Team building increases staff motivation, builds relationships with colleagues, and encourages creativity and idea-sharing. However, every team is different. They’ll have unique strengths and challenges to overcome, which is why there are many types of team building events.
If you’re a company imagining team building events, you may picture cliche activities such as a trust fall or board games. When you choose the right team building venue, however, you can organise innovative and beneficial team building events.
The first step to consider before organising a team building event is establishing your goals. Depending on your industry, niche, and challenges, these objectives should change. Note down what you want to achieve from your team building event. From there, you can plan activities that benefit your team and choose a team building venue that helps you accomplish your goals.
What To Consider When Booking Team Building?
1. Set Your Goal
What do you want the team building experience to be? Ask yourself what you want your team to learn from the event. This helps you establish clear goals you can design the team building event to achieve. Instead of setting a broad objective, such as building strong team bonds, try to solve a pain point or challenge.
For example, if your team is struggling to generate new ideas, focus your team building activities on solving this problem. Plan tasks that encourage creativity, problem-solving, and allow everyone’s voice to be heard. Spending time at the team building venue may not inspire that innovative new idea. However, your aim should be to create conditions where your team can create new ideas.
There are some key factors to consider before setting your goals. A great place to start is by asking who, what, where, when, and why. Answering the 5 ‘W’ questions gives you a solid foundation on which you can plan your team building event. Here are some more factors to consider:
- What are the challenges the team faces every day?
- How often processes are revamped.
- The current productivity level of the team.
- Communication methods and if they are effective.
- The time and budget you have available.
Once you’ve established what you want to achieve, it’s time to work out how you’re going to do it. The next practical step is to set your budget.
2. Set Your Budget
You can plan different team building events, depending on how much you’re spending. There is a myth that companies have to spend a lot for the activities to be a success. However, this isn’t the case, you can organise a team building event that achieves your goals without breaking the bank. Establishing measurable goals allows you to balance the budget and achieve a positive ROI.
The first aspect to include in your budget is your team building venue. It’s a crucial factor of your team building event that will also be your largest outlay. Then factor in costs such as travel and accommodation, if applicable. Of course, you also have to include any costs of your team building exercises or activities.
3. Plan Exciting and Engaging Team Building Events
Once you know your goal and the budget, you can plan your team building activities. Create team building exercises that help achieve the goals you’ve set for your team. While this should be the main focus of any activities, you need to ensure the event is fun, engaging, and encourages interaction within the team.
The best way to plan exciting and engaging team building events is by asking your team questions. What do they struggle with on a day-to-day basis? What would they love to do as an activity? Is there anything they want to avoid? Including them in the decision-making process makes it more likely that the exercise will accomplish your goal too.
Once you know the activities, it’s time to choose a team building venue that’s the perfect fit for your event.
What Team Building Venue Is Right For You?
The right team building venue is more than a suitable space. It needs to accommodate all your staff and have the appropriate facilities, equipment, and fit your budget too. Depending on the type of exercises you’re planning, you may need an indoor or outdoor team building venue. If you have many team members or are planning a physical activity, then an outdoor space is the right choice. While for problem-solving tasks, for example, an indoor team building venue may be perfect for your event.
For a longer event, you may want on-site refreshments. This means you should choose a venue with catering, so you can offer lunch and tea and coffee breaks. For your chosen activity, you may need specialist equipment. To save on costs, the venue may include everything you need in a package deal. The right venue will also have a dedicated team that supports you to ensure your team building event is a success.
Franklin’s Gardens Team Building Venue in Northampton
Explore our wide range of team building event packages today. Find out more by calling on 01604 751543 or fill in the enquiry form on our contact page.
At Franklin’s Gardens, we’re a unique team building venue in Northampton that offers a variety of outdoor and indoor spaces. The Saints Supporter Village and the team's training pitches are among our outdoor venue options. We also have a range of indoor rooms available that are perfect for team building activities. This comprises large conference rooms that can accommodate up to 600 people as well as smaller locations that give a more intimate setting for a small group.