The amount of pleasure people experience when doing team building activities on a corporate away day is often directly related to the amount of effort that has gone into creating the event. A poorly thought out team building day will be horrendous for those attending it and comical to anyone observing it. Attendees will be left unsure of what they are meant to be doing as no structure will be present. This will lead to many losing any focus they initially had and people will retreat once more into their separate groups as opposed to coming together and getting to know one another.
This is why MyChocolate place such an emphasis on planning – to make sure that everyone present knows what they’re doing and why they’re doing it. Not only does this make people know that they are in skilled hands, but it ensures that their time is being used constructively so that they can do what they came here to do – have fun and get to know their work colleagues better. That’s why we’ve worked with some of the biggest companies on the planet and been put in charge of making sure that their team building day out is both tasty and useful. [Please note that we also take great pleasure in working for small businesses as well!]
To give you a better idea of how the MyChocolate team go about hosting the ultimate corporate events, we’ve decided to tell you how one must be planned in order to please all parties:
- Have a clear objective in mind. Make sure you know what your employees or staff want to gain from a team building event. Do they all want to get to better know a new MD? Do they want to get find out more about other people in other divisions? Do they simply want to speak to those they work alongside daily in an informal and friendly setting? Once you know the answers to these sorts of questions you’re well placed to decide on how to split or rotate teams during the actual event. This means that everyone comes away from it with a better understanding of someone they actually felt the need to bond with.
- Make sure everyone actually wants to do what you plan to do during the team building event. If people are not committed to getting into the spirit of things then it will be an uphill struggle to get people to really make an effort and become involved. In short, ask what people would like to do or at least present them with some options. We must say, though, that with our chocolate workshops a reluctance to get involved has never been an issue!
- Make sure you have everything you need. It sounds basic, but you’d be shocked at how often some team building events companies don’t bother thinking about the relationships between the number of people attending and the resources needed to cater for them. For chocolate workshops the equation between the amount of necessary ingredients and the number of people is a relatively simple equation to make. A good rule of thumb is to always order a bit more of whatever it is that you need.
- Make sure you also have people! Think about when you want to have a team day out – if half the office is away on holiday then clearly only half the office will get to properly know each other.
- Make sure everyone can do what you plan to do. Just be careful to take into account the physical health of everyone. Allergies are often overlooked so be careful to check if anyone’s effected by something like this. Otherwise some may feel excluded and not thought of – not what you want from a teambuilding day!
- Let people think for themselves. Micro managing every part of the event will leave people feeling suffocated and under pressure. So if we take our chocolate workshops as being a good example of how to do things right, then you’ll see that we often let people decorate their sweet creations however they want. It makes it more fun and varied for everyone.
So there you have it – the definitive checklist for planning any team building event. Adhere to these points and your team will certainly reap the benefits. Don’t, and your day will be about as useful as a chocolate teapot!
