Physical team-building activities create ideal conditions to bring team members together; shared adversity can promote fantastic teamwork.

 

It’s time to get the adrenaline pumping for your team members who may be tired of sitting at their desks and looking at the same four walls. Why not try physical group games?

Rope challenges and trust falls have become the standard games for physical team-building. However, facilitators who still use these activities may not realise that they are limiting the potential of their teams.

With physical games and exercises, you can bring people together to share the experience of learning impactful new skills. Have them stumble, learn and laugh together at the challenges set for them, and see them grow both as individuals and as a group.

 

Preparing for Physical Team-building Activities

 

When you get the team outside their collective comfort zones and throw them into a situation where they must depend on each other and work together, you encourage trust and teamwork. Physical team-building activities are perfect to create these conditions.

Before conducting any strenuous team-building activity, facilitators should properly prepare and take these things into account first.

Do:

  • Consider people’s physical capabilities and health conditions;
  • Group them accordingly to ensure fairness;
  • Set expectations and goals;
  • Remember to encourage collaboration instead of competition;
  • Prepare backup activities and plans.

Don’t:

  • Overschedule and plan too many activities;
  • Make the exercises too harsh or physically demanding;
  • Hesitate to hire professionals to organise and facilitate the event.

 

It is also an important reminder that while adversity can encourage team cohesion, making the activities too difficult for the participants may have the opposite effect instead.

If you are looking for games that focus on improving the productivity of a team, here are group exercises that focus on developing team skills.

 

Physical Team-Building Activity Ideas

 

Here are a few ideas for physical activities drawn from playmeo’s innovative activity database. These adventurous group games can have your team members build and share new experiences.

If you’re not yet a playmeo member, join today to become one of the first to unlock hundreds more group games and activities just like these.