Creating a custom Team Building : the right questions to ask yourself

Organizing a team building event is a great way to strengthen the bonds between your employees. To ensure this event is perfectly aligned with your company’s values and the message you wish to convey, consider a customized team building experience. To organize and fully benefit from this activity, it’s essential to ask the right questions : objectives, timing, budget, participants… In this article, Teams Connect guides you step-by-step to design a meaningful and personalized team building experience for both your teams and your organization.

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Why create a personalized Team Building / Serious Game ?

Organizing a team building event within your company is a very good idea. Making this activity unique and tailored to your business is even better. Objectives, customization, performance indicators… Teams Connect explains more to help you make this event a success.

Team Building Objectives

Team building is not just a fun break from the daily grind. When well-designed, it is a genuine tool for cohesion and management. Several objectives can be defined when deciding to organize a team building event for your employees. It helps to :

• Maximize team cohesion and spirit through games, challenges, or collaborative activities
• Strengthen solidarity and motivation by stepping outside the usual work environment to encourage mutual support and engagement
• Create or strengthen bonds between people who work together daily or occasionally
• Improve internal communication, by defusing conflicts or facilitating interactions between departments
• Contribute to employee well-being by offering a friendly moment that emphasizes their role in the team. A well-thought-out team building event also helps reinforce the sense of belonging to the company.

Also read: Discover the 10 reasons to organize a team building event !

Why a custom Serious Game ?

Each company has its own history, values, and challenges… That’s why a custom team building is the ideal solution to precisely meet your objectives and the profiles of your employees.

Unlike a more “standard” activity, organizing a personalized experience allows you to :

• Align with your company’s DNA : your codes, jobs, goals
• Engage participants more by creating an activity that reflects them, both in content and format
• Address a specific issue : team tensions, change management, celebrating a collective success, developing a skill (leadership, creativity, stress management…), raising awareness about a cause (CSR, charitable, etc.)
• Showcase your corporate culture through the proposed activities

In short, customized team building becomes a strategic lever serving your collective performance.

How to measure the impact of a Team Building event ?

The success of a team building event isn’t just about good memories and fun photos. Several elements help evaluate its effectiveness, such as :

• Group dynamics evolution : Are group interactions smoother after the event ? Managers can also assess how often team members connect with one another afterward.
• Impact on projects or performance : Depending on your objectives, you can track field results (e.g., lower turnover, improved coordination, increased motivation).
• Engagement or satisfaction levels : A post-event survey can capture immediate feedback and identify strengths as well as areas for improvement.

Questions to ask when organizing a custom Team Building event

To maximize the positive impact a personalized team building could have on your teams, ask yourself several key questions for a successful organization :

Who are the participants ?

This is the first question to ask. Your employees don’t all have the same hierarchical level and face different challenges. A senior executive won’t have the same expectations as a student intern, for example. You might ask yourself :

• What roles are represented in the group ?
• What is the level of seniority or familiarity among participants ?
• Are there any sensitivities to consider (cultural diversity, accessibility, etc.) ?

Good to know : What message or value do you want to convey through this activity ? Cohesion, innovation, resilience, friendliness… depending on your answer, choosing the right team building format will become clearer.

What setting and atmosphere to choose for a personalized Team Building ?

The choice of location and atmosphere is crucial to the event’s success :

• Do you want to get completely out of the work setting (unusual location, nature, escape game…) or stay in your offices ?
• Is the goal to relax and surprise or rather to stimulate and challenge ?
• Do you prefer a sporty, artistic, digital, or immersive activity ?

The setting should align with your company’s image and participant profiles, while offering enough of a change of scenery to foster openness and creativity.

Good to know : You can also organize a remote team building if your teams are working 100% remotely.

What is the right timing for a Team Building event ?

A full day ? A half-day ? An evening ? The right format for a team building event in your company depends on your goals and your teams’ availability :

• For an annual gathering, a full day is ideal
• For integrating an activity into a seminar, a half-day may suffice
• To mark a milestone or success, a company evening can be a great option

Choosing the right time of year is also essential for the event’s success : avoid peak activity periods or school holidays to ensure better team involvement.

Once you’ve defined the date and duration of your corporate activity, inform your employees. It’s recommended to communicate the date at least 3 to 4 weeks in advance.

This allows participants to properly plan around their professional and personal obligations. Don’t hesitate to get the team involved in the announcement : tease the activity, gradually reveal the program, or share a message from management to strengthen engagement.

Hiring a Team Building designer

As you’ve seen, creating a custom team building requires considering numerous factors : objectives, target audience, logistics, desired atmosphere, values to be conveyed… Hiring a team building professional allows you to :

• Save time in design and organization
• Benefit from personalized support
• Access a wide range of activities and tools
• Ensure a smooth, impactful experience tailored to your actual needs

As a team building designer, Teams Connect offers fully personalized activities !

Example : Custom HSE events for a Swiss client

We organized annual activities over several years for a Swiss client on the topic of HSE (Health, Safety & Environment) :

• Year 1 : For the environment theme, employees participated in a custom eco escape game and a personalized nature rally
• Year 2 : To address safety, we created a fully customized serious game on safety rules and prevention, along with a 100% tailor-made puzzle wall based on the company’s products
• Year 3 : Multiple topics were covered, safety, teamwork, risk prevention, new management methods, with a fully personalized serious game and an investigative orienteering course in their premises on all HSE themes of the day

In short, everything is possible and customizable, just reach out to Teams Connect !