By historicbanningmills; photos by Terratribes

Team building seems to have lost its way over the past several years. Most employees hear the phrase team building by management and quickly start contemplating ways to avoid the same old same old activities.

It is important for employers and employees to fully understand the purpose and dynamics of team building activities as well as finding a resource that offers appealing activities to make the team building exercises more welcoming and well, FUN!

Team building activities are intended to improve performance in a team-based environment. Team building is one of the foundations of organizational development and morale that can be applied to companies, corporation and other groups such as sports teams, school classes, military units or flight crews. The formal definition of team-building includes:

• *aligning around goals
• *building effective working relationships
• *reducing team members’ role ambiguity
• *finding solutions to team problems
• *Fun, our specialty, is an important component of team building, but the intent is become productive, focused, and aligned. Our activities are geared towards creating a learning environment, exceeding results and engaging team members.

Competitive activities allow teams to own their actions by producing meaningful results. Collaborative team building activities push teams to work together to produce results.

The best team building experiences are the ones that allow passionate, dedicated and talented people to give their best towards a common goal, towards a shared vision of success.

In our experience, outdoor team building works best because

• Employees get out of the indoor office settings and into nature
• Sunshine and outside environments increase attention for participants and lift moods/spirits
• Outside events tend to be remembered longer.
• Better participation because it is not the “same old, same old”
• New Experiences tend to increase creativity, a willingness to step outside the box for new idea production, higher energy levels and productivity and yes, change does produce stress but it is a good kind of stress.
• Effective team building will build trust among coworkers, assist in conflict resolution skills, increase collaboration and promote positive communication techniques. Every workplace will have challenges and struggles, but providing an environment where your employees can communicate, verbally and non-verbally, with respect and specific needs are key to a healthy team-based environment.