Team building activities generally fall into the following four main categories:

• Team Social – these are activities that usually center around food & bev where the structure is quite loose and casual.  Think of your typical Happy Hour and this is it.  Planning socials are generally quite straightforward.

• Team Outing – these usually include an activity that involves specialized equipment, location or setting.  For example, bowling, baseball games, movie screening, Go-Kart racing or ski trips.  Organizing these events vary in complexity depending on how far you have to travel and the amount of prep needed by each individual to participate.

• Skill Building – these activities generally involve problem solving or working together to achieve a common goal.  Examples include communication workshops, escape rooms, bridge or tower building competitions.

• Interest-based Experiences – these activities are based on interest expressed by the employee base and can range from personal interests like making succulent terrariums, to seasonal interests like wreath-making during the holiday season.  Organizing successful interest-based experiences takes thoughtful planning, employee surveys and finding subject matter experts to facilitate the experience.  Garden Streets specializes in interest-based activities and offers 5-star experiences in categories such as food & bev, arts & crafts, seasonal & holiday and more.  Booking is easy.  Just give us a shout via our Contact Us form and we’ll be in touch shortly.

Team bonding is all about sharing common experiences.  There are so many things teams can do together, but the best types for bonding are ones that are inclusive, meaningful, fun and ideally have something that’s physical, via physical activities or making something with hands. 

All Garden Streets events are designed with these characteristics in mind.  Many teams report that their employees continue to talk about and share what they made during the event, long after the event date!

Here are some of our top recommendations:

• Succulent terrarium building
• Watercolor painting 
• Modular origami (or Dollar Bill Origami)
• Make-your-own wreath
• Gingerbread house decorating
• Birdhouse making
• Collaborative mural painting
• Bonsai tree 101
• Houseplants 101
• Laughter yoga with a drag queen

Talk to our team for personalized recommendations for your team!

We have been working with hundreds of companies on team building and would summarize our recommended strategy to the following 7 steps:

• Discovery.  This step is all about understanding where the team needs.  Is it a cohort of new employees who need to meet others?  Is it a team that has recently faced some challenges and needs to regroup?
• Ideation.  This step is to ideate ways to address the needs of the team.  This may take the form of surveys and / or brainstorming sessions.  The goal here is to involve everyone in the acknowledgement that team building is needed and to get their thoughts on how they’d like to do it.  
• Exploration.  This step is about taking the ideas and exploring the solutions.  For example, if the team is looking to get to know each other better (discovery) and is interested in doing some fun activities together (ideation), this step of exploration is all about finding potential activities and vendors.
• Commitment.  This step is to commit to doing something, let it be a single event, or “we will do monthly events for a year”.  Taking such a step also involves commitment in resources (budget and time).
• Planning.  Now it’s down to planning the schedule for events and teams, talking to vendors to get availability and pricing, etc.  Depending on the level of commitment, this may mean multiple events, multiple vendors and requires dedicated personnel to manage. 
• Implementation.  This step is for booking events, coordinating calendar invites, venues, shipping (for remote team members to get materials) and actually putting the ‘show’ on!
• Evaluation.  This step is about doing post-event surveys so you know how it went and what can be done differently.  The data from this step becomes input during the next discovery phase and completes the loop for building amazing teams.

Garden Streets can help with all of the above!  Contact us!

Team building is when people get together, do something and get to know each other better.  The goal is for everyone to enjoy each other’s company in a non-work setting so the good will will translate into the workplace.  There is a saying that “To know someone is to love someone”.  In the professional setting, it translates to “people work better together when they know and trust each other”.  

Some of our favorite team building events include:

• Icebreakers – Two Truths and a Lie
• Potluck – great way to try out each other’s favorite foods and culinary traditions
• Garden together – getting your hands dirty together and back to the roots is a great way to create and build something (a garden) that’s fulfilling.  Garden Streets specializes in gardening and nature events with kits for herb gardens, wreath making, succulent terrariums and more.
• Laugh together – Do a Laughter Yoga and enjoy each other’s laughter.  It is indeed the best medicine and can boost moods for multiple days!
• Paint together – Be collaborative and make a piece of art together that can be displayed in the lobby or other white walls around the office.  This is not only a great team-building event, but also a great way to celebrate team achievements and activate the company brand.
• Walk together – Doing walking challenges is a great way to build healthy habits while spending time together in small groups.  Walking relaxes the mind and is easily accessible to employees, wherever they are. 
• Celebrate together – Holiday or seasonal themed events are excellent for getting people together around a common topic.  Ask each other their favorite Halloween costumes, favorite candy, or New Year’s traditions. 

The end of the week is a special time.  People are generally in a good mood looking forward to a weekend of relaxation.  Perhaps they feel proud of all that they’ve accomplished during the week.  It’s a great time to bring the team together.

Here are some of our favorites:

• Share “Rose, Thorn and Bud” with each other.  Rose is something that went well during the week.  Thorn is something that didn’t go as well.  Bud is something that you’re looking forward to.
• Catered lunch or go out for a team lunch at a local restaurant.  Free food is always welcome!  Take it up a notch and add some treats and fun activities like Cookie Decorating.
• Send a surprise gift.  This could be something as small as a pack of cookies or cash to spend on a movie during the weekend, or something more substantial like a surprise kit to make something together as a team. 
• Do a fun activity together with a wellness and hands-on aspect.  Activities like watercolor painting, laughter yoga or making a succulent terrarium are very enjoyable to do together and provides fond memories going into the weekend and beyond!
• Run a raffle based on things that people do during the week, such as recycling or turning lights off in the office to save energy.  
• Do a fun office-themed trivia game.
• Have a board game ‘night’ where groups get together to play board games.
• Have a ping pong tournament.  Ping pong is a fast sport and can be played during the week, with the finalists getting together for a ‘showdown’ on Friday.
• Team outing such as baseball game or movie screening.