The words “team” and “bonding” put together can strike fear into the heart of many workers. Some feel that team bonding is a plethora of trust exercises and doing scenarios that will only end up with David Brent getting the guitar out… But it doesn’t have to be like that. The right type of bonding can be a great way to increase employee development and to actually get to know your employees on a personal level, without all that sitting around in a circle discussing those lateral thinking problems, such as the ones where you have to get two people from point A to point B. Instead, you may be better off getting to know employees in a real environment, outside of work. Here are some ideas to get you thinking:
A Mystery Dinner
This is where on one night, a group of people from different teams from within the company go to dinner somewhere in your city or to someone’s house. The dinner is hosted by one of the company leaders and is paid for by the company. The great thing about these dinners is that it lets different groups of people in the same organization cross paths and spend an evening having lovely food and great conversation. The only thing that the attendees will know ahead of the event is the date and time. During the afternoon of the event, everyone gets an email with the name of the location and who they will be going with. As an additional option, you can give the dinner host the name of a place for everyone to go to after the event has finished, giving everyone the option of socializing even more.
Karaoke
This is purely optional, especially if there are those that don’t like the idea of sharing their singing voice with everyone. But it can be a good choice for a Christmas night out where everyone lets their hair down for the holidays. You could turn it into a friendly competition and get people to sing in teams, which makes it a more enjoyable experience for the more introverted, and you get to make an event of it and get some customized ugly christmas sweaters for each person. The great thing about a team night out is if everyone feels like they are in it together there will be less room for embarrassment, which is ripe if you’re all dressed in the same get-up!
Quiz Night
If an evening of conversation or a night of screaming along to Lady Gaga doesn’t encourage any form of bonding, then for the more sedate members, a quiz night can be a way to help others come out of their shell while forming unlikely alliances out of people who share the same interests. You’d be surprised what a 19-year-old has in common with a 47-year-old, and while it is something you would never think would work on the surface, it becomes a surreptitious way for people to get along and work towards a common goal.
