Team Building Retreats: Everything You Need to Know

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Team building Retreats are one of the most popular ways to increase your team members engagement within the organization. They help the team become more productive, skilled and gelled up with each other.

If you are a manager and looking for team building retreats, then you must read on as this article will give you valuable information about everything you need to know.

What is a Team Building Retreat?

A team building retreat can be mainly be counted as a gathering of the company’s employees and is primarily organized by the management. It is usually hosted in an area which is far from the typical city life and allows the team members to learn and work together. The tasks involved are mainly aimed at developing communication and strengthening relationships among the employees while allowing the manager to bring fun through challenging situations.

Benefits of Planning a Team Building Retreat

Team building retreats give you a plethora of advantages that make them compelling methods of improving your organizational success.

Here are a few reasons, why you should think of planning one:

  • Improvement of teams weaknesses and building up upon strengths – There is always some room for improvement, and with the team building retreats you can particularly target those areas that require growth, for example, lack of communication.
  • Bringing your team together – If you have a team that is working remotely, you can very effectively implement these retreats. These events allow your employees to mingle with each other and understand their distinct personalities.
  • Job satisfaction and motivation – A lot of corporate feels that generating trust between the senior management and the staff induces job satisfaction. The team building retreat is just the right opportunity to enhance that bond between the colleagues.
  • Investing opportunity – Team building events make the employees feel that the company believes in them and that is why they are investing in them. This, in turn, induces a feeling of trust and helps in accomplishing the main motives of team building retreats.

How to Plan a Successful Team Building Retreat

Being a manager, it is imperative that you conduct a successful team building event. Here are some steps you must follow:

  • Create a planning committee – Set aside a group of people who will think about the requirements and will oversee the participation. You can always include those members who are actually going to the retreat, in the planning committee, so that they can make a comprehensive choice while selecting all the things.
  • Clearly define the purpose – Setting up a particular purpose before the activity is an excellent idea as it will help you tackle that particular issue. Go through the team building retreat in a specific way and think about the reasons why you are conducting this activity. A few purposes can be to increase creativity, develop better communication, improve worker relationships and overcome a particular deficiency in the team.
  • Set goals and include everyone – Once the purpose is decided set up goals in order to make sure that you know how to achieve them. A team building retreat, if successful, will increase team engagement and you can provide support by taking participation in the activities yourself and also including the top executives of the organization.

Choosing A Venue

Nowadays team building retreats are very popular, so you have a range of options to choose from, however, when it comes to selecting a venue, you must keep in mind the following things to ensure success.

  • Location – Apparently this is a factor you must consider because it is not advisable to have team building events within the city or near your office. A place in the suburbs or remote locations is often considered to be the best, as they offer a change of air and mood as well.
  • Facilities offered by the venue – A venue that provides suitable accommodation, catering, special arrangements and other relevant facilities is considered as an ideal venue. Ideally, you must choose a venue that is specifically designed for team building events and also has experience in hosting such events.
  • Your budget – There are going to be some venues that are more affordable than others, and if you are a relatively smaller business, then it is essential, to be honest with your budget. However, you can also increase the budget according to the size of your team.
  • Activities you wish to include – You must keep in mind that not every venue is able to provide for all types of events so before choosing a venue, prepare a list of activities you are planning. Then find out if the venue that you are about to decide can host all those activities or not.

Types of Activities That Are Useful at Retreats

Choosing the activities for the events is always cumbersome because there are hundreds of activities to pick from. Be it a scavenger hunt or tug of war; there are some great icebreakers and team building games for you to select.

I personally recommend that you choose activities that are in accordance with the goals that you have set. For example, if you want to improve teamwork, then you can involve a team building activity that requires the team members to work together in order to find a conclusion and win.

Some of the popular team building retreats include –

  • Ice Breaker – Ice Breakers are a powerful tool as they help you in reducing the initial barriers and the awkwardness that a lot of teams face. They are really useful and helping everyone open up along with making them feel more comfortable and relaxed.
  • Team Games – Core sports and mild sports games are great for team building retreats. Such activities really bring people along as a team games also include teamwork and specific communication, that further works positively for your employees.

Just think before choosing the activities for your action day and let the retreat begin!

What Not to Do!

If you want your retreat to be all positive and successful, there are a few things that you should avoid. Try not to organize the event between tight deadlines or within very small teams. If you have limited financial resources, you can prevent the event for some time. You should invite everyone as leaving someone out will work counterproductively, and you should definitely not refrain yourselves from taking feedbacks.

I hope this information has enabled you with everything you need to know about team building retreats.