make this activity very physical and very mentally challenging. You can really push their engineering skills to the limit. Do they understand how to build a cantilever bridge? This type of bridge doesn’t require you to cross the river first to build it. The simplest form of cantilever bridge is a skewed cross, where the upright beam is placed in the river with the cross member attached to it just above bank height. You can then use ropes to rotate the upright beam and swing the bridge out over the river.

Dodgy Jeep or Landrover

This team building activity creates the military scenario where the team has to get an abandoned vehicle working to escape from the enemy.

I have tried several different versions of this activity, creating faults with the vehicle that have to be fixed such as removing the wheel nuts from one of the wheels. The solution is to remove just one wheel nut from each of the other wheels so that all four wheels are attached using only three nuts instead of four. Other faults you can introduce should relate to stopping the engine from starting. Do not create faults with the brakes!

Another variation is to put the vehicle into a position that requires the team to lift it manually out of a ditch. Think carefully what equipment you will let them have to do this and also it is better to use an old vehicle you don’t mind getting damaged.

Some vehicles also have a switch for multiple fuel tanks.  It takes non-technical people a while to work this one out.

Aerial Observation and Reconnaissance

This military themed team building activity involves using an aerial observation platform to perform reconnaissance on an area of interest and take action on what is seen.

The aerial platform could be a Go Pro camera suspended from a kite, or a quadcopter. You could also use several helium balloons with a suspended Go Pro camera and fishing line to control their position. If you want more control, you can get the teams to lash four poles together to get the height they need. This will challenge their knot skills.

The area of interest has to be created so that the information you want can only be seen from the air. This could be a message attached to the top of a tent. You could write a message and suspend it from the top of a flag pole. You could also fence of an area and put the message on the ground.

Capture the Flag

Capture the flag is basically a game where two teams compete against each other to retrieve a flag or object from the opposition’s base and return it to their own. A variation of this is to have just one base with one team guarding and another team aiming to get in and take the object.

This is a very flexible team building activity, but you have to carefully lay down what the ground rules are. How can a guard stop an enemy from getting into their base? Is contact enough to class the attacker as being caught and having to return to the start, or does a guard have to physically restrain them to capture them? Using Tag Rugby Tails is a simple way of clearly defining someone as being caught. Each play attaches two tails using Velcro to a waistband and if a tail is removed then they have been caught.

Also, you will have to decide what happens if someone is caught. Do they have to return to their own base to start again, or are they out of the game until someone rescues them?

You can buy a glow in the dark capture the flag game from Amazon to play at night, which is usually the favourite time for the game to be played.

Paintball

Paintball is the most one of the most obvious military themed team building activities. Firing paint pellets at each other at a designated paintball place is easy to do. Just pay and turn up. They provide all of the equipment and instruction. The key consideration is whether your players are happy to participate. I have been to several kids paintball parties where children under 13 have been invited and both boys and girls can find it a bit scary because they don’t know what to expect. Or, it may just not be their thing. If you aren’t happy getting hit with a paint pellet that stings then you won’t want to play, and you shouldn’t be forced to either.

Paintball games include Capture the Flag, Storm the Fort, VIP Escort, Hostage Rescue and Free For All.

Laser Tag or Nerf Wars

Laser Tag is similar to paintball but you hit your opponent with a laser beam instead of a paint pellet. This can be played indoors or outdoors. If you plan on organising this team building game frequently, it is well worth investing in your own laser tag equipment.

Airsoft

If you want to make your military team building activities even more realistic, airsoft is similar to paintball but uses replica weapons that fire plastic pellets. Airsoft is played on private land in organised gaming areas. There are a huge range of different weapons to choose from.

Once again, for younger players consider whether this is appropriate. Also, check out the minimum legal age allowed for playing airsoft in your state.

Drops

Drops are a combination of navigation exercises and physical endurance. Drop each team at a location five miles from a visible landmark such as a church or hilltop. The first team to reach the landmark wins. However, each team has to first work out where they are so that they can find the quickest route to their destination.

Depending on how you want to play this game, there are several ways to make it easier or more difficult. You can blindfold the teams as you transport them to their start points so that it is harder to work out where they are at the start. If there are four teams, you can say that each team has to meet up before they reach the destination. This requires communication, leadership and coordination because each team won’t want to wait too long for the others to arrive. You can make it easier by allowing the teams to use public transport. You could also make them collect items from a list on their way, like a scavenger hunt.

Alternatively, there are many OS map reading challenges and games you could use as team building activities.

Team Building Activities for Military Personnel Training

CASEVAC

This is a vital military team building activity that the Army have to get right. I have seen many videos of soldiers not correctly getting casualties out of dangerous situations properly. In recent conflicts, there was even a case where a team of soldiers evacuated a wounded team member to a place of safety and then just left them at the side of the road instead of carrying them to the rescue vehicle that awaited. They had expected the medics to take over, whilst the medics expected the soldiers to load their colleague into the vehicle.  Communication and coordination would have helped.

This physical team building activity is for both military and civilians alike. The exercise is to rescue a non-walking casualty and transport them over a distance to safety. You can do this by using a stretcher, an improvised stretcher (coats and poles) or just by carrying using a two handed or four handed seat method. Ensure that the evacuation route includes hills, ditches or fences as obstacles to make it more challenging. It requires some serious teamwork to keep a stretcher level whilst getting it over a fence.

Pole Bearers

This is a common team building activity used by the military. Each team has to carry a telegraph pole or railway sleeper across an obstacle course. The sheer weight of the pole requires everyone in the team to work together. To see how the team work together when they are physically exhausted, give them a heavy load to move as a military team building physical activity. This requires physical strength, coordination, and strong leadership to maintain team morale.

Cannon Run

Racing across a course with a full sized gun is one of the military teamwork challenges that is done for competitions. And I don’t mean a rifle, I mean a gun carriage or cannon. The wheels have to be taken off and the entire gun dismantled to get it across some of the obstacles.  At the other end it has to be reassembled and fired to show the winner.

You might not have access to a cannon, but you can do a similar exercise with a bike or car.  Use anything that can be dismantled, taken across a course and reassembled and used to show it works.

Obstacle Courses

The military assault course is a popular one for teams, but you need to arrange it so that the team has to work together. Getting the team to climb over 10 foot walls is a great show of teamwork.

Tank Paintball

Experience Tank paintball at Armourgeddon in Leicestershire UK

If you want some more team building ideas, check out my outdoor team building activities.

The post Military Team Building Activities appeared first on Active Outdoors.

What is a Corporate Retreat

A corporate retreat is a team building exercise that takes staff away from the normal work environment.  Also called an offsite retreat, it is held out of the office on neutral territory.  This could be at a local conference centre, at a cabin in the mountains, or even overseas.

By taking staff away from the daily pressures and workload, you allow them to think more clearly, and be open to new ideas.  This fosters creativity and drives results.  You can take the opportunity to reaffirm your team’s shared mission, ensuring a common understanding of what it is you do and why does the organisation exist.

Choose a location for the corporate retreat that is completely different from the normal office environment.  Perhaps you could go to Lake Tahoe as it is near to San Francisco yet in the countryside.  If you are thinking of going overseas for your corporate retreat you could consider skiing in the French Alps, or golf and surfing at Praia Del Rey in Portugal.

A corporate retreat should not be considered to be a vacation.  Although you can provide the incentive of time on a golf course, maybe skiing in the mountains or being somewhere exotic, staff should be made aware that they are there for a specific purpose.

Whichever form of corporate retreat you decide to undertake, ensure that you communicate a clear and defined purpose or goal.

Define the Successful Outcomes of the Corporate Retreat

The corporate retreat must have a business goal. It is a waste of time and money if you are just going purely to get to know each other better, and to get your team to “bond.”

The aims and goals of the retreat will help you to select which staff to invite. If you are focussing on how to improve customer service, make sure that you have customer facing staff present. If you want to increase productivity and reduce the cost of quality, you will need a representative from all departments. For adapting the strategic direction, you will want to have staff who have a good understanding of the market and business.

Choose the Right Facilitator

One of the most critical parts of any team building activity is the facilitator. A facilitator is the person who guides the whole process, without becoming involved with the actual discussion.
Acting as a sounding board and being a very good listener, the facilitator ensures that the team considers all sides of the problem being explored, and asked pertinent questions that are thought provoking. You can select someone from your organisation to act as a facilitator as long as they are not closely connected with the task at hand. Sometimes it can be better to hire an independent facilitator from companies like Adventure Associates for your corporate retreat to host and run proceedings.

Logistics and Planning

Where are you going? How on earth do you get the whole team there? Are the right resources in place to allow your team to concentrate on their creativity?
The logistical organisation and planning needs to begin months in advance of the corporate retreat. Make sure you know what you want to achieve, and that the venue you have selected can support those goals.
You will need to consider:

• transport
• accommodation
• food and drink
• agenda and schedule
• activities
• rooms for holding the discussions
• recording and presentation resources

Provide the Right Environment for Creativity

Please, please, please do not force staff to be completely out of their comfort zone. Some corporate team building advocates insist that the only way to get teams to think differently is to create a challenge that employees must rise to. Oh how wrong they are.
I have heard so many tales of staff hating being forced to go above and beyond the call of duty by going on long hikes, mud scrambles or the torture of building yet another drinking straw tower. Yes it is good to challenge people’s thinking, but you must support them to fulfil their potential.
If you have a room full of tech geeks, set them a problem that appeals to their inquisitive minds that a solution must exist. If you have a cluster of sales and marketing staff, appeal to their competitive spirit. But make it seem achievable so that employees get into the flow.
By providing the right balance of challenge against skill, as long as a solution seems achievable, you will be amazed at how engaged your workforce will be on your corporate retreat.

Further Ideas for Corporate Retreats

The post How to Plan Incentive Corporate Retreats appeared first on Active Outdoors.

Team building activities for work don’t have to be like this. I have collated for you a list of the best, successful and most popular outdoor team building activities for work on offer from established outdoor activity providers. Whether you want to Go Ape, ski or snowboard indoors on real snow, blast the boss with paint, whitewater raft the Olympic course, hovercraft or have a fantastic day at Center Parcs, you will definitely have a company team building day that is brilliant fun.

If you are seeking ideas for team building activities for work that you can run yourselves, I have a huge free resource that will help you get your staff working together more productively.

The benefits of outdoor team building activities for work

One of the key things you will be wanting to achieve is to get out of the office and partake in activities that will help your team to work together better. Staff will rise to a challenge, but not if they are embarrassed, made to feel awkward, or are forced to do something that they perceive that they cannot do.

Outdoor corporate team building activities that involve hiking across moors or tasks such as crate stacking are seen by staff as pointless and dull. You need to inject a bit of fun and interest into the team day out. Think about whether your staff will actually want to do any of the activities. Overall, make sure it is fun for them and give them the opportunity to learn more about themselves and other members of the team.

Learning something new or sharing a new experience together will help your team to gel. This should be done in a supportive and encouraging way. Here are some ideas for team building activities for work that will provide everything you need to get your team to work together.

Go Ape Team Building Events for Work

Go Ape is a tree top ropes course located in various forests across the UK and US. The courses involve rope swings, challenging crossings up in the trees, and exhilarating zip wires. You can also go Segway trekking, Zip Trekking (lots of zip wires one after the other), and mountain biking.

There are Go Ape courses across the country. You can do a full day or half day of team building. You will have a dedicated host who will build a day that suits your team and budget. You get exclusive use of a forest shelter, and conferencing facilities if you need them.

The Go Ape treetop adventure lasts between 2 and 3 hours. It is suitable for all, so everyone will be able to do it. At some points there are different routes, so the more adventurous can take the extreme routes. You wear safety harnesses at all times, and get a full briefing on how it all works.

Go Ape forest Segway takes about an hour. If you want other ways to explore the forest, mountain bikes are available for hire.

Food and drink is provided. You will get welcome drinks, brunch, and a BBQ lunch.

You can find out more and book on the Go Ape Corporate Team Building page

Ski or Snowboard on Indoor Snow All Year Round

A Team Day for Work in The Alps at The Snow Centre

Take in the alpine experience with this new Exclusive Package at The Snow Centre in Hemel Hempstead. Not only will you learn skills in both skiing and snowboarding, your team will have a fun filled day out that will not disappoint!

Based just outside London, this unique corporate team building package is jam packed from start to finish; start with a 1 Hour Ski Lesson, followed by a 1 Hour Snowboard Lesson. If all that isn’t enough, finish off the day with a fun filled Sledging Session. Whizz, spin and slide down the slope in a rubber ringo or sledge; can you beat your colleagues to the finish? In between all the action on the slope enjoy refreshment in our Schuss Bar on the slope and a tasty lunch in the new alpine restaurant, The Lodge Bar and Kitchen, whilst you relax with panoramic views over the slope.

You can get all of this for only £69 per person. Get more details fromThe Snow Centre.

Ski and snowboard on a rolling Skiplex slope

If you don’t fancy playing in the snow, you can try skiing or snowboarding on a Skiplex continuous indoor revolving ski slope. Each slope at Skiplex is 4m wide and 9.5m long and can rotate up to speeds of 25mph with the gradient of the slope being adjusted as the skier improves.

Skiers get to master the basics of skiing including learning to control speed; coming to a stop and adopting the correct balance and weight distribution. Qualified instructors offer real time feedback and the use of a giant mirror at the base of the slope enables you to progress immediately.

Skiplex can plan the whole days activities if that is what’s required. Corporate team skiing last 1 – 2 hours. In this time skiers are rotated every 10-15 minutes giving everyone equal time on the slope. Skiers are grouped by ability so when you are on the slope you are not held up or left behind by your colleagues.

The corporate team building day package includes time on the slope (depends on how long is desired on the slope, minimum 1 hour), all the skis and snowboards, boots, helmets, polls, the instructor cost and the post skiing private room. It will cost £15 per head. Ski/Snowboard instruction is the basic package, but Skiplex can arrange and organise addition activities.

Skiplex slopes are suitable for all abilities, from first timer to advanced skiers. Skiplex offers a great team building environment. The slopes allow you to ski with your colleagues and also with a viewing area you can keep a close eye on how others are getting on. When you are on the slopes you face a giant one way mirror, this allows you to see yourself whilst skiing for immediate feedback. On the other hand when you are off the slope on the opposite side of the mirror you can see the skiers but they are unable to see you.

This leads to a fun learning environment and gives you a great opportunity to meet, get to know and bond with your colleagues. Get more information from Chelski.

Whitewater Rafting

You can experience the thrills of white water rafting at locations such as the London Olympic competition course at Lee Valley just outside London. Your corporate team building day would consist of tackling 300m of fast and furious white water, obstacles and drops in a big inflatable raft.

Your team will have a qualified rafting guide steering and telling you exactly what to do. You get to learn how to control the raft under a variety of conditions, and get to rush down the rapids, surf the waves, and even pull huge wheelies when everyone sits at the back of the raft.

This is a fabulous outdoor team building day. The team building day I took part in was at Nottingham Water Sports Centre. There is the risk of capsizing the raft, which happened once to us, but all you do is lie on your back and float down river. Before you know it, the raft guide has got the raft upright and someone is pulling you back in.

A white water rafting team building day is £49 per person.

Paintball Team Days for Work

Paintball is a strategy game played by running around in the woods firing paint pellets at each other. This is not everyone’s cup of tea, but a great opportunity to get your own back on those you don’t get on with in the office.

You will need to plan the game strategies and organise a debrief afterwards if you want to actually develop teamwork. Otherwise all of the games risk just being a free for all shoot out where everyone looks after themselves.

A corporate paintball team building day will cost about £20 per person. You will have to pay extra for more ammo and food.

Sailing, Tall Ships or Yacht Charters

Life on the ocean waves sounds like great fun. This team building day is a really good way to develop team work. Charter a sailing yacht with a qualified skipper, and your team will learn how to sail. The skipper will direct you all how to get the yacht to go where you want to. You will get to practice different areas of responsibility. Tasks include steering at the helm, manning a winch or handling a line, supporting and coaching your colleagues, share risk-taking and increase trust.

Adventure Associates in the US specialise in blending adventure activities and interactive experiences with team building. They can plan and host some great work team sailing days.

Corporate Luxury Yacht Charters

Tall ship team building days involve a big boat. Imagine your team sailing on a traditional clipper with huge sails and rigging to climb. Or if you would rather have your team or clients treated to the ultimate luxury, why not charter a large luxury yacht or cruise ship. Royal Caribbean Corporate Cruises will take your team building day to the next level with the ultimate luxury event destination. Exhilarating onboard activities, award-winning entertainment and endless options for dining and conferencing.

Center Parcs

Center Parcs has a huge range of activities. Each location is in over 400 acres of natural woodland and offers an extensive range of team building facilities. Indoors or outdoors, challenging or relaxing, there is something for everyone and packages to suit all budgets.

At £99 per head, your team will get breakfast rolls on arrival, half day meeting room hire, refreshments and lunch. You get to choose two leisure activities from the following options of laser combat, paintball, field archery, target archery, laser clay shooting, cable ski, abseiling and climbing (where available) orienteering, or ten pin bowling tournament.

You get complimentary car parking, wifi and access to the renowned Subtropical Swimming Paradise. This is a huge indoor tropical set of pools with slides, flumes, wave machines, and Jacuzzis. Find out more from the Center Parcs website.

Corporate Go Karting

This one is a bit flaky in being called team building. You spend a few hours blasting around a track with your bum a few inches above the ground. The only team bit is planning the driver changes and choosing who is going to be in which team.

Still, I’m not one to complain if my company is willing to pay for me to drive a go kart. It can get very competitive though.

The biggest indoor go karting track in the UK is at Capital Karts in London. They have developed a brilliant motor racing experience inclusive to all abilities. They have onsite catering, exclusive lounge access and even transportation to and from your event available. This can be ideal for entertaining not only your team, but your clients as well.

Capital Karts have space to accommodate several hundred drivers at a single event. However large the group, they will have the capacity to host your day out. The track is located close to central London, the City and Canary Wharf.

Two of the best outdoor tracks are at Thruxton and Buckmore Park. There are so many options on offer to suit your corporate day that you have to check out Corporate Karting Days for details.

Corporate Hovercraft Team Building Days

Hovercrafts are so much fun to drive. Floating across land and water, you whizz over most surfaces. This type of team building day is more of a shared experience day. It allows you to try out something new together.

Corporate Driving Days

Now this is another great team building day. Track days are very popular. You can hire conferencing facilities to run your usual form of teambuilding and motivational days, and then go for a high speed blast around a track in a sports car or racing car.

There are plenty of types of driving on offer. If a sports car isn’t for your team, you can learn how to drive a 4×4 over rough terrain, go rallying, drive tanks or even have tank paintball fights.

You can discover the full range on my driving experiences page.

Other considerations for Team Building activities for work

How to get there

When choosing where your teambuilding day is going to be, make sure that your team can get there. Will you arrange a coach or minibus, or will they have to make their own way?

Food and Catering

Will your team get breakfast when they arrive? Will they be staying overnight beforehand? How are you going to organize when to eat during the day? Most of the corporate team building venues will have a host who will organize all of this for you, but ask in advance.

IT, projectors, flipcharts and conferencing facilities

As well as a truly fun day out, do you need to have facilities to get your team together for some motivation sessions and team talk? Check if there are any facilities available or if you have to bring your own equipment.

Want more Corporate Team Building Ideas?

What? You want more ideas. Ok. Here are some more ideas for you. Over time I will be discovering what is involved and whether they are any good. I will let you know what I find out.

• Clay Pigeon Shooting
• Team days with the Territorial Army – Had a great weekend with the TA camping in bivvies, doing assault courses, driving military vehicles, and going on recce missions at night.
• Quad Biking
• Raft Building – Used to do this with youth groups. You need to work together to stay afloat.
• Archery
• Dragon Boat Racing
• Bushcraft
• Crystal Maze Challenges
• Soap Box Derbys and Gravity Racing – Design, build and race a soap box
• Scavenger Hunts
• Horse riding or a Day at the Races
• Thames Rib boat treasure hunts
• Obstacle courses and It’s a Knockout games

The post Team Building Activities for Work appeared first on Active Outdoors.

Team Building activities for adults differs from other forms of team building activities due to the types of characters that you will encounter.

Team building activities for kids should aim to develop a sense of working together. To get primary school age children to also understand and develop leadership skills can be quite challenging. I find that you get the best results by focussing on how to work together.

Team building for teens, secondary school and elementary school children is a lot of fun. They are very receptive to new ideas, love a challenge, and yet haven’t had the vast experience of life that an adult has. This means that problem solving has to be done by applying logic more than by using past experiences. Also, I find that today’s teenagers are so used to being provided with instant gratification and fed with computer games that their imagination can be somewhat stifled. Telling a good story usually gets their brains stimulated. Rather than getting them to use a plank of wood and some crates to get from one place to another, spin them a tall tale of adventure where they have to use the equipment to escape a terrible fate.

Adults are a completely different ball game. Stuck in an office or full time job, perhaps unemployed, and taking on a lot of responsibilities in life tends to dampen some people’s spirits. Adults also think they know better than anyone else. Oh yes, and everyone has a huge amount of personal baggage that drives their behaviour. You have to quite cunning to get team building activities for adults to work well. So, to help you out, I am going to share my experiences and expertise in having worked out the hard way how to create and run successful team building for adults.

When Should Team Building be used with Adults?

Team building activities for adults are used to address specific problems. The main reasons include:

• For conveying and sharing a common vision across teams
• Direction setting
• Shared understanding
• Building relationships across technical specialists in different teams
• When external influences affect team motivation, such as a drop in sales, increased competition or customer problems. This can be addressed using the two-factor theory (also known as Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory)
• New teams. Creating, forming and getting new teams to gel.
• Addressing teamwork skills such as communication, leadership, motivation, coordination, vision, ideas, problem solving, system thinking.

Ideas for Team Building Activities for Adults

So you know what your purpose is for running your team building session, but what team building activities will help you to develop your teamwork skills?

Drone Flight Formations

This is a great new team building activity that I have developed for adults, which works particularly well for tech companies. The initial outlay of cost will soon give you a huge return on investment.

The team has four small quadcopter drones such as the KiiToys® Nano Size Quadcopter. The team building activity will take up the entire morning.

You start the day by allowing the team 30 minutes to learn how to fly their quadcopters. You then run and team development discussion talking about observations made during the shared learning experience. Did they work together or teach each other? Did they struggle on independently?

The next session involves the team developing a flying display. They have to perform 3 given manouvres plus anything else they want to show. These could include a circle, vertical stack, or flips.

After the session, bring the team back to the discussion area to talk about how they developed their ideas, worked as a team, and how leadership developed.

Next you have the display, followed by an after action review. Did it go well? What would they do better next time?

Egg Toss

How far can you throw a raw egg to a partner who successfully catches it?

Obstacle courses

Create an assault course or obstacle course and get the teams to race over it. You can be as imaginative as you want.

The brilliant thing about obstacle courses is that you can tailor them to your team. If you have an ultrafit team, you might want to suggest that they enter for an obstacle course race such as Tough Mudder. If you are focussing on trust, you could try blindfolding the entire team apart from the leader who shouts out directions to guide the team across the room around scattered chairs.

Get the Canister from Toxic Area

This is a popular team building challenge. Set up a can inside a taped off area. Give the team some equipment to retrieve the can without touching the ground inside the area. One variation I have done on a residential course is to attach an ammo box up a tall tree containing supper for the team. They have to use climbing gear to climb up the tree, retrieve the box and return without dropping it inside the area. Inside the box can be anything you want that they can cook over an open fire. We had two chickens in ours. We plucked and prepared them while others in the team made the fire. Lovely.

If you aren’t that adventurous, you can just put chocolate in the can.

Crate Stacking

You need proper climbing gear for this one. Rig a safety line and pulley high above the place where you will be stacking your crates. The stacker has to stack the crates into a tower as tall as they can, whilst balancing on the top. They need to wear a climbing harness, and helmet, with someone belaying them from the ground.

The team have to pass the crates up to the stacker. Takes guts and teamwork.

Bucket on a rope water obstacle course

Get a very long piece of rope or string and weave it across a series of obstacles. Up trees, through bushes, across mud, over walls. Then, feed one end of the string through the handle of a bucket that is full of water. The team then has to get the bucket of water to the other end of the piece of string without spilling any water. Good teamwork is needed to pass the bucket up and over high obstacles.

Orienteering

The team has to work together to navigate a course finding markers along the way. They have to keep together. The fastest team wins.

Go Karting

The team can make go karts, or just go somewhere and race proper go karts. They work as a team to see who is fastest.

Geocaching

Using a GPS, you can find hidden caches all over the world using the geocaching.com website. A hitech treasure hunt.

Sailing

One way to get the team to work together is to send them on a sailing day. The skipper will teach them how to work as a crew, and they will not only learn how to work together, but also learn a new skill.

Soap Box Cart Gravity Racing

A soap box cart originates from the good old days when kids used to get a wooden soap box crate, stick some pram wheels on and race them down hills. Get you teams to design and build their soap box carts and race them down a hill.

Now Get Out Of That Challenges

Now Get Out of That was a UK TV programme where teams had to navigate to a given location. There they would be given a puzzle or challenge to solve. Successful completion would give the teams the clue to the next location.

The team challenges included river crossings and getting a cassette recorder to work when the power wires were too short (use the earth lead to extend the others). The sort of tasks teens will love are things like working out how to boil some water using only a sheet of paper and a candle. They have to fold up the paper to make a container. The water soaks into the paper a bit, but this is countered by the flame. It doesn’t burn the paper if they are careful.

Swamp or River Crossing

Create a swamp, and then the teams have to cross it without going in it. They can be provided with a variety of useful and unhelpful equipment. Planks and bricks are commonly used. You can also get the teams to make a bridge.

The Great Egg Race – Invention to solve a problem

Give the teams a problem where they have to build something to solve it. It could be a device to carry an egg the furthest over a course, or a rocket/parachute that can bring an egg back safely to earth.

Scavenger Hunts and Treasure Hunts

Give your teams a list of items or tasks they have to complete in the time given. To make your teens think, make the description of the items cryptic. A picture of Thomas Jefferson ($5 bill), or a portrait of the Queen (a stamp or money).

If completing tasks such as visiting places, they can take a picture to prove they were there.

Monopoly Runs

Monopoly Runs are a race around a virtual Monopoly board. This is easy if you are in London. The team has to visit all of the places named on the Monopoly board as quickly as possible.

If you aren’t in London, you can create your own board with place names of where you are.

Blindfold instructions

This trust building game involves a member of the team being blindfolded and guided by voice around an obstacle course. If more than one team goes at once, this adds lots of confusion as the people who are blindfolded are not sure if the instructions are for them or not.

Construction

Get the team to build something. Anything. Just the act of cooperative work improves their team work. This is a great way to support troubled teens, as they will often work well when given physical tasks where they can see the results of their labour. Community projects may be ideal.

Lego structure copy

Make a Lego structure out of different coloured bricks and place it in the next room. Each team is given a set of bricks to build an exact copy of the Lego structure. The rules are that only one person from each team is allowed to go and have a look at the structure. When they come back to their team, they cannot touch the bricks, but they can tell the others how to build their copy. Anybody from the team can go and have a look, but only one at a time. Once another person comes back from having a look, the previous person can then touch their bricks to help build.

What you don’t tell the teams is that you have swapped one brick from each of their supplies with another team. This means that they cannot complete their copy unless they get the correct brick from another team. Of course, the other teams will not be willing to give away their bricks until they know which ones they have spare. Negotiation comes into play.

One amazing thing I once saw was when I did this team building activity with ten teams. Some of the teams grouped together and all worked on completing one model. They could then copy the model within the room as they had a copy in front of them. All I had said is that there was a prize for every team that completes their copy of the model. It is not a race, but most teams usually want to be first and don’t help the greater group.

Follow the plans

Give each team a set of plans that tell them how to do or build something. A prize is given for every team that completes the task in the time limit.

What you don’t tell them is that you have not given them a full set of instructions. Take one page from each set of instructions and put it into the instruction for another team. So team A may have pages 1, 2, 4 and 5; Team B may have pages 1, 2, 3 and 5. The teams will need to work this out to finish the task. Sometimes they will improvise and work out what the missing instructions might be.

Be dramatic

If you live in NYC or San Francisco, there are some great theatre improvisation sessions that you can go to. The team building sessions get everyone working together, having fun, and even performing some comedy. A great laugh.

If you are not so fortunate, give the teams a silly phrase on a piece of paper. The teams then have to create a short play that includes that sentence. The other teams in the audience have to guess what the sentence was.

Learn a new sport

Just have a look at the full outdoor activities list to discover a new sport they all might like to try. Sharing the learning experience is a great way to get a team to bond.

Chocolate making

There are an ever increasing number of places that you can go to have a chocolate making experience. This can be a great team building activity for team bonding in a low threat environment.

Raft Building

A favourite for team building, although you need to consider who will be taking part. Can they swim? Do you really want to put them through the risk of getting wet and muddy? If you do, then give them lots of poles, ropes and large barrels to lash together to form a raft. Then have a race or get them to cross a river.

Egg Tower Construction

Yes it’s the “build a tower using drinking straws and tape to support an egg.” This is good if the team leader ensures that everyone in the team is involved. What usually happens is that one or two team members dominate the activity leaving everyone else to watch. No need to say any more.

The levitating Stick

This team building activity involves the team getting into two rows facing each other. Everyone holds out their index finger and you place a lightweight cane or stick so that it rests on everyone’s fingers. The team then have to lower the stick to the ground whilst keeping their fingers in contact with the stick.

What happens is that someone will usually apply more pressure on the stick and it will go up a bit. Someone else realises that their finger is not longer touching the stick so they raise their finger. The stick then ends up magically levitating up into the air as everyone lifts their fingers.

It takes coordination to get the stick to the ground.

The Wall

Find an assault course that has a ten foot wall in it. The team has to get everyone over the wall. It takes planning, as the strongest person who can lift the other up onto the wall may not be the best person that everyone else has to then pull up the wall.

Water Barrel Swap

Tie a pulley to a tree branch and pass a rope through it. Tie a barrel to each end of the rope. Fill one barrel with water. Then fence off an area around the barrels. The challenge is to swap positions of the barrels without anyone touching the floor inside the fenced off area, or touch the barrels.

Untie the Circle

Everyone stands in a circle facing inwards. You get everyone to cross their arms and hold the hands of the person standing next to them. The challenge is to uncross everyone’s hands without anyone letting go. This takes coordination from everyone. The trick is for the first person to uncross their arms by putting one arm over their head. Then going in one direction around the circle everyone else uncrosses their arms. Easy. Practice first.

Circle Lap Sit

Get everyone into a circle. Everyone then turns to face the person to their left. They all then sit on the lap of the person behind. If done at the same time, everyone ends up sitting on a lap self supporting. If not, people fall on the floor.

Dragon Boat Racing

Get the team working together to paddle a dragon boat in a race. Rowing is another idea.

Canal Lock Navigation

Guide a canal boat through a lock

Technology Transmissions

Get the teams to use technology to solve a puzzle or challenge.

Group plank skiing

This should only be done with teams who don’t mind having a laugh. You need two planks with loops of rope attached to them. The team stands with a foot on each plank holding the rope. They then have to walk the plank skis to the end of the room or field. This requires coordination and teamwork to lift the plank.

White water Rafting

Send your teens white water rafting. They need to listen to the instructor and work together to paddle in the right direction.

Paintball

Paintball can be a great way to get teams to work together. They will need to formulate plans, adapt them during the game, and work together to win. If you don’t give any guidance, it will often end up as a general free for all.

If these ideas aren’t enough for you, I have more ideas for outdoor team building activities.

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