Team Build ideas please

[IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads]

I need to come up with ideas for a department team build, for about 120 people for about half a day. These are people who are normally spread over 7 offices across Yorkshire. We have access to large yards, depots, fields, or could go offsite. Our larger venues are pretty rural
Men and women. School leavers to retirement age.

Suggestions for an informal football/cricket/softball/table tennis tournament have been vetoed as not inclusive for less able bodied. Similarly, suggestions of wellness activities - eg: hiring a yoga instructor and/or a sauna etc wete met with done very raised eyebrows.

All I can think of is a "bring your own" world food huddle, but I'm not sure I can spin this out for 3 or 4 hours.

No alcohol. Daytime. Normal working hours.

Budget - variable - I will need to "sell" the idea to the work Sports and Social to fund, but they have funded up to £2000 in the past.

That’s a low price per head. You need to do a DIY thing probably. It needs to include food too ! What about a “you choose” event - so an active area (work before had some table tennis, table football, hired one of those light reactor things which was good fun), then a board game area, then a speaker event in one room. We’ve had a photo treasure hunt before in groups where you get sent the next clue after sending a pic to prove you solved the first. It’s all quite cringe if people don’t know each other that well though!

Things we have done on mass in the past is a murder mystery interactive play. So a bit of a performance and then in teams you'd get to ask the cast questions and you have to fill in a sheet of questions and come up with the answers and overall who the murder was. Better than I can explain it.

Treasure hunts around a city, again teams, you can download and answer all the questions on a phone. Fastest time and most correct answers win.

A mini village fete - hookaduck, coconut shy. Welly wanging, hotdogs, cake competition, etc

bushcraft type event - fire lighting, shelter building, wood whittling etc

silent disco - works out at £10 a head. They deliver to you and pick it up again. Was really simple. We just did it for our scout camp and everyone from age 6-60 LOVED it. Can have multiple playlists to suit different tastes.

No way would I join in with a silent disco with work colleagues!

We did a team building event which was to build artificial limbs for people in war zones. Felt very rewarding.

Not sure it was this one but there are several organisations that do this. Best team building I've ever done. handproject.org/en/unique-and-powerful-combination-of-team-building-and-charity/

Escape rooms, or outdoor adventure eg like tough mudder etc?

Some cheap team building exercises like building a tower out of spaghetti, arts and crafts type stuff, stuck on an island / the moon how would you get out, a problem solving session, Ice breakers etc….:split group up into teams and move them around the activities, then have a buffet lunch.

or urban exploration activities ? obviously with permission from the buildings owners

Main remit is nothing sporty!

It doesn't need to include food.

Love the idea of a mini village fete!

fair points i missed that one on the op, different rooms for different group activities eg crafting in one, knitting in another, espionage in another etc

Mini village fete works well and is relatively easy to set up. Our work does one each year with a BBQ.

A treasure hunt/escape room type affair would also work quite well. You can have different teams on different missions in the same space.

Lego competitions always go down well. Give teams a theme. You can either buy a lot of Lego and donate it afterwards, or sometimes libraries or community groups have it.

Lego!! That is an amazing idea. There is actually a Lego buy/sell/activity/party place not far from one of the depots. DS had a party there once. I wonder if they can run something.

The hand building looks interesting too. We built bird boxes with the RSPB once. About 15 years ago!

I think the village fete idea is the way to go. Just doing a quick search for activities and found this article, which has a useful list:
https://www.villageandcottage.com/village-life/village-fete-games/?utm_content=cmp-true

Why do managers waste time, effort and money on forced fun that most people dread, ? So many childish suggestions suitable for Brownies/Cubs not adults.

We had one and tbh hate things like this but it was brilliant

it was based on the cube off tele can’t remember them all

a washing up bowl full off red and white ping pong balls you had a set amount of time 30 sec to put the different coloured balls into separate bowls

you had to guess 35 seconds against a stop watch

cut a piece of string to 6 inches

had to throw a football into a bin about 15foot away

stacking 10 plastic cups into a pyramid everyone records a time to see was fastest

Plastic pipe fastened diagonally to wall about you held your hand 3 inches from end of pipe someone dropped a ping pong ball down it and you had to catch it

2 Dice 3 rolls to get total of 20

then we had a game of play your card right

and stand up bingo

The most successful one I organised was a half day of helping out a community charity.

We fetched up with 150 people painted the place top to bottom, replanted the garden.

That was a few years ago and everyone agreed they loved it because it was productive and everyone joined in because there was a purpose.

The team building came from the shared experience.

The ones I’ve enjoyed the most have been charity type ones - we’ve gone to a local woodland place and pulled out lots of saplings / bramble clearance. It feels like you’re actually doing something useful and it’s a nice way of chatting and working together in a more natural way. Lunch afterwards and everyone gets to go home early.

Village fete / bbq with a few games / hoopla / ice cream van is good too - basically people sitting around chatting. 120 people is too much for a coordinated activity like escape room I reckon.

Dont do like one place I know and have an “improvisation workshop”. A few people LOVED it but predictably many people felt very very awkward!

Couldn't put it better myself.

I mean - just why ??

Might be useful to start off with an anonymous* questionnaire about why this isn't a team, or if it is, what can make it better? and then plan around that.

*Not like the ones exjob had that were allegedly anonymous but started off asking 'what area of the company do you work in?'

We already have 2 "social outcome" days a year, where we have planted trees, built drystone walls, cleared footpaths, planted bulbs, etc within individual teams. This is more of a department get-to-know-you type day. 40% of staff have been in post less than a year, and 40% over 10 years!

They will undoubtedly beca Sli.do poll!

It's not so much that the team doesn't "work", but that we have 7 teams spread across Yorkshire, who cover different patches, and rarely meet ordinarily.

We've done a pub quiz (not in a pub, just a venue) with drinks and food and that was quite good for a range of people.
The charity ideas from PPs are very good too!

Other team days out that have gone down well have been a murder mystery thing , a treasure hunt and and "aim an _emoyee get me out of here" bush tucker trial.