Customizing Corporate Team Building Activities: Silly or Significant?

I was recently on the phone with a prospective client, who was interested in building a team building trivia party for her office. While explaining my company’s range of services, she asked an astute question: what is the value of customizing a team building event? I’m glad she asked that, because I feel passionate about the answer – enough to want to share the answer with as many people as possible, hence today’s blog post.

It’s a valid point: say I’m a business owner, department manager or HR professional who wants to offer my company’s employees a fun activity, to reward them for hard work and a job well done – hopefully boosting morale and promoting teamwork to boot. What does customization have to do with that? Bowling’s not customized, but they’d have fun doing it anyway – why should I care if the activity is tailor-made for my staff or not?

I would argue – forcefully so – that customizing employee events as much as possible will produce better results in the long run. Below are some of the benefits of customizing team building activities, and why it’s worth the effort:

They’ll Be More Memorable – When events are customized for specific groups, incorporating familiar language, situations and “inside” information that only they are privy to, participants will be more inclined to think back positively to that experience, a key element of a successful event.

They’ll Be More Impactful – Activities which are carefully modified to perfectly fit the group will resonate far more strongly than a “one size fits all” approach to team building, increasing the likelihood of the core messages sinking in and being applied back at the office.

They’ll Be More Fun – It’s easy to dismiss standard team building exercises as boring, because for a large part, they are (trust falls, anyone?). However, it’s hard to not have a good time and be “present” when the entertainment event is specifically targeted to your work, your team, your colleagues and to you, personally.

The Results Will Last Longer – Favorable team building skills such as communication, collaboration, negotiation and decision making are more likely to be reinforced back at the office when the skill set has been introduced in a familiar practice setting.

I could go on, but to me it’s clear: in order to get the best results from an event, customization is key. That’s not to say that employees CAN’T practice important skills at a more cookie cutter-type event, but in order to have an event which is memorable, impactful, fun and produces lasting results, make the effort to specialize as many aspects of it as you can. You’ll be glad you did in the end, and so will your team.

What are your thoughts on customization and team building? Is making events tailor-made a complete and utter waste of time when creating fun group experiences? Share your opinion below!