Ideas for corporate team building

What’s the difference between a staff entertainment event and a team building activity? After all, both are intended to recognize and reward hard-working employees, as well as boost morale and hopefully foster their loyalty in a competitive economic environment.

Let me first start by saying I’m a huge fan of both – and if you’re reading this, you are likely a boss, HR professional or business owner who genuinely cares about the happiness and well-being of your people. What, then, differentiates the two?

Employee entertainment is just that – entertainment. It’s something that’s designed to amuse staff, a diversion intended to make them happy and laugh. This can come in many, many forms, be it a party, a show, happy hour, a ball game or what have you – the idea is, it’s company-sponsored fun which is intended to make people smile.

The idea behind team building activities, however, goes one step further. While the ultimate goal is still to create a positive shared experience for the group, with corporate team building there is also an objective to get staff talking, in order to learn as much as they can about each other in a very short period of time. There is so much working teams don’t know about one another, which if they DID know would deepen their relationships – leading to more effective communication, stronger teamwork, and ultimately better results.

Make no mistake, if you hold an event for the express purpose of entertaining staff, you are doing something great, and they will love you for it. However, if you are able to integrate elements which also reveal things they may not have known about one another – particularly things they have in common, as well as surprising fun facts, hidden skills & talents – you are well on your way to creating a team building event which will produce lasting, memorable and impactful results.