A ‘crazy’ team-building experience
Laser Adventures, a mobile corporate team-building and events company, was called in to organise a team-building event for one of the government departments.
The main reason why the department decided to hold this type of event was to:
- Build confidence among team members and foster a sense of trust among officials;
- Build unity among team members;
- Help teams clarify team goals and objectives;
- Identify any issues that prevent the team from reaching its goals;
- Address and remove what was preventing the team from achieving its goals;
- Learn how to identify and overcome common biases the team had in decision-making;
- Improve open communication among managers;
- Improve team spirit;
- Improve managerial and leadership skills;
- Boost morale;
- Enable the team to work on unhealthy conflict and improve trust levels;
- Assist the team to learn techniques to reduce stress in the workplace and improve productivity; and
- Improve the team’s ability to solve problems and tap into each other’s hidden potential.
Nico Kruger, and his team at Laser Adventures, picked two activities out of their arsenal, for this department:
1. Crazy Games
This activity consists of six to eight different games that can vary depending on the venue for the team-building event as well as the conditions, e.g. weather, etc. The games include activities such as:
- Marble run;
- Helium stick;
- Horse derby;
- Balloon-popping;
- Creative building;
- Untie me;
- Drunken soccer;
- Gumboot race;
- Hoola-chain;
- Noodle race;
- Chicken run; and
- Frozen T-shirt.
The team with the maximum amount of crazy points wins.
- Creative Thinking
This activity consists of a series of problem-solving activities that gave the government department’s team a new perspective and promoted creative thinking.
Why did the department decide to go with these two?
The department settled on the Crazy Games and Creative Thinking games to:
- Improve cooperation among team members; and
- Create an environment where team members could learn more about each other.
This was done to create a feeling of belonging in the workplace and a better holistic understanding of each other.
Was the day successful?
Yes, it was very successful and it achieved its objectives. Here is some of the feedback that Laser Adventures received from participants:
- The team enjoyed various activities that stimulated the mind and provided team spirit among the group members.
- The activities were outstanding and relevant to the team’s everyday work, yet refreshing, exciting and professional.
- The management and staff all realised how much we needed a team, after this weekend, to work together and understand one another and be able to communicate in the correct manner.
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Lia Marus is the editor of HR Pulse. She has a BA in French, Italian and Linguistics from UCT, an MA in translation from Wits and a Postgraduate Diploma in Management from the Wits Business School. She is currently studying towards her LLB through Unisa. Lia started her career off in corporate communications, where she worked as a sub-editor, researcher and marketing coordinator. She then heeded the call of the publishing world and went into the business-to-business publishing field. She worked as a sub-editor as well as a chief sub-editor. Before joining ITWeb, she managed an HR guidebook at a leading international publishing company. |
