Being based out of Southern California, a day on the water was just what our crew needed to spend some quality time together while cooling off in the summer heat. The folks over at The Boat People Cruise made our team bonding dreams come true and were beyond helpful in giving us a memorable day at sea! We packed the essentials (chips, salsa, cookies, and of course had to throw in a bottle of rosé) and spent the summer Friday afternoon chatting and spending time with our favorite work wives in front of some spectacular coastal views. We’ve become self-proclaimed pros at team bonding retreats, having done everything from virtual happy hours to floral arranging classes to fancy dinners out–so today, we’re giving you our top tips on planning a team bonding trip that everyone can enjoy! We promise – it won’t feel like work!
Communicate Ahead of Time with the Team
Whatever activity you have planned, make sure everyone is prepared! No one wants to show up for a surprise hike wearing sandals, or arrive just in time for a group cooking class right after eating! make sure everyone on the team knows what you’re doing so they can arrive ready to go. Or, if you’d like to keep some element of surprise, at least make sure everyone has an idea of all the pertinent details!
Make Sure You’re Being Inclusive of Everyone
A team bonding activity should be all about togetherness and getting closer as a group, so that last thing you want is for someone to feel left out. Adapt your menu if you know a coworker has dietary restrictions, avoid a physical activity if your coworker just broke her leg – you get the picture!
Have a Plan in Place
While team bonding activities can be fun for everyone, there can be a fine line where it starts to cross over into feeling like work! Have a definitive start and end time, have a specific plan in place for the activity (or activities!) that you’re scheduling, and try not to have too much “dead air” time – if everyone is sitting around waiting for something to happen or things are dragging on a little too long, it becomes less of a fun experience for your coworkers to spend time together and more of a chore!
Document Everything!
We love to grab alllllll the content for instagram stories and blog posts! It’s fun for teams to be able to look back at photos of a fun experience everyone shared together, and it helps keep a record of activities you’ve all done together that were a hit (we’re already itching to get another boat trip planned!)
Get Feedback Afterwards
Team bonding activities are always fun, but at the end of the day, it’s important to make sure everyone in the group enjoyed themselves and felt comfortable! It’s always worthwhile to get feedback afterwards to see if the team would enjoy doing a similar activity again, what their favorite part was, and even if they have ideas for future activities! Team members will feel valued when you ask for their input, and they’ll love getting to go out on an excursion that they specifically requested!
Did this Team Bonding Trip inspire you? Then we think you will love our team bonding picnic we had a while back!