Dec 18, 2019
Team building is an ongoing commitment to building trust among co-workers. It requires some effort and fun. When team building is done well, it feels natural and is fun for everyone around the office. The best team building programs incorporate multiple activities and events throughout the year. Here are team building activities for your office. Plus, recommendations for STL team building activities for the general St. Louis area.
In-Office Team Building Activities
Food Cook-Offs
Office cook-offs are a casual competition where everyone in your office cooks and brings a dish to work. Cook-offs work the best when everyone is encouraged to make one type of dish or meal. Think about dishes like chili, casseroles, spaghetti and meatballs, french toast, paella, BBQ, or favorite salads.
Picking one dish or theme allows everyone in the office to judge one type of food by comparing the different versions brought into the office. Or you can go crazy and encourage everyone to bring their favorite dish to share, which typically results in everyone loving the diversity of food.
The important thing is to encourage a judging process that is fun and engaging, so everyone has fun.
Board Game Tournament
Board games have been around for a long time. The Landlord’s Game, known in modern times as Monopoly was created by Lizzie Magie in 1903. There are plenty of board games and card games that pre-date the early 1900’s. In fact, ancient Egypt tombs dating around 3500 BC have included board games.
Depending on the number of people in your office and your team structure, board game tournaments can be set-up to encourage everyone’s participation. Everyone can play the same game until there’s a winner. Or people can play different games, then the winners play the same game. The key to hosting a board game tournament is choosing games that avoid political confrontations and gender biases, so everyone can relax and have fun.
Free or Low-Cost Team Building Activities
Volunteering
Whether you’re raising money for a chosen cause during the holidays or running a race to cure cancer, there’s power in you and your co-workers giving back to your community. The United Way of Central Missouri hosts the event, Day of Caring. Everyone in your office can volunteer at a local social service agency on the same day during the Day of Caring event.
If creating affordable housing is a cause close to your heart, then your entire office can help build a house by partnering with Habitat for Humanity.
Community volunteering can be both challenging and rewarding. It's so rewarding that volunteering with co-workers is typically noted as a job perk at many companies.
Something Touristy
This might sound odd, but most people don’t get a chance to enjoy the activities that tourists enjoy. So leave the office and be a tourist in your hometown for a day.
Yes, everyone has seen the Gateway Arch, but has everyone been up to the top to enjoy the view? Have your co-workers enjoyed just walking around the park while not showing out-of-town guests “the sights” or chasing after their kids? Most people have not.
A little leisure time out of the office with co-workers can go a long way to reinvigorate relationships around the office.
Team Outings - Out of Office Team Building
Escape Rooms
Escape Rooms have become a go-to team-building activity for many companies and teams. Everyone needs to participate in order to escape, yet no one is forced to be involved. Escape rooms, at Mastermind Room Escape for example, are set up, so cell phone usage is considered cheating. It typically requires everyone's effort to escape the room. Being locked in a room with your co-workers gets everyone solving problems and having fun together. Plus, there are conference rooms and catering available for groups at Mastermind Room Escape.
Laser Tag
For groups that enjoy a little more physical activity, there's laser tag. Throw on the laser suit, find the best spots to hide as you blast your co-workers. Keep moving around the gameplay area until your team wins. Even if some of your co-workers have tried it before, it’s fun, low key, and everyone will get their exercise.
Get Out or Stay In for Team Building
Smart companies take care of their employees. Team building is one aspect of employee engagement. At the end of the day, you can’t accomplish anything as a team without strong relationships and trust. Team building regularly at the office and in the form of team outings is a proven effective business practice.
About Mastermind Room Escape
Mastermind has up to 8 rooms at each location (downtown St. Louis & St. Charles), so you can run multiple rooms simultaneously, depending on your group size, as only a certain amount of people can go in each room at a time.
We’re happy to set-up catering and rent out our conference rooms to make the most of your unique team-building experience. An escape room plus catered lunch or dinner is great for a half a day team-building experience.
When you’re ready to book with us for your next team-building experience, visit our team building page for more information and to contact us to schedule your event. We’ll make sure everything is handled for you.