The Stubborn Legacy of Bad Team Building Activities

Team building activities in NYC for employees

Yesterday morning, TrivWorks kicked off our weekly Twitter game with friends @TheHashtagGame – we have an active presence on the social media site, and it’s just a fun way to engage with our audience. As a unique company specializing in team building activities for employees in NYC and beyond using live trivia, we wanted our followers to imagine what the world’s worst group bonding event would look like –  as such, we thought it’d be fun to throw out #BadTeamBuildingActivities, and see what folks came up with:

As has been happening surprisingly often lately, our hashtag quickly went viral, becoming one of the top-trending in the nation where it remained for most of the day. CNBC was even nice enough to compile this list of their favorites!

But as I monitored the tweets throughout the day – as well as read the CNBC article – I couldn’t help but feel a little bit sad about the state of my industry. There’s no question that corporate team building has a lousy reputation – chances are, at some point during your time in the workforce, you have been compelled to suffer through some form of “group bonding experience” which made you question many of your career decisions (I know I sure have).

Cheesy. Boring. Ineffective. A complete and utter waste of time. These are a lot of the descriptors which quickly come to mind, and which we have been conditioned over the course of decades to emote when the dreaded activity is upon us. And truth be told, a lot of that negative association is well-deserved; who among us has been forced to spend half a day at an obstacle course with colleagues, and told that it will boost our morale? Who has been made to sit in a room for hours on end, deciding AS A TEAM which objects are most important to take on a camping trip? Who has taken the ridiculously dated (and totally worthless) “trust fall?”

From my unique position having created these types of events for almost a decade, I know firsthand that the reality can be quite different; a well-planned and produced activity, appropriate for the group which can measurably address specific goals while reinforcing positive workplace skills (teamwork, collaboration, communication, conflict resolution, etc.) can absolutely have a lasting positive impact on corporate groups, allowing them to work better, be more productive, and boost the bottom line. It’s sad that in the 21st Century, people are still beholden to the mindset that all team building events suck.

Well, fortunately they don’t. Click here to learn more!

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