How to Not Suck at Planning a Team Building for Your Startup

Unless you fancy ending up a part of one of those cringe-worthy team-building videos that make your team look like you are all a part of the Office series (sans the production value), you, as the leader of your workplace, have to come up with a way to build up a team from scratch.

Truth to be told, if you’ve just hired a couple of interns fresh from college, there is a chance they will vibe right away with each other, but that is a long shot that you can’t afford to take.

Many companies in Japan intentionally hire workers from the same college group, so many of their employees, especially the younger ones, know each other teambuilding or not. Not to mention the fact that they all go to dinner and for drinks after work together as a part of their daily routine.

Anyway, unless you plan to adopt the Japanese model, what you have to do to make your team bond and therefore become more effective at what they’re doing is to organize team-building events. Of course, you may not want to get them to bungee jump off a bridge in Nepal during their first week, but you have to start somewhere, right?

In this article, we are going to talk about how you can make your team-building activities as a startup fun and engaging while avoiding alienating some of the shy employees of yours right off the bat. As you will see, this takes time more than anything, but also a couple of other skills, so to speak.

Take Baby Steps

As we’ve mentioned already, pushing your new employees off cliffs and submerging them into frozen lakes in Finland may be a great team-building event for a team of weather-beaten veterans, so to speak, but a bunch of fresh-out-of-college rookies may not be able to take the heat as well.

So, to make sure your team will grow more mature and ready to take on more complex challenges (both within the workplace and out of it) more readily, you have to take baby steps first. To do this, consider throwing simple office parties and gatherings now and again, where your employees will be able to meet each other, have a drink, and perhaps engage in a card game or a brief monopoly tournament.

Ramp up the Challenge Level

As your team becomes tougher, more experienced, and more ready to take on new challenges, you can slowly but surely start including more and more complex team-building exercises in the bigger picture.

For example, if you already know that the majority of your team is prone to sea-sickness, so to speak, organizing a boat cruise may not be the best option as your team building event. Instead, opt for a mountaineering trip or some sort of excursion where not as many folks would puke or otherwise be rendered incapable of following through with the itinerary due to health concerns.

Go Outdoors

One of the biggest downsides of working in an office is that you, well, work in an office – an enclosed space that is often even more enclosed by cubicles, screens, and other indoor obstacles.

So, if you want to win over many of your employees right off the bat, announce that your team-building event shall be taking place in a nearby park, or by a lake. (Of course, this strategy may work better if it’s summer and the weather is neat.) Whether it’s a friendly bout of football, Frisbee throwing, or even just a plain ole picnic, your employees are sure to appreciate the fact that they won’t be stuck in a cubicle at least for the duration of the team building session.

Don’t Be Afraid to Be Cheeky and Exciting

An important thing to understand about team building would be the fact that, as long as no one is getting seriously injured, there’s no limit to what you can do as a team.

Whether it’s a barbeque, a ping pong tournament, or even an eating competition, organizing a team-building event doesn’t have to be a simple in-office thing, especially if everyone within your team already knows each other and are craving an exciting team experience.

In case you have a great idea, but it’s too much of a task setting it all up on your own, you can always hire an organizer like Kevin Rowe Events to set it up for you. These folks offer special nights out, themed events, as well as special weekend deals.

All things considered, getting on top of your team-building events as an employer can be a fun and rewarding experience in and of its own. Even if you don’t know what to make of it at first, as long as you take it easy and make sure you and your employees know each other before moving on to something more advanced is essential for making your events not suck horribly.