Any ideas for company team building activities?

[Jessd]

Hi!

Our IT group wants to start doing team building activities.

Does anyone have any ideas?

 

[Eeyore'sthebest]

My boss is making us go out to dinner together one night. The next night we have to go bowling as a group. Not quite sure what this is going to accomplish.

 

[chager]

My dad's team had lunch together and watched horse races yesterday.

 

[Rock'n Robin]

Those sound better than the stuff our department comes up with. I dread in-service days when we have speakers who have us do touchy-feely type stuff. I think a lunch together weekly or something would be much better.
Robin M.

 

[puggymom]

I'm IT too and we got a bowling night planned too. I appreciate the effort, but I just spent all day with you folks, I really don't want to spend my evening with you too. I don't have kids, but the pugs need to get out and also want their dinner. Besides, I like my pugs better then my coworkers.

 

[golfgal]

Dh's old job they did a lot of things as a group. Most of the people that worked in his office were roughly the same ages so that helps. We were the oldies at 40 years old. A lot of times it was dinner out and the company picked up the tab but they also had bowling nights, rolle-bolle (don't ask, weird Belgium game that is played with a lopsided wheel but everyone liked it), golf "tournaments" that were pretty fun-mainly goofy things on each hole or some kind of a scramble with A, B, C, D players on every team. We went to a lot of them because DH was in charge of all operations so all the managers reported to him and we got invited to everything.

For his management staff they spent 5 days at a resort somewhere in Minnesota. The spouses would come up for the weekend and there would be golf, boating, etc. Those were always fun.

We usually had a bar-b-que at our place in the summer for anyone that wanted to come and at Christmas we either had a party here or at a restaurant for his staff.

It was nice because pretty much everyone came and everyone got along. His new job isn't quite as friendly that way but I am hoping we do somethings together.

 

[tar heel]

I would suggest a service project for a charity. You'll accomplish your goal and do something good for your community. We had a few companies that did projects for us when I worked for a local hospice, and it was great for us and them.

 

[Auggietina]

We recently had a team building day at work

A couple of activites that we did:

1. Broke up into teams of 4 and were given 1 bag large marshmallows, 1 bag of small marshmallows, and 1 box of spagetti

We were given 15 minutes to create a 'structure'. We asked another manager in a different department to judge the structures and pick which one was the best. This was a lot of fun


2. We were asked to write something down that you thought no one would know about you. A list was compiled and passed out with just what you had written down and no names. The object was to figure out who each statement was about. We were given 15 minutes to go around and interact with each other and ask questions to see if we could get the answers.

3. Along the same lines as #2. We were asked to write down three things. 2 things that were true about us and 1 thing that was false. The papers were read aloud and we had to see if we could guess who it was and what was the truth and what was a lie.

 

[McKelly]

We had to do a high and low ropes course. I was so MAD!! I told them there was no way I was going to be swinging on a rope through the air. I have two kids at home that still need their mother!! But I had to go, watch and spot the people that did do it, so I was being part of the "team".

I think what really happened there was my forty-something boss was having some type of mid-life crisis and wanted to show the younger employees that he still "had" it. Well, if nothing else, we all got a very good laugh when he did the zip line. Instead of just falling forward, he jumped straight up and out. When he came down he got quite the "squeeze" in a certain part of his anatomy and he let out such a loud moan that it scared all of the animals in the forest we were in!! I am dead serious, there was complete silence after he did this! Nobody knew what to do except to try and suppress any type of "serves you right" giggle that was brewing! OMG, it was funny!! Good think he was done having kids!!

Anyway, sorry to go OT, but the low ropes course was decent. We did activities that required cooperation, trust and leadership skills. Some of the activites were crossing a river with stepping stones and putting a long rope into a square while blindfolded (much more difficult than what it sounds). The high ropes was more of an individual thing, but we cheered each other on, so I guess that was the team building part of it.

 

[azgal81]

In one of our meetings we were broken into groups and had to work to build a bridge out of newspaper.

At our christmas party we were once again broken into groups and had to construct a gingerbread house out of the random supplies they gave us.

I couldn't imagine having to hang out with the people I work with after work though. That would be insane. Companies actually require that??

I would rather go home watch tv and hang out with my boyfriend and cat I already saw my co workers for 8 hours!

 

[jaycns]

My husband works for a large international company that is big on the "together team building time" luckily they try to do it during the work day so that people still get their family together time as well.

Some of my husband's favorite activities:
-deep sea fishing
-rented a park pavillion (on a weekend and families were invited along) and a boat and had a day long bbq, took turns boating, played volleyball, hiked etc.
-went go cart racing
-skeet shooting
-Murder Mystery Lunch
-comedy club
-working on a river bank clean up project followed by a great lunch
-working on a Habitat for Humanity home
-indoor rock wall climbing
-golf


Good luck planning a fun activity that brings the entire team together!

 

[Free4Life11]

At my movie theatre we did laser tag one night. It was a blast, though we still stayed in our segragated groups (concession vs. box office) LOL.