What to Do When the Boss Wants a “Team Building Activity”

So the head of the company has spontaneously decided he/she wants to have a “team building activity,” and has dropped this assignment in your lap. As the operations manager, department head, HR director or summer intern, it is suddenly your responsibility to identify, arrange and execute an event for staff, with little or no guidance. Where to begin?

Below are some tips to help make this process run a bit more smoothly, and to hopefully take the pressure off of you:

1) Identify Event Goals Upfront – Try and put yourself in the boss’s head, and understand WHY they want to do a team building event. Has the staff been working unusually hard on a project, and this is a fun reward? Are there lots of new people who need to be integrated? Has there been a major morale slump associated with layoffs, a bad quarter etc.? Use this to help filter the type of activity you want to do – better yet, ask the boss directly, “why are we doing this?”

2) Know Thy Staff – When brainstorming potential activities, don’t just pick something out of a hat. Different activities are appropriate for different audiences, and not everything is going to fly with your crowd. Is your group competitive? Outgoing? Analytical? Really, really smart? Take these things into consideration before jumping into your search.

3) Ask Employees What They Want to Do – So simple, yet often overlooked. Unless the boss specifically requests that the activity be a surprise (which happens a lot, by the way, and is almost always well received) take an informal poll and ask your colleagues, “what do YOU think would be a fun group activity?” You’ll likely receive some ideas you wouldn’t have thought of, as well as get a sense of what they’re looking for – and what they’re not.

4) Approach Your Personal Network First, Google Second – Do you have friends or family who work in a similar industry? Ask them if they’ve ever done any entertainment for their employees, how it went over, and if they would recommend that activity/vendor. Since you will most likely be doing some Googling anyway, at least speak to your people first, to get a sense of direction.

5) Do All of the Above Before Calling Vendors – In order to find the activity which best matches your company’s culture and your boss’s expectations, it’s really important to have a clear sense of what you’re looking for, BEFORE you pick up the phone. It will make your life a whole lot easier, and you’ll feel far less overwhelmed.

There are so many directions you could go when the boss wants to do a corporate team building event, and if the responsibility is yours to make it happen, you want to make sure that it’s not only fun and successful, but reflects well on the boss, the company and on you, personally. What other questions/concerns arise when the task of arranging a staff entertainment event falls on you?