High-Energy Team Building Activities: Beyond the Trust Fall
High-energy team building activities don’t have to include aerobics, white water rafting, or other sometimes challenging physical activities. Although those can be fun and productive, they’re not necessary for an engaging, energized team program. A truly energetic team can find its spark in many ways.
You’ll want to include challenge, participant buy-in, authenticity, and success to create the energy that leads to a successful team building event. These attributes all contribute to a great program—and a great program contributes to increased employee engagement.
The problem is that it’s difficult to find authentic team programs that appeal to you and your workforce. There are many well-worn formulas that people are tired of, and there are too many uncomfortable forced bonding experiences that can drain the energy right out of a room. Finding a program for your high-energy team is a worthwhile investment.
A team building program that generates energy will pay dividends beyond the event itself. This is worth doing. And it’s worth the time to find a program that fits your team. Let’s consider the basic elements and traits you should be looking for in a program that won’t put you to sleep!
Elements of High-Energy Team Building Activities
If you find yourself saying, “Hey, I put energy into that trust fall and all I got was a sore butt from getting dropped,” I hear you. I have been through plenty of bad team building experiences myself. I’ve seen it all in the team building space, and it’s not good.
Consider these elements an integral part of every program to find a program that will help your team exude energy, boost motivation, and generate excitement.
- Communication: A great high-energy team building activity will allow your employees to communicate with each other. This could look like sharing ideas, solving clues, or even giving direction to one another. If you don’t see the potential for your team members to communicate with each other and the facilitator, the event may not represent much of an energy buy-in.
- Collaboration: During the event, give your team the chance to work together on a project. You don’t want a team-building activity that involves a lot of passive listening or siloed individual work. Ideally, there should be space for each team member to contribute and collaborate.
- Shared Goals: Is your team working together towards a shared goal during the event? If there is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, your team might not be incentivized to contribute their talents and energy. Make sure you’ll be accomplishing something together during your event.
- Push the Comfort Zone: Growth most often occurs outside our comfort zone. That’s why it’s essential to push the boundaries of that comfort zone just a bit with any high-energy activities for adults. The zing of excitement from stepping outside your day-to-day norm is foundational to all high-energy team building activities. Don’t worry, I’m not suggesting taking the whole office skydiving. But it’s wise to push it a little bit!
- Movement: Is there some opportunity for movement during your chosen event? Whether standing out of your seats and clapping, moving around a room to solve clues, or making music, movement helps add energy and beat boredom. And most of us sit too much during our typical work week.
Programs To Energize Your Team
Here are specific program ideas that should fit your goals of delivering an engaging, high-energy team building activity.
- Escape Game: Escape challenges have been overdone lately, but there’s a good reason. As one of the top game night ideas, the activities are challenging and will keep your energy level up as you work together to solve a series of clues. Communication and collaboration will abound as your group moves around the room to solve clues.
- White Water Rafting: If you have an adventurous group and your location or travel budget allows for it, try whitewater rafting. This is one of the best high-energy activities for adults. Leave the comfort zone on dry land and prepare to take on some serious currents. Your group will have to communicate and collaborate to keep the boat afloat and make it through the obstacles that lie ahead on the river.
- Team Building Energizers With Music: You know that feeling you get at a concert? You’re inspired, moving with the beat, and focused on the present moment. Think of concerts you’ve attended with friends or family; you’ll probably be thinking about the bonds you formed. A talented high-energy entertainer can harness the power of music to create a company song with your team. This collaboration, creation, and live performance will bring your team to a new level.
Great Team Building Should = Energy
Communicate, collaborate, push your comfort zone, and move. Make sure your team program has these attributes. Imagine the pay-off when your entire group comes out of a program with that specific something, that energy, building buzz. It will pay off at the office. Higplease h-Energy Team Building Activities: Beyo
- Here are 4 more examples of rocking team building.