Open and effective communication is vital for any business. This is key to team members working together, solving problems and creating a more positive working environment. Team building events are a highly effective tool for improving communication.
How Can Team Building Improve Communication Skills?
Team building events are groups outside of normal working activities on which team members take part together. They require those involved to work together and communicate to achieve a shared goal, building these skills individually and strengthening communication among the team.
The most effective team building activities are fun and engaging, creating shared memories for those involved and strengthening personal bonds and camaraderie that will make communication easier in any setting.
20 Team Building Activities to Improve Communication
There is a huge range of team building activities available to suit any group with activities from corporate cooking classes to dog wheelchair construction to competitive dragon boat racing. The activities below all benefit communication through shared team challenges, camaraderie and creating shared memorable experiences.
The Bigger Picture
The Bigger Picture is all about creating a big work of art from your teams’ collective efforts. All team members must paint their individual canvases to be put together into one giant picture. Only with close communication and coordination can they create a coherent masterpiece rather than an abstract mishmash.
Robot Wars
A challenge that is both creative and destructive, Robot Wars, inspired by the original TV series; challenges the teams taking part to design, build and customise a robot to compete in three different challenges.
Teamwork and communication is essential in order to create a functional, fighting machine that is up to the challenge and won’t be immediately obliterated in the arena.
The Crystal Team Challenge
The Crystal Team Challenge pits teams against an array of hilarious and challenging tasks as they compete to win the most crystals and ultimately, gold tokens. The three teams that win the most crystals will then enter the Dome Finale where they will compete to grab as many gold tokens as possible. Each crystal they earn will earn them five valuable seconds in the Dome.
Communication is key to these tricky team challenges with potential tasks including building a pyramid with limited moves and guiding a blindfolded teammate through a maze.
The Haka
Instructed by authentic Maori tribesman, your group will learn The Haka, an expressive and iconic tribal dance. They will need to pay close attention to watch and replicate the moves in the right sequence and coordinate with the rest of the group to perform the moves in synergy.
The Haka’s high-energy expressive moves will help lower inhibitions and bring even the more reserved members of your group out of their shell.
This cathartic experience is lead by an instructor from the tribe that created the famous Ka Mate Haka used by the New Zealand All Blacks team.
Treasure Hunts
Get set for an engaging and bond-building event on a competitive interactive treasure hunt around iconic London landmarks. Following the GPS treasure hunt app, they will unlock new challenges and riddles when they reach the hotspot locations. Teams must complete the challenge at each hotspot before moving on but can also earn bonus points throughout the hunt through a range of hilarious strike a pose challenges. There’s a competitive element too, as the app shows them the progress of their rival teams.
This fun day of team challenges is sure to get your team talking and build bonds for more open communication.
Inspired by the classic Mouse Trap board game, this team task is not about being the first to catch the rat but working together to build an elaborate chain-reaction trap that will successfully trigger to catch the rogue rodent!
Teams must work together to assemble giant Meccano structures, which when correctly built, and lined up will create an exciting chain of events to spring the trap. Communication is key as one piece out of place will break the chain and catch nothing!
There is a buzz of excitement as the trap comes together and nears completion and a rewarding collective sense of achievement when all the moving parts synchronise perfectly to release the weight and splat the rat! A perfect reward for your team’s communication and teamwork.
A treasure hunt challenge that will take your team on a virtual world tour without any travelling. Your group is split into teams with each team receiving an iPad, complete with an interactive map. Teams must visit each country answering trivia questions and completing photo and video challenges to score points. In Italy for example, the home of pasta, teams must construct the tallest pasta tower they can. Bonus challenges pop up on the screen throughout the event, offering the chance to earn extra points. An interactive scoreboard brings added excitement to the event as teams compete to earn the most points. A competitive team challenge, that requires plenty of communication.
This is a chance to make a real difference to the lives of those with missing hands in the developing world as your team comes together to assemble world-leading prosthetics that will enable someone to be more independent, to support their families and do things that would otherwise be impossible.
The prosthetics themselves are made from 50 pieces of high-grade plastic and metal and the assembly itself will require your team to concentrate and communicate closely to complete correctly.
This is a truly fulfilling and inspiring activity, that will make a real difference and leave your team feeling rewarded for their communication and teamwork.
Rather than simply having a meal-out team bonding event, get your staff in the kitchen themselves, working together and learning new skills under the guidance of professional chefs.
Listening closely to the chefs and helping each other, your team will ultimately enjoy a fantastic sit-down meal with the knowledge that they cooked the meal themselves being the icing on the cake! Enjoying a glass or two as an accompaniment to their delicious food after their shared endeavours; closer connections will be encouraged between the team that will further boost their communication.
Build a Bike for Charity
Build a Bike for Charity combines team building with the empowering opportunity to make a difference with all bikes made distributed to less fortunate children.
To assemble the BMXs themselves, teams must first complete an array of engaging bike-themed tasks, including building a working belt from old tyres, replacing an inner tube against the clock and the ultra-entertaining “Slow Race”.
Both the team tasks and the bike assembly itself will require close communication and teamwork and all participants will leave the event knowing they have made a difference to young people’s lives.
Wheels for Walkies
Another charitable team building activity that can be part of your companies Corporate Social Responsibility; teams on the Wheels for Walkies event will construct wheeled walking frames for our four-legged friends with mobility problems.
Working together to assemble high quality dog wheelchairs, teams will build their communication skills with the added motivation of knowing they will be helping give a dog its freedom back. The completed canine wheelchairs will be used by dogs with disabilities or aging joints enabling them to run, fetch and play again.
Take to the waterways in London or Birmingham on an iPad powered treasure hunt. Teams must navigate their way along the treasure hunt course, unlocking riddles and challenges when they reach location hotspots.
Team members must work and communicate as a team to solve the riddles and the team challenges. The canal boat setting provides an idyllic escape from work pressures, enabling team members to relax, bond and allow for more open communication.
Clap Happy
Clap Happy is a high energy, music-making activity that everyone can join in with. Wearing the washing-up gloves provided to maximise their hand volume, the Clap Happy instructor will lead your staff in simple yet engaging rhythms, clapping, slapping and stomping in unison that will bring fantastic energy to the room.
Clap Happy will aid your team’s communication by building listening skills and create a sense of shared accomplishment and togetherness as they come together to generate brilliant noise and rhythm.
ARTrageous Graffiti
With ARTrageous Graffiti, your team will be introduced to the art of graffiti by street art experts at the top of their field. After an introduction to the origins of street art and its most famous exponents, they will be taught the tips and techniques needed to become graffiti artists.
With their training complete, your team will come together to unleash their new skills on a huge A0 canvas and create a team masterpiece. Communication will be key to planning and executing their design so that they can create a graffiti masterpiece rather than a cacophony of colour.
Drumming
Our high energy drumming workshops, will bring your whole team out of their shells and get them playing to the same beat! Only through close teamwork and both verbal and musical communication will they combine their workshop skills into an infectious collective beat.
The professional percussionists will help everyone master the basic samba rhythms and breaks and introduce a wide range of instruments, including floor drums, snare drums, cymbals, kettle drums, cow bells and much more. Your team will then bring their new skills together to create an amazing musical experience.
One Voice
The idea of public singing may seem a daunting prospect to many, but this choral challenge will leave your staff amazed at what they can achieve.
Our fully trained vocal coaches all hail from the West End, or the film and music professions. They will teach your group one or two songs depending on your event duration. Working in smaller groups, your staff will start with the basics before building the different harmonies. Finally, they will come together in a grand performance with hair-raising exhilarating results.
One Voice is an event to really bring your team out of their shells and get them communicating. After all, if they can sing; talking is easy!
Office Wellbeing
A mentally-healthy team, is a strong, open and communicative team. All too often, work pressures, stresses and deadlines can get on top of us, leaving us anxious and hindering communication.
An office wellbeing event can do wonders for your team’s individual states of mind with simple but highly effective de-stressing techniques that everyone can learn and use themselves. There is a choice of three wellbeing classes: Desk Yoga, Bitesize Breathing and Self Massage.
If your staff can individually master their own mental health and feel less stressed, it can only be positive for workplace atmosphere and team communication.
Team Quiz
Slickly delivered by a professional compere, technician(s) and scores manager, this Team Quiz event is sure to generate a lively competitive buzz amongst your group.
There is a choice of six quiz events including The Million Pound Drop and Now That’s What I Call a Pun Quiz.
Whichever Team Quiz event you opt for, it is sure to benefit communication with a multitude of topics incorporated to engage the whole group and questions that each team will need to put their collective brains together to answer.
With their origins in historic China, the dragon boats on this event house multiple oarsmen and a drummer and are ornately finished with a traditional dragon’s head.
Taking part in multiple boat races throughout the day against rival boats; your group will need to work together, all pulling their oars together to the drummers beat to propel their dragon boat to victory!
Teamwork and communication key and this exciting event is also a great way to build camaraderie.
School Sports Day
Its time to get competitive with a bonanza of fantastically fun school sports day themed team activities.
Delegates are split into teams and will compete in an array of madcap events including Giant Inflatable Sausage Race, Giant Egg ’n’ Spoon Race and Hula Hoop Chain to name just a few. Points are awarded for all activities, with the highest scoring team at the end of the event declared the winner.
With many activities such as the Caterpillar Run and Tug of War requiring close teamwork, communication is a must on School Sports Day, with the competitive excitement of the event being superb for building camaraderie.
Additional tips for Improving Communication in the Workplace
Team building activities are not the only to improve communication in the workplace. Regular meetings will give staff opportunities to share thoughts and information that they may feel they don’t have time to do otherwise. Use of technology such as video calling, WhatsApp groups and internal phone systems can also make a difference as can physical factors such as office layout and the availability of meeting spaces. Those in a management role can encourage more open communication simply by being personable with their staff and taking the time to get to know them.
Plan your Next Team Building Activity with Team Tactics
Whether you are looking to improve communication, teamwork, or provide a rewarding experience for your team; the selection of team building events offered by Team Tactics means that there is something suitable for any group. Team Tactics are a London based corporate team building events specialist, offering a selection of events in the capital – discover here.
With nearly 30 years of experience in corporate team building, Team Tactics will help you choose, plan and experience a fantastic event. Get in touch today to start planning your event.
