Here’s what 1,000 managers in The Watercooler said their employees enjoyed most as a team-building activity.
Team bonding — known to some as “forced fun” — can bring feelings of dread and resentment to many employees. And who can blame them? When thinking of team bonding, many people picture awkward trust falls or hours spent with a facilitator asking corny questions.
However, a team does need to feel connected in some way. You can’t work well together if you don’t trust each other — let alone, know each other. And getting to know each other, while that can happen organically over time, only gets harder the bigger the team gets or the more spread out your office is.
Particularly for new employees, an effective team-building activity can go a long way. It’s rare, dedicated time for folks to not talk about work, relax, and just have fun.
I asked members of The Watercooler, our online community of almost 1,000 managers in Know Your Team, what their most successful team bonding events were. Below were the top four mentioned. Feel free to tailor these ideas to fit your own team dynamics and preferences.
Work ‘n Travel
Few experiences are as memorable and unique as traveling somewhere novel. For the past couple of years, one Watercooler member’s company spends a week together as a team, working remotely and traveling. So far, they’ve been to Lisbon, Portugal, and Poland. (And they already have their destination picked out for next year!) For them, it’s been a perfect way to spend high-quality time getting to know each other, while also getting to have a common shared experience of traveling.
Team Volunteering
Contributing to the community around you, together with your team, is a fantastic, non-cliché way for everyone to feel more connected. One Watercooler member’s company volunteered at a local food bank when everyone was in town for a company meeting. They spent the day providing thousands of meals to people in need while also bonding as a company.
3+ Lunch Fridays
Possibly the most common team-bonding event that teams seem to do is to sponsor lunch outside the office on Fridays. Several managers in the Watercooler mentioned how their company will cover the cost of lunch for groups of three or more employees if they go out to eat on Fridays. This in fact incentivizes folks to get out of the office and socialize a bit with one another.
Cereal Day
It sounds odd, I know. But a Know Your Company customer and Watercooler member shared how surprised she was that a seemingly insignificant team-bonding event had such a big effect on her team’s morale. Every month, she brings in a box of everyone’s favorite cereal to one of their most intense days of the month: The strategic planning meeting. It was a small, quirky move — not any big grand gesture – and it was a big hit with her team. (She found out what everyone’s favorite cereal was through KYT’s Icebreakers Tool!)
👀 Looking for more non-cringeworthy ways to bring your team together? Take a peek at the Icebreakers Tool and Social Questions we have in Know Your Team – our tools help everyone get to know each other in a fun, genuine way. Give Know Your Team a spin today.
Additionally, we are giving away our Guide to Managing Remote Teams – 60+ pages completely for free. Based on data we collected from 297 remote managers and employees, our CEO, Claire Lew, wrote 11 chapters of best practices on how to manage a remote team.
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