Most corporate team-building activities get a bad reputation because they often feel forced, and teams can tell. It’s easy for everyone to simply participate in the event until it’s over, with little engagement or enthusiasm from team members.
When activities spark new ideas and give everyone something to talk about afterward, it can bring together small groups of employees or entire departments, helping participants connect with one another. The best team-building experiences get people out of their usual environment and into something unexpected.
Art-Based Team-Building Activities That Spark Collaboration
Art-based team building serves a specific purpose: it removes hierarchy. Regardless of someone’s position within a company, when they enter a gallery, no one has their work expertise to hide behind. The director, who has been working in the industry for several years, does not know what the newest hire knows about the art on the walls. This level of equality allows for genuine cooperation and collaboration.
Gallery-Guided Creative Challenges
Teams visit a museum or art gallery and complete an activity inspired by the artwork on display. Teams can complete a sketch of one of the artworks or utilize a docent or guide to learn about and discuss the artwork as a group. Many teams find that their discussions of art uncover the same dynamics that exist within the team at work.
Collaborative Painting and Mixed-Media Workshops
Companies can also host corporate team-building activities in the studio to create something from scratch. This requires the same skills as any creative project that the teams may work on for their jobs, such as communication, shared decision-making, and trial-and-error. Teams can create artwork together and have a lasting memory of the team-building event.
Art-Inspired Problem-Solving Exercises
Discussing artwork can help teams work through their problems creatively. For instance, each team can discuss the problems the artist faced while creating the artwork and how they solved them. Teams can apply these lessons to the challenges that they face in their jobs. This is one of the best ways of reframing team building as professional development for employees.
For teams in Orlando looking to combine art-inspired event themes with a genuine gallery setting, you can host a private corporate event at OMA, which includes access to gallery spaces and distinctive environments for group exercises.
Hands-On Workshops and Team-Building Experiences
Not every team wants to start with a gallery. For teams that want to create something together they can be proud of, there are various corporate team-building activities that quickly put everyone in “beginner mode,” but produce something tangible that the team can reminisce about later.
Cooking Challenges
Cooking challenges require teams to cook a meal within a budget and theme using ingredients that may be unfamiliar. Organizing a team in a chaotic kitchen to plan and execute a meal can reveal how they communicate best under pressure, but offered in a fun way where the stakes aren’t so high. Afterward, everyone gets to enjoy the meal that they cooked together.
Improv Workshops
Improv workshops have a documented history of improving team communication. These workshops offer an environment filled with laughter and low barriers to participation in improv activities, fostering confidence with ambiguous directions and improving listening skills. Led by a professional facilitator, these workshops can be as effective as leadership programs.
Design-Thinking Sprints
Design-thinking sprints allow teams to work through a fun, non-work problem of their choosing to enhance creative problem-solving skills. In this context, failure and experimentation are expected, so participants feel safe trying something new. These sprints allow teams to learn skills for overcoming challenges that can be applied to their work.
Pottery, Printmaking, and Craft-Based Sessions
Pottery, printmaking, and craft activities offer a different, slower experience from the other high-energy activities. These sessions are perfect for teams that spend most of their day in front of screens. Through crafting, teams learn the value of reflective conversation and slowing down to evaluate their work. Most studios can accommodate teams of 10-50 people and offer both 2-hour and half-day booking options.
Indoor Team-Building Activities for Large Groups
Scaling fun team-building activities for work to larger groups doesn’t mean sacrificing quality. There are several formats that work well for teams of 50 to 200 people, and some even work better with larger groups.
Scavenger Hunts Through Cultural Venues or Neighborhoods
Scavenger hunts through cultural venues or neighborhoods can work well with larger groups. Teams form into smaller groups for scavenger hunts, then come back together to compare and debrief. These types of corporate team-building activities highlight unique items of interest that focus on discovery, where teams encounter things they wouldn’t normally look for. This is one of the more versatile team-building activities because it accommodates teams of all roles and skill levels.
Custom Trivia Competitions
Corporate team-building ideas such as custom trivia competitions work well with large groups and require minimal setup. Trivia questions can range from company culture and industry knowledge to general trivia that allows everyone on the team to participate. With the right questions and participants, a custom trivia event can even work as part of the onboarding process for new employees, while refreshing knowledge for more tenured staff.
Escape-Room-Style Challenges
Escape-room-style challenges can work well for teams with larger group sizes, and many are portable experiences that don’t require a dedicated room. These challenges require teams to complete a series of puzzles and riddles within a time limit, creating pressure to think and work collectively and to delegate roles and actions. Escape room challenges work well as corporate team-building events for teams that prefer more competitive or structured challenges over open-ended creative team-building activities.
Collaborative Murals And Large-Scale Group Art Projects
Another great indoor team-building activity for larger groups is doing collaborative murals or other group art projects. Every team member can contribute to the art project, regardless of their role in the company, and the result can be proudly displayed in the organization’s space. These activities work especially well as opening or closing activities for a larger event, reinforcing the company’s or the event’s main mission or themes.
Choosing the Right Venue Makes Team-Building Easier
Venue choice is one of the most underrated aspects of planning a corporate team-building event. The right venue can alleviate significant stress for the coordinator, allowing them to accomplish a substantial portion of the event planning before the event even begins. A good setting also ensures that employees feel removed from “work mode” and are comfortable in a non-work setting.
Factors to consider for the event venue include:
- Appropriate spaces for the team
- AV features
- Catering options
- A setting distinct from the office
Many cultural venues (such as museums, historic buildings, or art centers) often have the features needed for a successful team-building event. These locations may have multiple event spaces, event coordinators, and inherently distinctive spaces that require little to no additional decoration to make the venue special for employees.
For companies planning team-building activities in Orlando, when you host a private corporate event at OMA, you get museum-quality facilities alongside genuine gallery spaces, allowing you to combine a distinctive venue with art-based programming in a single location. See Why Host Your Next Corporate Event at OMA for a full overview of the spaces and coordination services.
If you’re looking more broadly for How to Plan an Event in Orlando, you can find logistics guidance on planning any kind of group event with multiple indoor and outdoor spaces, event coordination, and practical considerations from start to finish.
Build an Event That Fits Your Team
The best corporate team-building activities for adults do not feel like an obligation to employees. Instead, they place employees in a new context and provide a positive, creative experience they can share and build upon when they return to their work.
Above all, the format of these activities should be focused on the event’s intention: to take employees out of their usual environment and into one that pushes them to discover new and creative problem-solving skills and communication techniques.
Ready to plan a corporate trip? Plan your visit to explore what OMA offers for groups, or contact us directly to learn more about hosting private events at the museum.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are good corporate team-building activities for large corporate groups?
Look for activities that are inherently competitive and feature team breakouts. Some good options for groups of 50 to 200 include scavenger hunts, trivia competitions, escape rooms, and art jam sessions. Any venue for these activities should include multiple rooms so that each group can enjoy them together, while also having time to decompress with their teammates in smaller groups.
What makes art-based team-building activities effective?
Art removes the hierarchy of expertise between team members. In any art gallery or studio, no individual has a specific skill set that gives them an advantage over another team member. Thus, it encourages the common ground that most corporate team-building activities aim to foster among employees. Additionally, many art-based activities require the same soft skills that are needed in the workplace.
How long should a corporate team-building event be?
Most team-building activities should last between two and four hours. This length of time allows corporate team-building activities to foster relationships between team members without leaving them fatigued from the event. Half-day activities are an option if the activity requires a longer time commitment or if team members live in different locations. Full-day activities are best reserved for off-site corporate locations or retreats where team-building is one component of a larger program.
