Time to Design a Good Team Building Event, Here’s Why
Team building event is such a valuable thing that worth us to put lots of affect into, a good team building event is not only can help to close the gap between team members, you will gain lots of fun while you are brainstorming and making it at the same time. And so, when my manager asked me:”Do you want to be the host of next team building event?” I was like hell yes! Say yes without a doubt and many crazy funny ideas start to grow in my head. But actually, all the unrealistic ideas must be considered again before it become the final plan, and I did it. If you are someone who trying to put up a team building event, and you got a little lost or just need some advice. I hope this article could be a help.
There are some key points to put up a good team building event, find them and you will be able to create a enjoyable experience that every participators can enjoy.
Design Rules
Sense of Participation
The rules must be simple. A typical team building event usually involving a bunch of people to do a series of fun activities for about 2–3 hours. When it relates to a bunch of people, we need to consider lowering the complexity of the games, or everyone needs to spend much time in understanding the rules otherwise, and it’s not only costing time, but reducing the interests from everyone in the end.We need to avoid the cards or comic-background games because they contain many rules or complex story backgrounds which are hard to learn in a short time. we should choose something like Jenga or sing off, the games that no need to remember many rules, but still can have lots of fun while playing.
The activities must allow multiple people to join. The most scary thing could ever happen is, there are only few people actually playing, the rest people are just walking around with nothing to do. When we are designing the games, we need to consider how many people can participate in at the same time. Too many people might become disorganized, but too few people might cause waiting and bored feeling, either way are not good choices. You can try to prepare more games, and split people with 5 persons in unit into few groups, in order to make sure that everyone can participate and enjoy the game completely. (Ideal value, it should be changed depend on your participator base.)
Sense of Surprise
Normal place, abnormal activities. Usually, people will hold a psychological expectation for team building event, such as go out to the theater to watch a movie, go out to the art gallery to see the exhibits, or go to the fancy restaurant for dinner. These are great choices for team building event, but they also really easy to address to. If you want to give everyone a sense of surprise, why don’t you try to hold the event inside the office and make everything even more interesting like turning regular meeting room into temporary playground, turning developers and product managers into game keeper?
The story background that delicate and well-organized. To provide an immersive experience while playing the game for the participators, every session must be well-organized and connected. Image these, isn’t it wired and confusing when you are watch a funny movie, and a scene from horror movie just pop out from no where? Scattered and none-related sessions will cause the experience to be fragment, and unexpected transition will decrease the exception from participator to continue.
Sense of Joy
It should arouse the resonance among the participators. You can put some inside joke into the games, it will put a smile on participators face, and make them want to devote themselves to games entirely. For example, one of my game is about regional dialect, which allow team member from different countries to introduce their dialect and to interact with each others.
Cause no trouble and hard feelings. When you are designing the event, you need to consider from different perspectives, and think about the parts that might cause negative impacts. Such as, will it cause trouble if I hold the event in the meeting room, will it be too loud when we are playing the games or is there any content in the games will make participators to feel uncomfortable. Also remember to clean up after the event. The best way to gain the sense of joy is to try our best to avoid the possible negative impacts.
Takeaways
Take Controls. When people are playing the games and having fun, they might loose control and start to make loud noise or to divid into small groups for chatting. Make sure taking control of the event, and guiding the event to be in progress normally.
Be improvised. Any event has the change to run into unexpected situations, we can’t avoid them, but we can learn how to deal with them when they happen. The best way is to think through all the possible situations might or might not be happened, and consider all the solutions, in order to be improvised and take actions in few seconds.
Find perfect balance between budget and effect. To provide the best effect, you might want to polish every little details, which is an excellent ideas, but you must try your best to find the perfect balance between budget and effect, and archiving same result with cheaper prices. Just like designing, we always need to find the best solution with less cost, don’t we?
Consider the personality of the participators. Some games are suitable to play with college friends, but not suitable with colleagues. Some games are suitable to play between man and man, but not suitable between man and woman. Some people are having outspoken personalities, but some people are just shy. To consider the personality of participators you are dealing with, and design the event that suitable for them.
Remember the true meaning of team building event. Always keep in mind the true meaning of team building event is to close the gap between team members by interacting with each others, and every games and sessions should be create and consider this ultimate concept. It will be really hard to create a unique memory by just eat a dinner or watch a movie with such a big group. Funny facts and interesting interactions will serve the deed deeply instead.
了解原则之后，我们就可以开始设计活动内容了，以下是我这次设计的内容给大家作为参考…
活动内容
故事背景
在一個平常的工作日，平時安置在角落的電視突然出現信號干擾，畫面顯示一名同事遭到綁架，並且要在八點前找到他，否則就會被撕票，恐懼進入所有人的心理。這時負責辦案的警察來了，希望大家能協助辦案，從八位便衣警察保管的证物中了解该名同事的生活情况并从四位嫌疑犯中推敲出凶手，大家是否能齐心协力在限定时间内完成任务并成功解救同事？…
时间轴
地点A 工位 / 角色 警察及被绑同事
(a) 在工位附近的电视突然受到信号干扰，播出一段同事被绑架需要在限定时间内找到他的视频。
(b) 警察出现找到负责人解释目前情况，并说明有多个证物被八个便衣警察看手，大家需要找到这些警察并完成相应任务才能获得证物。
(c) 大家开始起身找便衣警察完成任务。
地点B 其他部门 / 角色 八位关主
(a) 大家开始分成小组找便衣警察并完成相应游戏关卡。
(b) 完成游戏关卡后，便衣警察把证物交给参与者。
以下是我们这次的游戏关卡给大家参考，建议大家能客制化属于自己团队的游戏，建立更高的共鸣。
游戏关卡
A. 你有free style嘛？ 利用公司产品名称发想一段八句以上的说唱词并一气呵成的朗诵出来。
B. 歌唱大教主
B-1 请唱出三首歌词中有颜色的歌
B-2 请唱出三首歌词中有”爱”的歌
B-3 请唱出喜/怒/哀/乐情绪的歌各一首
B-4 请唱出三首动漫的主题曲
B-5 请唱出三首电影的主题曲
B-6 请唱出一首日文歌(四句以上)
B-7 请唱出一首韩文歌(四句以上)
B-8 请唱出三首不同国家的歌
B-9 请说出三位黑人Rapper
B-10 请说出十位来自美国的歌手
C. 我们有默契 参与者两两结队答题，关主会念出题目，两人要在五秒内在纸上写下想到的答案，连续五题答案相同即成功。
D. 粤语六连线 在20宫格里面选择认识的题目，以正确的方式念出粤语发音并解释意思，成功连出六条线即成功。
E. 方言大挑战 从不同地区的方言中选择八个以正确的方式念出发音并解释意思即成功。
F. 终极影剧通 回答题目中，对话片段来自哪部电影，填空下一句台词，看头像说角色名称，听音档猜来自哪部偶像剧等问题，答对六题即成功。
G. 团体力量炸 需要多人齐心协力拍出图片中摆的团体照姿势，完成五张团体照即成功。
H. 聪明文化人 从20题来自高一的各领域问题，答对满八题以上即成功。
地点C 会议室/ 角色 被绑同事 犯人
(a) 大家来到嫌犯的躲藏处，终于找到被绑架的同事。
(b)大家开始发表自己根据证物判断犯人是哪位。
(c)桌上摆著有四种颜色吸管的可乐，分别代表四个嫌疑犯，大家依照自己判断的犯人选择相应的可乐，最后可以得到四个分组。(除了真的犯人那组的可乐是正常的之外，其他组的可乐都加了白醋)
(d)大家要救出同事就必须要陪著犯人完成三个游戏。
游戏内容
A.考验观察的能力 在40组卡片里分别是同事以及知名人物的头像，大家分成两队之后依次举起一个头像，对面的人要根据自己对于这个头像的人的观察，模仿他的说话方式或行为，让对方猜是谁的头像。
B.考验说谎的技巧 两队各派出一人，在中间会有一道屏障遮挡，只能看到彼此脖子以上的视线，两人需从20张卡片中随机选择一张，给自己以及除了对方之外的第三者看，并描述图片上的内容，可以说真的或是随便瞎说，对方要猜你在说真的还是在说谎，猜错要吃恐怖的食物(牛蛙/毛豆腐/芥末/兔肉/鸡爪)。
C.考验面对未知的勇气 把手伸进未知的恐怖箱里，用手感受在箱子里的东西是什么，每个人有三次机会，猜对内容物即成功。
制作过程
风格设定
这次的主题是绑架案，围绕著这个主题找了许多参考，以确立最终的风格。这次的重点在于最终的场景-犯人的藏匿处，为了打造一看上去就特别突出的场景，特别找了很多恐怖电影来看，相较于传统恐怖片会用的阴绿色调，我选择用红黑色渲染更鲜明浓烈的杀戮气氛，喷漆以及假血都是非常便宜但有效就可以打造出恐怖氛围的道具。关闭会议室电灯，利用暖色桌灯透射沾血白布当做光源也可以轻松营造恐怖氛围。
场地安排
事先勘景才能知道该如何最合适的运用场地，走访了两栋办公楼所有的会议室，终于找到一间能容纳所有的参与者，又能轻易渲染氛围的办公室。找到场地后立刻发想该如何运用，以求最佳化动线及空间。
道具制作
简单介绍几个道具的制作方法
文字墙(纸/喷漆) 用a3纸打印出中文字，再用喷漆喷上图案，背面贴双面胶贴满整面墙。贴的时候要注意喷漆颜色及浓度的分配比例，尽量分配的均匀些，不平整的拼贴也增添一番风味。
悬吊血流(小票纸卷/假血) 想要展示一个完整的流血痕迹该怎么做呢？我们需要一个很长的载体对吧？但是特殊规格的纸材或是布料都会增加成本，这时我想到了小票！小票纸非常便宜又能完整的展示血流，是非常好的载体，但是需要注意的是，我们要用的是背面而不是正面，因为正面的材质会让假血乾了之后变得非常昏暗，而背面则是可以维持鲜明的血色。
沾血白布(白布/假血浆) 在制作沾血的白布的时候，千万不要用喷头朝白布直接喷洒，这样出来的血渍会非常不自然，只要把血倒在纸张上，把白布快速的放到含有血的纸张上后拿起来，反覆在布上的随机位置上做了几次之后就可以得到一张带有自然血渍的白布。
I have so much fun during the time I designing the flow of event and making all the stage properties, I encourage you to hold a team building event and help team to grow coherence, if you do so, please feel free to share with me! I wound love to hear from you!
