1. Know Your Audience

A diverse team is a great benefit to any company. A diverse team comes up with diverse perspectives which can be instrumental in problem solving and business progression. Failing to understand the individual needs and wants of your team members can lead to a team building activity that just doesn’t hit the right spot. For example, if you have a fun and creative team, you would love our Film Fest or Shark Tank activities that really get the innovative juices flowing. For a team that is office bound, it’s a fantastic idea to get everyone outdoors! Our Amazing Race and Survivor corporate activities are a fun way to get everyone out of the office, see each other in natural lighting, and explore your beautiful city. Our online events are a fantastic way to get your international or interstate teams together for some real-time connecting.

2. Have a purpose

So you’ve got a team building budget but not sure how to spend it? Defining your team building purpose goes a long way to narrowing down which activity to choose. The most common reasons to get your team together include fostering social relationships, connecting with other colleagues in a non-work capacity, working together towards a common goal, or even simply just having a bit of fun with your workmates.

But let’s delve a little deeper. You want to improve productivity, problem solving and delegation. What does that look like? Do you want smaller teams coming together to workshop a problem and solution, or do you want the whole group to be involved together? Activities where your team is broken up into smaller group  include the Amazing Race and Hipster Homicide – planning, delegation, problem solving and time management are at the forefront here. Smaller groups are beneficial for developing closer interpersonal relationships within the team. Our events where it is “all in” – like our Game Show or Minute to Win It – see your staff coming together and competing all in the same room for the greater good while still being competitive in the most fun way. These events are best suited to conferences, staff development days or simply when you want something on site.

3. Be consistent

Sure, the staff keep talking about the Christmas Party two years ago….. Well that’s because you haven’t done anything since! Consistency is key to showing your team that their well-being is a priority to your business. We’re not saying you have to go all out every time, but you can’t rely on a yearly outing to keep the team spirit alive.

Consistency encourages team bonding – which can help team members develop closer relationships with each other, which is critical for building a cohesive and productive team. When team members bond, they become more comfortable with each other, communicate better, and work together more effectively. Team activities can have the effect of boosting morale by providing a break from routine, and helping team members feel valued and appreciated by their colleagues. Consistent activities can reinforce the skills of effective communication, and continue to improve alongside each other. And let’s not forget the boost to productivity – when team members feel more connected to each other, they accomplish tasks more efficiently and effectively.

Overall, consistent team building activities can help create a positive and productive work environment, foster team bonding, and improve overall team performance.

Having created, planned and hosted thousands of team building activities we’ve uncovered all the common mistakes organisers make when planning team events for their colleagues and delegates. Hindsight and experience have become our best friend as we now know exactly how to navigate the challenges that come with planning an event for your team so we wanted to pen some of these mistakes and offer food for thought for next time!

If you are planning either an activity for inside your conference agenda or a stand-alone activity for your team have a read through our commonly made mistakes and some suggestions to avoid them.

First and foremost:

DON’T MAKE IT TOO LONG!

The temptation is real! Organisers, rightly so, want to get the biggest for their buck so the tendency is to try and jam-pack activities with just too much but this actually has a detrimental outcome to the overall experience of the event. Our goal is to always finish on a high and that high comes with achieving. – fatigue doesn’t feel like achievement! Many team building activities by their very nature are designed to test participants, stretch their minds and force them to analyse their personalities when put into a high-stress situation. This does cause mental fatigue. Mix this mental fatigue into a conference environment where they are also being fed a lot of other content and it makes for a group who’s heads will be spinning – it’s text book mental overload!

Our recommendation, regardless of the content is no more than three to three-and-a-half hours for stand-alone events and anywhere for one-and-a-half to two-and-half hours for conference activities. This gives us enough time to get across some great fun activities but to point where we’ll leave your team feeling amazing and still laughing.

DON’T MAKE IT TOO PHYSICAL!

This includes making your participants walk in sand for an hour! Understandably, the concept of a fun beach activity sounds wonderful but walking in sand even for a short period is hard work. If you’re lucky enough to have a coastal location for your team event, make it just up from the beach and keep the amount of time you have participants on sand to a minimum!

Away from the beach all our activities have this taken into account but if it does inherently have any kind of physical element (for example The Amazing Race or Survivor) it needs to be designed to minimise the physical exertion of participants at all costs. In an Amazing Race, keep it close – we measure our games and keep them to the equivalent of a shopping trip around a centre. In a game like Survivor, the vast majority of challenges are more about team work, strategy and any physical games are kept to an absolute minimum and never require a full teams’ participation!

In line with our previous point of not making it too long, keeping any physical nature to a minimum is paramount or you’ll be in a real danger of creating both mental and physical fatigue.

WHO ARE YOU EXCLUDING?

Your team culture should be founded on inclusivity. If your work culture is based on Friday afternoon drinks, to be blunt, you’re doing it wrong! Don’t get me wrong, some social time at the pub does attribute to team relations and there’s always time for a beer or softie afterwards but it shouldn’t be centred around it. Likewise, a game of touch footy at lunch time is great for some extra fitness but can be excluding for some workmates. Our activities are designed with EVERYONE in mind. Every one of your colleagues, regardless of age, fitness levels and interests are able to participate in our events because they are designed to be all about what you’re doing as opposed to physical ability. In the same way we design our events to have challenges that appeal to different personality types we also ensure we include challenges that appeal to all capabilities.

Interestingly and possibly counterintuitively when talking about inclusivity is one of our most popular activities: The Amazing Race with Bars! We understand that a couple of drinks is an appealing way to encourage many teams to get involved so we created our Amazing Race with Bars in a way that offers the best of both worlds. Appealing to non-drinkers with a fun activity while at the same time offering participants who don’t mind having a drink an outlet is why this game is so popular. It’s a common misconception that in our Amazing Race with Bars you’d just be pub-crawling your way around but that is definitely not inclusive! Instead, it’s a very similar design to our Classic (or non-bar version) of the Amazing Race but two of the checkpoints will have a cryptic puzzle to solve that just so happens to be solved in a bar so if participants want to grab a cheeky vino at the same time they can but it’s not a part of the actual game… the challenge isn’t to skull a beer in quickest time or do shots – it’s a clever cryptic puzzle that requires your team to work it out.

We see just as many participants who don’t drink still do our Amazing Race with Bars, love it, and get just as much out of it as their colleagues who do!

DON’T MAKE IT TOO HEADY!

There’s a very fine balance in making a team building activity challenging enough whilst also not making it too hard. Our formula is a 100% completion rate and an 80% correct rate! To break that down every single team will complete our challenges, no one fails, but the nuance in that is that the majority of teams will also have completed 80% of the challenges within the task as well which will define a winning team. If it’s too hard, you walk away feeling dejected. This is the building part of team building! We want everyone to feel they have achieved even if at the end regardless of whether or not they happen to be the one real winning team. For full disclosure, we’ve made this mistake before! If it’s too challenging or too ‘heady’ all we are going to do is make people feel dumb forcing disengagement.

This is where our expertise or in layman’s terms our vast experience with trial and error really comes into play. It’s a fine balancing act to get it right, but when you do, the result is best defined as memorable!

OH, PLEASE DON’T MAKE IT BORING!

Our events are already perfectly designed to include fantastic team building outcomes and are, of course, are great fun. While there is always some space to include work content we always want to ensure it’s not overladen with too much. Keep it fun. Your team are clever and don’t need to be beaten over the head what they’re supposed to get out of it – let it happen naturally. We compare our events to children’s breakfast cereal – the good stuff is in there we just hide it beneath the chocolate!

IT’S ALL IN THE TIMING!

Rule No. 1 when it comes to timing – don’t make our activity the morning after your gala dinner J Attendance rates drop immediately and sore heads leave us pushing the proverbial uphill!

Our events are perfectly timed as a Day One, first up ice-breaker/energiser or as a wrap up in the afternoon. If you have a lot of heavy content in your agenda we are a great way to break them out of a heavy headspace and designed as some time dedicated to fun and engagement.

For stand-alone team building events we typically recommend placing our activities to be timed around food! Timed to finish up in time for lunch, for example a 10:00AM-12:30PM or straight after lunch, for example 1:30PM-4:30PM.

Our events feel like a celebration so remember when we finish up to allow some extra time just to hang and chat. There’s always lots to reflect on and awesome, funny moments to share and discuss.

Reward and recognition are concepts often used interchangeably in the workplace, and although they are both useful tools in engaging and motivating employees, the psychological systems that they target yield completely different results. Understanding the difference between reward and recognition is vitally important in the development of team morale, employee retention and creating programs to increase the productivity and most importantly, happiness, of your staff.

Whilst reward and recognition can’t function without the other and mutually benefit many aspects of workplace culture, it’s important to discern the differences between them.

REWARD

Rewards are usually tangible incentives provided to employees for reaching a specific goal or achieving their job well. These are often provided through bonuses, promotions, other financial incentives, or even additional vacation days. The motivational role of these rewards is undeniably evident, and will absolutely encourage short-term goals to be achieved, deadlines to be met, and overall productivity to be at a good base rate. In essence, however, these are targeted as a compensation for a service, and whilst nearly every business has a plentiful array of rewards, these still fall into the category of being a means to an end. For example, giving a child pocket money for doing chores around the house clearly fits into the category of ‘reward’- we are giving them compensation for doing the job, but it is conditional on them hitting the target of what we want them to do. We shouldn’t, however, expect them to thank us for it, enjoy doing it or want to do it better next time, nor should we expect to develop a better bond with them during it. The most we can hope for in this scenario is that they do the minimum steps to reap the reward.

RECOGNITION

Recognition, on the other hand, is about noticing and honouring a person’s contribution to the whole and is more commonly offered with non-tangible forms, such as verbal praise, thank you notes, or public acknowledgement. Recognition is offered to make employees feel valued and appreciated for their time and effort, regardless of whether they have achieved a target or hit a specific goal. Authentically honouring and recognising a child for their contribution disregards the ’minimum’ requirement of the job, and inadvertently inspires them to excel past the base rate of expectation, whilst also nurturing a bond with them.

Whilst both reward and recognition set out to motivate employees, psychologists split motivation into two main branches: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation refers to the drive that comes from within – the desire to do something because it is personally enjoyable and fulfilling. Extrinsic motivation is motivation that comes from external influences- whether that be a reward or a punishment. With this in mind, it’s easy to link rewards with extrinsic motivation, and recognition with intrinsic motivation. In a corporate setting, it’s important to note that extrinsic motivation is activated by a sense of control and expectation, whereas intrinsic motivation is activated by a sense of self-fulfilment and competence. In this way, it is very easy for ‘recognition’ to be transformed into extrinsic motivation, if the praise appears to be motivated by strict goal setting or monetary compensation.

Many studies have focused on intrinsically motivating employees, and a huge body of evidence indicates an array of benefits on both personal and organisational levels. Some include:

1. Higher employee retention

• Studies have shown that the #1 reason employees leave their jobs is a lack of recognition, and that companies with recognition programs had around 31% less voluntary staff turnover

2. Boosting morale, motivation and productivity

• The SRHM Globoforce Employee Recognition Survey showed that organisations with recognition programs in place experience nearly 29% lower frustration levels in employees
• Interestingly, a scientific study showed that productivity was heightened when employees were recognised, but that a huge increase in productivity actually came from employees that weren’t chosen to be recognised in the study. This shows that even having recognition of a few employees vastly increases the overall productivity of employees.

3. Fosters creativity and teamwork

• Intrinsically motivated behaviours include initiative, commitment and inventiveness, along with encouraging people to go above and beyond the ‘minimum’ and seek personal improvement. Intrinsically motivated people understand their personal and unique strengths, and strive to use them for the best.

There are many ways to increase recognition of co-workers or employees, starting from a simple ‘thank-you’. The best part is that they are mostly cheap (or even free) and very easy to do. Here are some suggestions:

• Providing shout-outs
  • This helps when it comes from a manager or higher up- in fact, a study by Quantum Workplace showed that 52% of employees want more direct recognition from their immediate manager
• Set up a fun day where they can let some steam off and do an activity together (who knows, maybe an Amazing Race!). It’s far better when the activities aren’t directly related to their work tasks.
• Write a thank you card or put flowers on their desk
• Offer personal development days where they can choose what they want to focus on
• Host a themed costume day or a bring-your-pet-to-work day!
• Just say thank you

Introduction

In any business, having an effective team is critical to success. But what makes a team effective? And how can you create an environment in which team members work together harmoniously to achieve common goals?

The answer lies in the power of optimism. When team members are optimistic about the team’s ability to accomplish its goals, they are more likely to be engaged and productive. Optimism is one of the key driving forces behind effective teamwork. Team building is an essential component of creating an optimistic environment in which team members can thrive. By investing in team building activities, you can improve the way your team works together, achieve better business results and become closer as a result.

The Benefits of Team Building:

Team building has many benefits, both for team members and for the organisation. It helps to create a culture of respect and collaboration, encouraging team members to work together as a cohesive unit and helping to boost morale. Team building activities can also improve communication and problem-solving skills, leading to better decision-making and improved results. What’s more, team building can help build team trust and foster a sense of community. When team members trust each other and feel like a part of a larger team, they are more likely to be motivated and productive. Team building activities can also help increase creativity, as team members are encouraged to think outside the box and come up with new ideas and solutions. These benefits all combine to produce better business results and a more successful team. By investing in team building, you create a positive work environment in which team members can thrive and reach their full potential.

The Power of Optimism:

Optimism is a key factor in successful team building. When team members are optimistic about their team’s ability to achieve its goals, they are more likely to be engaged and productive. Optimism also helps foster collaboration and trust: when team members are optimistic, they are more likely to be open to new ideas and trust in their team’s ability to tackle any challenge. Team building is an excellent way to foster a spirit of optimism within a company as it shows employees that they are worth being invested in and are valued therefore increasing productivity and creating a positive working environment.

Team Building Activities:

To foster a spirit of optimism, it’s important to invest in team building activities. The activities you choose can vary, from team-based exercises to adventurous outings. Whatever activity you choose, make sure it facilitates collaboration and encourages team members to get to know each other better and most. Team building activities should also be fun and engaging and should take you out of the office and into a new environment. Think about what your team members enjoy doing, and plan activities that will be both engaging and meaningful. Team building exercises can also be designed to focus on specific skills, such as problem-solving or communication. By investing in team building exercises, you can create an optimistic environment in which team members are more engaged and motivated to do their best work and also brings teams closer together as a result.

Conclusion:

Optimism is the cornerstone of successful team building – and it can have a significant impact on your business. By investing in team building activities, you create an environment in which team members are engaged, motivated and trust each other. This in turn leads to better business results and a more successful organisation. So don’t underestimate the power of optimism and team building – it has the potential to make all the difference in your business.

In all business environments, you are met with a range of different skill sets and personality types. Each has their own communication style and preferred working process. Although we are all aware that we are all different, it is rarely focused on as an advantage and we tend to occupy our time focusing on the disadvantages of working with someone different from you.

If you have a team that is exactly alike, where everyone talks the same, has the same skills and approaches tasks in the same way, then you are actually at a disadvantage. The diversity of talent in your team is key to the success of becoming a high-performance team.

What is a High-Performance team?

Wikipedia  defines a high-performance team well:  “A group of people with specific roles and complementary talents and skills, aligned with and committed to a common purpose, who consistently show high levels of collaboration and innovation and produce superior results.”

Team building events are the perfect way to showcase the different personality types and superpowers within your team. Almost all team events are outcome driven. This gives the team a clear common purpose or goal. Team building events are a fun and safe way for teams to appreciate each other while moving towards a common goal and learning behaviours akin to a high-performance team.

To be effective when building a high-performance team, the understanding of individual working styles is important. There are many personality profiling tools, but they are all pretty similar when you break them down. The DISC method of personality profiling tool is very well known and has 4 simple personality types – one for each letter of DISC. For simplicity, we will use this profiling model to identify the possible personality types in your team. See the end of the article for a link where your team can do a DISC personality test for free in the space of 20 minutes.

Example of how a Team Activity can positively showcase the effectiveness of a diverse team.

Here we are going to use an example of a very popular team event like the Amazing Race or Scavenger hunt to highlight how each of the DISC personalities might react on a team event.

An Amazing Race or Scavenger Hunt has a clear objective: to complete a set of mandatory challenges either as quickly as you can, or in order  to get as many points as you can. Good team building companies leave teams the task of choosing the order in which they wish to complete the various  tasks. There is always a mix of engaging and inclusive challenges to showcase the various skill sets within the group: decoding riddles, construction challenges, creative challenges, timed food relays, photo challenges, trivia and problem solving. There needs to be a great variety of challenges so everyone gets their chance to shine.

How the Disc Personalities and strengths and weaknesses will come in to play in this scenario

D – Dominant

Positive

• Dominant people are great leaders that back themselves and are very decisive.
• Dominant people have no problem approaching people in the street and asking them to partake in a challenge. They usually have the ‘gift of the gab’.
• Dominant people are goal-oriented and their natural competitiveness is put on show and appreciated.
• Dominant people have a can-do attitude

Negative

• They generally lack attention to detail and, although they love to control, the multiple moving and changing components in the game will likely confuse and even frustrate them.
• They are often the first to give up if they haven’t done well in a particular challenge, or if they feel they are losing overall. 

I – Influential

Positive

• Influential people love thinking outside of the box and are open to new challenges and new ways of thinking.
• They are generally creative in their approach to things. Natural innovators and the intrapreneurs in the group.
• When committed to a short-term task they don’t give up easily.

Negative

• They are often not-so-good with time management.
• They are less likely to prioritise tasks that will benefit the greater good, they like to focus on what they are good at.

S- Steady

Positive

• Steady people are the do-ers in the group – the implementers of ideas.
• They are task-oriented and are practical in their approach to doing the challenges. They love lists and naturally prioritise.
• They have a great understanding of the personalities in the group and love the human connection.

Negative

• They can get distracted by the needs of other personality types.
• They don’t necessarily like coming up with ideas.

C – Conscientious

Positive

• Conscientious people are analytical and detail-oriented.
• They are great listeners.
• They love rules and show integrity – They will have a very clear idea of how the game is meant to work and the task at hand.

Negative

• They are not leaders and can find it hard to express their opinion.
• Even if they are good at something they are more likely to hold back if someone has already volunteered for a task.

How the different personalities complement each other

As the game plays out, the team will realise how important it is to have different personalities within the group, and how opposing behaviours can actually work to complement each other.

For example,

The Dominant style Personality is ‘gung-ho’ and loves to lead. The Conscientious type does not like to lead. But where the Dominant type has only really understood a basic concept of the game and its intricacies, the Conscientious type knows everything there is to know about the game. This forces the conscientious person to want to be heard as they are all about the rules and the details. Because the Dominant person and the conscientious person want to win. Possibly more than the other personality types their combined goal forces communication and appreciation of each other and what each brings to the table.

Steady and Influential personalities also find a compromise and a way to complement each other. The Influential person will be busy coming up with unique and wonderful ways to deliver a result that will be better than the other teams and win them bonus points, but they may do this without prioritising tasks. This is where the Steady person comes in. They have a keen awareness of the overall time allocated to complete all tasks and are therefore able to help manage the time for the influential person and ensure calculated decisions are made based on the desired time spent on each of the challenges in comparison to the points up for grabs.

All of these elements will play out in the game. By talking about personality types and what a high-performance team is at the start of the game, this premise then becomes something they actively think about during the game, and something they will talk about after the game and for the months following the game.

How do the key factors of a High Performance Team play out during team building events using the example of an Amazing Race or Scavenger hunt

Within a High Performance Team, people are highly skilled and able to share information and interchange their roles. Everyone has a different set of skills and priorities. These skill-sets ensure that the group has a variety of ears and eyes that are there to take in information and focus on the task at hand. This is constantly re-evaluated and prioritised, often by different participants within the team at any one time. With so many moving parts and with it being a new challenge for them, we see the importance of clear communication, delegation and ownership of the tasks at hand.

 

Also, leadership within the team is not necessarily for a single individual. Instead, the leadership role is taken up by various team members, according to the need at that moment in time. No one individual can carry the entire team, with so many components used to make the game varied, fun and competitive. Different skill sets are required to do well in the various tasks. Different team members will put up their hand to take the lead on  various challenges. E.g, – The Dominant person will put themselves out there and do the more embarrassing tasks, whilst also driving and pushing the group. The Influential person will excel at creating photos, construction challenges, and other ‘creative’ challenges. The Steady person will ensure that all is being done effectively in the given timeframe, and tend to hold onto the game kit.. once the Dominant person has decided to relinquish control 😉 The Conscientious person will have the patient and analytical mind geared to solve the riddles and puzzles, as well as having a great concept of all the game elements, and what it takes to win overall.

High Performance Teams have robust methods of resolving conflict efficiently, so that conflict does not become a roadblock to achieving the team’s goals. With a limited time frame,  teamwork is essential for supporting each other through the approach to the game. Teams need to efficiently and effectively resolve any differences when it comes to their game strategy and implementation. This is a new challenge, and positional power doesn’t come into play. It’s a new team with a new task. There is limited emotion involved in deciding the best way to approach it. Time is ticking and individuals are constantly asked to compromise on their ideas for the good of the team and respect the team’s decision.

Collectively, the team has its own consciousness, indicating shared norms and values within the team. Team members display high levels of mutual trust towards each other. The team feels a strong sense of accountability for achieving their goals.  These games are fun, challenging and achievable. The team is required to compromise and be open to sharing ideas and information. The task or goal is clear, and they are aware that as a team, they must understand each other’s skills and motivations to ensure they are working together to do better than the other teams. They form a bond and a connection with their team, and this connection is bolstered by fun, play and a sense of achievement.

There is a sense of clear focus and intense energy within a High Performance Team. The brevity of this game and with time as the obstacle, teams, and individuals within the team, have no choice but to throw themselves completely into the challenge at hand. They don’t have time to get into-their-heads about why they can’t do a particular challenge. They are accountable to the team. The fun and playfulness of this team building event see teams approach the task at hand with energy and conviction.

The Harvard Business review has a great article on the 5 things High Performance Teams do differently to your average team. Almost all of these aspects are showcased by engaging the help of a professional team building company,  getting the team out for some fun and connection by  the way of a team building activity.

In conclusion

A great team building activity should not only be highly fun and super motivating, it should cleverly highlight the various personalities within the team and how important their role and skill-set is. It should focus on the importance of working together, and how different personalities in a team can complement each other. It should work to help the team understand that a clear vision or goal increases engagement and accountability. It should leave the team in deep reflection and satisfaction that they are part of a bigger team with awesome skills where individuals see the value in what they do and who they are as well as seeing the value in what others do and who they are.

Why not do a free DISC test with your team so you can highlight the strengths and celebrate the diversity in your team.

Searching for a venue to hold your next team building event in Sydney? Here’s a few tips and suggestions from one of the leading team building activity providers in Australia, Great Race Australia. Having run thousands of team building events all across Australia, you’d be hard-pressed to find a venue we haven’t been to!

Whilst there are many factors to consider the obvious and consistently most important one is BUDGET! You don’t need to spend massive ‘corporate’ dollars to find a great space and thinking outside the (CBD) box can save you quite a bit! Consequently this handful of recommendations are going to be sorted by price range!

Once you have narrowed down some ideas within the budget, we can then move to the important questions relating to your specific needs from the venue – are you meeting/conferencing at the same time? What activity have you got planned? What technical requirements do you require? What food and beverage requirements do you want/need? Do you require accommodation?

BEST CORPORATE TEAM BUILDING VENUES IN SYDNEY – BY BUDGET!

On the cheaper side…

• Harbour View Hotel, right under the Sydney Harbour Bridge in The Rocks. This venue has two private function rooms (Bridge Room and Cap Room) that cater to functions and conferences. Their restaurant menu has recently been updated and their rooftop terrace has one of the best views of any hotel in Sydney. Best part is, it’s all very reasonably priced! We have finished thousands of events at this little hidden gem!
• The Sporting Globe, King St Wharf. Don’t be fooled by this establishment – downstairs in their Centre Court space you have room for 140 seated guests in a purpose built function space. It’s perfect for addresses, award presentations, or in our case an indoor team building activity or wrap up to one of our Amazing Race events. An incredible location and one that typically sits well within budget.
• The Occidental Hotel, York St. So, this is about as budget as it gets, but I think you’ll find real value for money here. Across the road from Wynyard Station, a few floors up is the Occidental’s Glenmore Function Room. Is it modern and pretentious? No, but it is a fantastic space in a prime location that offers one the cheapest venue hires in the Sydney CBD! Look past the slightly dated interior and you have everything you need for an indoor team building venue for peanuts!
• Club York, York St. Much like the Occidental Hotel this isn’t the most up-to-date venue, but, for its location and facilities, value for money is well represented here. The sizeable theatre holds a couple of hundred comfortably seated. Get them in and then leave the rest to us! Our indoor team building events are as entertaining as they are beneficial to your team so the immediate surroundings will be the last thing on your or their minds! We’ve hosted some of the biggest banks in the country in this venue with great success, proving you don’t need to spend tens of thousands on a venue!

Mid-Range Venue…

• Vibe Hotel, Goulburn St. Vibe is a great budget-friendly accommodation chain and their Sydney Hotel on Goulburn St offers fantastic conference rooms at a reasonable price. Location is fantastic, particularly if you are mixing your meeting with one of our Amazing Race style events.
• North Bondi Surf Life Saving Club, Bondi Beach. The danger we face every time we run an event at the North Bondi Surf Life Saving Clubs’ function rooms is being upstaged by the views. We’ve placed this venue in the mid-range price bracket as even though it’s not the cheapest in this bracket, it can’t be denied that it offers great value for money considering what you get!
• The Sydney Masonic Centre, Castlereigh St. This imposing building is actually steeped in the history of Sydney. It’s prime central location now boasting a monolithic piece of architecture. Inside are numerous purpose-built function rooms that are perfect for hosting conferences, meetings, and, of course, team building events. The incredible banquet hall is the perfect setting for our ‘FilmFest’ a Short Film Making Team Building Activity, that is followed by its signature Screening Session and Oscars Ceremony.
• The Cruising Yacht Club Of Australia, Rushcutters Bay. The Freya Room at the CYCA has hosted a number of our events. What we love about this venue is actually leaving it…! Meet, mingle, eat here but then join us just outside in Rushcutters Bay Park for an outdoor team building activity like our Survivor Challenge. It’s a simply gorgeous spot to get out, enjoy some sun, have some fun and then get back into nitty gritty!

Higher End Venues…

• Ovolo, What a spot! Ovolo has quite a few function rooms, but there really is something about The Piper Room. The feeling just walking in is so quintessentially ‘Sydney Wharf Industrial’. The smell of the wooden floors, the perfect lighting, it just feels ‘spesh’! Our Game Show Conference Activity lights this room up and it truly is a pleasure to work in this space.
• Pier One Sydney Harbour, The Rocks. The Water @ Pier One – the views, oh the views! This venue is all about looking out onto Sydney Harbour and then trying not to get distracted. This is run by Marriott, so as you would expect comes with a price tag befitting the best location in Sydney. But for those lucky enough to be able to splurge on a location of this calibre you’ll not be disappointed. We’re very fortunate to regularly use this venue as the start and finish location of our Rocks Amazing Race. The Rocks is our favourite location of anywhere in Australia to run an Amazing Race as it’s back alleys, cobble-stone streets, and harbourside location is just the perfect setting.
• Luna Park, Milsons Point. It appears the higher end list of venues all have one thing in common – the Harbour. And, similarly so with Luna Park, its Crystal Palace Ballroom with sweeping Opera House and Harbour Bridge views make it a desirable spot for conferences, meetings and team building activities. Our Luna Park Amazing Race is just so much fun – and for obvious reason! An Amazing Race around a theme park? Brilliant! But we’ve also been fortunate to run a good number of our Charity Team Building Activities here too. Our Build A Bike and WaterWorks programs are only made better by setting them in a location this spectacular.
• Cockatoo Island, Sydney Harbour.  This is definitely up there as a favourite location. We love a great excuse to get over to Cockatoo Island and it’s such a wonderful place on which to run a number of our team building events. We’ve created custom Amazing Race events on the Island itself, and it’s the perfect fit for our Survivor Challenge. FilmFest on Cockatoo Island is also an ideal setting and that’s just to name just a few. Lock in an island getaway without practically leaving the CBD!

As the world returns to (relative) normal, there is a driving need for team building activities that re-engage the team and create a culture that will keep your happy workers happier ☺

Attracting and Keeping Talent Biggest Pinch Point for Business in 2023

On the back of the pandemic, workplaces have been faced with a people pandemic of their own. Company culture, employee retention and employee engagement have been of growing importance for all businesses. According to an industry survey by KPMG, the most significant and worrying issue for senior executives this year is attracting and retaining talent. 77% of them ranking it above big concerns like cyber-risks, digital transformation and flexible workplaces.

In the Microsoft Work Trend index 74% of disengaged employees were planning to change jobs. If they are directly looking then they are likely casually quitting.

Gallops State of the global Workplace 2022 report shows that disconnected and less engaged teams saw up to a 43% higher turnover rate than teams that have a sense of belonging and connection. Onboarding new talent is a costly exercise. Once you have considered recruitment training, as well as the resources and time that’s needed to be put into getting them up to speed from your other employees, you’re by then looking into the 10’s of thousands. Which puts the cost of a few, fun team building or engagement events a year into very clear perspective. You can’t afford not to provide fun bonding experiences for your team. Culture is more important than productivity, because culture feeds productivity.

Engagement must be spearheaded by focusing on the happiness and wellbeing of your team.

The Microsoft Work Trend index reports that the last few years have seen a 2% reduction year on year in employee engagement. It’s a worrying downhill trend.

Post covid studies have revealed a definite shift in that most employees are now starting to prioritise health and well-being over work. This only becomes more prominent the younger the employee. So how can a business help them prioritise their wellbeing over work? That seems counterproductive right?

It’s about having empathy as a business. Taking the time to get to know your staff and their needs. Connect managers with their team – team fun and team building activities are a fantastic way to do this. A charity-based team event will go a long way in showing your workforce that the company cares and has empathy. It feels nice to feel like you are doing good and to feel appreciated. 69% of employees believed they would work harder if they were rewarded (not necessarily financially) and reminded on a regular basis that they are appreciated. We should not just be waiting until the end of year Christmas party to do this.

Try a fun indoor team building activity at your next monthly meeting or have your meeting outdoors, walk to a lookout and get some fresh air and some perspective. Take the time to let them know they are truly appreciated.

According to Flexjobs, the top reason for people quitting their job is a poor work culture. Which is why People and Culture Teams are a growing force and of growing importance for leading businesses.

It’s important to check in with your team. And to build a sense of connection and fun. Team building activities have changed a lot over the years. They are more about bonding and less about hitting the team over the head with a set of rules on how to become a more productive team. Teams and individuals become more productive because their wellbeing and their needs are being heard and understood. They have an identity and they are proud to work for a company who cares. Team engagement and connection events don’t have to be in-person. There are many great Online team building options that are not only super effective but also affordable and time efficient. They team will love you and beg you to do more!

Start increasing your team’s engagement now!

What can you do to attract staff and keep them? Iress, A finance tech company offers 6 long weekends a year. Canva gives their staff a Thrive and Vibe allowance to spend on social celebrations, wellbeing and education. Optiver provides gym memberships, free breakfast and an annual trip.

So how do you keep your staff if an annual trip with an in-house personal trainer, barista and chef are not in the realms of possibility?

The answer is … meaningful connection.

Team building activities engage teams and give them a chance to get outside and take a break. According to a Harvard business review 53% of employees feel more exhausted from work than before the pandemic, and 57 % experience enhanced work related anxiety.

Team Building Activities – A Return on Investment

How can team engagement activities improve the bottom line? According to the Harvard business review over 70% of top level executives recognise employee engagement as the key element in business strategy. It’s the main driver of productivity, it filters through to customer satisfaction and greatly benefits organizational culture. Engaged employees are more productive and are happier for it.

The building of a fun and inclusive team culture and brand, along with the offering of perks and incentive, are key factors in employee retention and engagement. Brand loyalty and engagement results in a reduction in employees wanting to or ready to jump ship. If there is limited culture or identity with the business and half the team are working from home there is very little stopping your people from getting online and finding a new or better opportunity, then sending in their letter of resignation. And it’s not about the money.

How to be seen and respected as a company that cares.

Make your staff your company cheerleaders. A happy employee will gladly promote the company in their spare time. It’s a brilliant way to attract new employees and grow your brand.

So how do you do this in a highly transient and competitive market?

Maintaining an open, caring and well-rounded culture is a must – and it’s not as challenging as you might think.  Leaders will need to move with the wants and needs of their employees if they want to engage them and keep them. Team Building and Team connection or engagement activities need to be approached intentionally. They need to be collaborative and fun. They need to build trust in your brand and they need to drive a positive culture. A team that plays together, stays together. It’s that simple.