9 Outdoor Team Building Activities to Make Work Fun

When it’s nice outside, people don’t want to be cooped up indoors, especially if it’s in a work environment. Managers want their employees to perform better, be more productive and work well together. You can learn more about tips to be productive and managing your time well through this course that we offer. If you are able to manage your time and become more productive, you will be able to pass on these traits to your teammates. This course will help you to overcome procrastination and how your personality type contributes to your productivity.

One of the ways you can pass on tricks for productivity, team bonding and just improving overall morale is through outdoor team building activities. When you incorporate these types of activities in a normal workday, employees get excited to not only be outside, but interact in a more casual, fun and social setting.

Outdoor Team Building Activities

Before you start with your activities, you need to know what it takes to lead a team. Knowing how to do this will make your outdoor team building activities a success and help your teammates become stronger and more motivated. Learn four simple leadership skills through this course that we offer. In it, you will learn how to better communicate by starting dialogue, incorporating your personality within your work to better be true to yourself, creating expectations for your team, among other key aspects to being a leader.

• Create a Garden

Do something as a group that gives back. Spend half a day planting a garden for a local business, neighbor, hospital or anyone you think would appreciate it. This activity deviates from the normal day-o-day and gets hands dirty. You will be able to spend quality time with your teammates in a positive setting, as well as making someone else’s day a little bit better.

• Hula Hooping

Get silly and get fit together by hula hooping. This exercise is not only fun and creates an upbeat environment, but it’s also great for your core, flexibility, coordination, stress release and more. If your team is frequently in high-stress situations, offer a half an hour a week for everyone to come together and hula hoop. After 30 minutes, your team will leave the exercise feeling recharged and ready to get back to business. It not only promotes productivity, but also wellness, which is important in everyone’s lives.

Not sure where to start or what kind of exercises are involved in hula hooping? We offer this course on hula hooping for beginners. In it, you will learn the most important part of hula hooping: how to keep the hoop up. From there, you will go on to learn a series of plyometric and isometric exercises that are great for the whole body.

• Promote Outdoor Fitness

Give your employees incentives for doing more fitness-related activities and getting to know their teammates. Encourage your team to get fit and get to know someone better by offering an extra 30 minutes on their lunch if they spend it walking, running or doing any other type of outdoor fitness with a work buddy. The time spent socializing and exercising is good for their body and mind and as a result, they will be able to come back to work re-energized.

• Ships in the Mist

This is an outdoor team building activity that focuses on trust and teamwork. You will need to find an open space and have teammates partner up. Start with a pair of partners and have everyone else scatter around the open area in semi-close proximity. It will be one of the partner’s roles to guide the other partner (who will be blindfolded) through the people spread out. They will need to use their skills with directions to navigate their partner, while their partner will need to use their listening skills. This activity promotes working together, communication, listening and giving clear directions.

• Go to a Ropes Course

Ropes courses are not only fun and challenging, but they provide a great way for a group of people to work together to get past obstacles and complete a goal. This is an example where the famous phrase “You’re only as strong as your weakest member” comes into play. Teammates will need to work with each other’s strengths and weaknesses in order to complete the course. After they complete it, they will walk away feeling accomplished and with more respect for one another.

• Treasure Hunt

Regardless of your age, treasure hunts are still fun. They promote the teamwork and healthy competition needed to work together with others. Create an outdoor treasure hunt with clues that will make your team think, brainstorm and work together. Up the competitive factor by offering an incentive for the winning team. It could be anything from a day off to gift certificates to a local eatery. Make it something you know everyone would want in order to boost competition and teamwork

• Company 5k

There’s a reason why 5ks have increased in popularity over the years. Not only are they a realistic goal for anyone new to the sport of running, but more and more fun-themed 5ks have popped up over the years. Races like The Color Run, The Warrior Dash, Foam Fest, zombies runs and more make running a little less of a chore and puts the emphasis on fun. Participating in a fun 5k not only helps build teamwork and create bonds between the participants, but it also gives people a goal, whether it’s to train for a 5k, run the entire race or get a better 5l time. Registering your team for a race offers a different experience and goal opportunities for each person, no matter what skill level they are.

• Hold a Company Picnic During the Workday

Give everyone a chance to unwind and get to know their teammates better by hosting a company picnic during a workday. Provide food and outdoor games so people will be able to get to know and bond with each other in a more casual environment. If your company has a strict dress code, allow your employees to wear more casual clothing items such as jeans. The picnic will seem like a mini vacation from work, letting your employees get a refresher and subsequently, able to come back and be more productive and eager to complete their work.

• Have a Weekly Outdoor Yoga Session

Did you know that yoga helps people relax and de-stress in addition to providing fitness benefits? Those are not the only benefits, either. Yoga’s focus on breathing and holding poses is also a form of meditation, meaning, it keeps your mind off of outside factors and makes you focus on being in the moment. It’s amazing what this does for your emotions and stress levels when you have to check all your worries and stresses at the door for an entire session while you practice yoga. Not only is yoga good for the mind, but it is also good for your strength, flexibility and posture. By having a weekly outdoor yoga session, your team will be able to hit the pause button on their lives and work toward bettering themselves as a group. Get to know the practice of yoga with this course that offers a fitness regimen for all age groups and beginner and intermediate skill levels.

It’s no secret that happy and taken-care-of employees are more motivated and more effective team players. (Find out some other characteristics of effective teamwork on this blog.) By having your employees participate in outdoor team building activities, it boosts morale and strengthens interpersonal relationships, two key aspects of having a productive, effective team.