Indoor team building for large groups can be a challenge. The limited floor space immediately takes several options off the table. There’s no space for running around and there’s little space for equipment setup.
Some team building programs can scale up and fit with any size group. More equipment, more teams….no problem. While others (I’m looking at you Masterchef) are simply not suitable for large groups. Imagine trying to judge the food of 30 or 40 teams. It would just get tedious.
With large groups indoors, you will often find companies doing activities in which only one or two players from each team are involved while the others remain merely supporters and observers. I think that this approach is not good enough. I want everyone to be involved.
So I’m always thinking about new ways to keep hundreds of people fully engaged while in an indoor team building setting.
For this particular group of 250 pax at Pullman Phuket Arcadia Naithon Beach, I had already designed and utilised separate elements of the activity with smaller groups. My design challenge here was to (a) bring these disparate elements together into a cohesive theme and then (b) scale things up.
Tons of equipment…check. Loads of teams…check. Massive cleanup operation after the event…check.
Once the design had been finalised it all came down to delivery. With large groups it is imperative to keep things simple. Clear and concise instructions, easy to understand activity components, adequate timings, and activity blocks that are self-managing rather than requiring intensive staff supervision.
I can’t release the details of this specific event as my client always requests anonymity. But I was particularly pleased with how every participant was fully engaged in the activity throughout the whole 2.5 hours. The energy levels were intense.
What I was not so pleased about was the event cleanup afterwards. I still have the carpet burns on my knees from crawling around on the floor like a Victorian chambermaid, tidying up equipment and supplies and returning the hotel ballroom to its original state. In hindsight, I should have got the losing team to do it.