How to plan a teambuilding event
To achieve success in any team building event it is important that there is clarity about the objective of the exercise. What needs to be changed? What evidence exists that indicates there is a need for a team building event? Please refer to Is teambuilding an issue? to establish this.
Analysis of the results from the completion of the Manager Questionnaire and feedback from team members through the Team Member Survey will identify issues which need to be addressed.
Setting Aims & Outcomes
Setting aims and detailing outcomes for the event will ensure that you are clear about what you want the event to achieve.
The aim is a brief statement which helps define the goals of the team building event. To identify what the aim of the event is there are a few questions which can be answered:
- what is the event trying to achieve?
- what issues or problems have been identified?
- what are you trying to create or improve?
- how will you know you have achieved success?
Outcomes are statements of how the event will meet the aim and will detail the skills and knowledge team members should be able to demonstrate after the event. When designing the aim and outcomes of the event it is important to consider how to evaluate its success, for example, re-issuing the staff questionnaire or through direct observation.
To help define the Aims and Outcomes for the event refer to the Outline of Setting Aims & Objectives template. Other tools you might find useful are:
Team Building Event Preparation Checklist
Details of how to evaluate can be found in the Evaluation section.
Ideas on how to structure an event
When designing a team building event it is important to spend time planning and structuring the session to ensure the aim and outcomes are achieved.
Identify:
- aims and outcomes of the session
- skills, knowledge and behaviour to be addressed
Event design:
- Organise skills, knowledge and behaviours into suitable groupings to develop appropriate content for the event; weight the importance of each of these factors – listing the issues from those which have most to least impact upon the work of the team.
- Allocate the time which will be spent upon activities which will address these factors based upon the needs of the team.
- Decide what procedures are most likely to bring about the desired change.
- Design or choose activities which will address the needs identified through the Manager Questionnaire and the results from the Team Member Survey.
- Download the Design Plan Template and team building activities which can be found in the Resources section.
- Design activities and content which will be realistic for team members. There are different types of events and you need to decide on the style of event you wish to be run.
- Decide on the time which is to be allocated to each activity based upon the importance of the skill or knowledge. Which is having the greatest impact upon the team’s success?
- How will you know the aims have been achieved?
- Consider how you will evaluate the success of the event. More information on evaluation can be found in the Evaluation section
There are a number of external websites which provide details of team building activities which could be used in the design of the event. Although these external sources are reputable, please use this information with caution.
Different types of event
When designing the team building event how it will be run will play an important part in its success. The style chosen may depend upon the team.
- structured – based upon a set agenda
- time bound, controlled by team leader / manager
- follows a strict plan open discussion
- follows an outline agenda but allows flexibility for discussion and in-put from those in the meeting on the day
- facilitated - led by one person who may or may not be the team leader.
The facilitator guides and manages the team through the event, keeping the event on track but remains neutral during the discussions led by team members - the team members design the agenda and run and manage the event.
A library of exercises, activities, simulations and other tools. can be found in the Resources section