Many team building activities revolve around structured games and challenges in which participants learn about each other while trying to solve a specific problem. In some cases, the activities are designed to reveal personal and professional traits in a finite period of time. I’ve participated in a number of these activities over the last twenty years and have found them to produce moderate results at best.
Perhaps the best team building activity I’ve ever been a participant in took place last week in Alberta — and I’m pretty certain it wasn’t planned to be so successful. Eleven of us piled in to a passenger van to make the roughly two-hour trip from Calgary to Rimbey for an off site meeting, then back the same way 24 hours later.
Being trapped in a vehicle for several hours has broken up many a family. In this particular instance, it was a phenomenal opportunity to develop work ideas, discuss current events, share personal interests and even talk a little trash with work colleagues of whom I only had passing familiarity prior to this.
Maybe we can attribute the success to not stopping for the bathroom and noone asking “are we there yet?” Of course, that might have been because the conversation was entertaining.
Nearly a year ago, a friend and two of his colleagues launched a monthly podcast to help the public understand important information about their company’s products. The idea came about because they felt the officially sanctioned podcast didn’t speak to its intended audience on the audience’s terms.
