One of the most difficult tasks that corporate or business management will ever face is the building of a strong and vital team. There have been team building exercises and various approaches for years, but no one has ever settled on an exact method. One of the best systems that has ever been suggested are company cruises.
Cost
It is actually amazing how inexpensive cruises can be when booked in advance and for multiple people. Group discounts are easy to get, any good corporate manager knows that the key to getting what you want is asking. It is rare that someone will just give something away, always ask. There are often off-season discounts that can apply to a large or medium size group also.
Activities
The main key to making a company cruise into a team building venture is to properly organize the activities. Telling everyone that there is an itinerary of team building exercises is the sure fire way to have people not want to take part. The best thing to do is to have a flexible and fairly open schedule. There can be some team building specific items, but the best thing to do is to have the team gathered as a group performing some activity.
People gathered and playing shuffle board can become a way for them to gather and compete and work together. Often two people will have a tension between them at work that will dissipate after they have spent some social time together. It is the personal facts that come out in a social environment that bond people and help them find common ground.
Meetings Versus Dinner
There is a big difference in the minds of employees between a late breakfast and a “meeting.” When people feel forced into a situation, they are going to participate as little as they can. Simply giving people a strong invitation to a meal, eating and talking together as a group, can and will start building a stronger team. The cruise gives a minimum of three meals per day that can be used to get better acquainted and to garner stronger teams.
Fun, But Important
The cruise in itself is going to have several “competition” style events scheduled. One of the best ways to build a good team is to create a friendly competitive spirit against some of the other passengers. This is not meant to be an active animosity, just a suggestion that your “team” compete against some other people in one of the upcoming events. Most team building exercises split the group because they are the only ones there. This will unite all of your employees against a common enemy and give them a feeling of solidarity.
The Finale
Remember that no matter how well the team building went on the cruise to wrap things up with a good ending. Help settle any ill will that may have crept up and let people leave with a good taste in their mouth.
Even if you feel that nothing was accomplished, tell everyone that you had a great time on the cruise and welcome the chance to do it again. You can always tell if things went well when people exit the cruise and a couple small groups form on their own and depart. This is indeed one of the best team building activities we have ever seen.
This post is brought to you on behalf of 416CRUISES. We offer private and group cruises for corporate and personal cruise events. http://www.416cruises.com