“We’re going to have some fun!”
It’s a phrase that’s often heard at the start of corporate team building events, company away days, and staff parties. Yet for many employees, those words are enough to fill them with dread.
Patrick Lencioni, one of the world’s most well-known experts on organisational health has long argued that organisations should focus on building healthy teams rather than relying on superficial or ‘forced fun’ activities to improve teamwork.
Healthy teams will naturally have more fun than unhealthy teams anyway. He has also said that forcing people to participate in awkward or embarrassing activities can actually undermine trust rather than build it.
I’m with Patrick on this.
Even though I run a team building company, the thought of forcing people to do silly chicken impressions, behave like a monkey, or take off most of their clothes (yes, I’ve seen all of these ridiculous things attempted) makes me cringe. Unfortunately, bad experiences like this have turned many people into team building skeptics.
Nobody should ever be made to feel awkward, embarrassed, or uncomfortable.
The Problem with Forced Fun
We’ve all experienced it.
The organiser is enthusiastic. The music is loud. The facilitator tells everyone to “let loose” and “step outside your comfort zone.”
Meanwhile, half the room is wondering how quickly they can disappear for another coffee.
The issue isn’t that people dislike fun. Quite the opposite.
People love laughing with colleagues, sharing experiences, and celebrating success together. What they don’t enjoy is feeling that they’re expected to have fun on command.
As A Facilitator, Consider The Introverts
Just because some event leaders (who are perhaps raging extroverts themselves) personally enjoy doing the chicken dance and find it fun does not mean that everyone will. Especially the introverts or the more shy members of the group.
An experienced facilitator knows this and will design activities that are suitable for all and facilitate them in an engaging manner.
I am not saying that introverts can’t have fun. Everyone can and does have fun. But the fun needs to come from an authentic place. It comes down to the activity design and the opportunities for fun that it creates naturally.
I’ve seen a lot of facilitators get this wrong. Play a silly game and try to create fun by shouting and screaming. It can appear childish. And introverts hate appearing childish.
An experienced facilitator often underplays things and allows the activity to do the work of creating fun times. Always allow an opportunity for people to opt in or opt out.
The concept of forced fun does not apply to introverts!
Fun Is a By-product, Not an Objective
The best team building activities rarely begin with the goal of making people laugh.
Instead, they give people an interesting problem to solve, a challenge to overcome, a mystery to unravel, or a goal worth pursuing.
When people become absorbed in working together, something interesting happens. They stop worrying about whether they’re supposed to be enjoying themselves and the enjoyment appears naturally.
Laughter becomes genuine rather than polite and conversations become spontaneous. Fun emerges because people are engaged, not because someone told them to smile.
On a management training course I attended early in my career, one of the energisers was to walk around the room fake laughing at one another in an over-the-top manner. The intention was to force people to laugh and then this would encourage even more laughter. Everyone hated it. Imagine trying to get that famous grumpy cat from Instagram to do it. That’s what it felt like. It was just awkward and cringy. You could see the embarrassment on everyone’s faces.
Why Adults Resist Forced Activities
Most people can immediately recognise when an activity feels artificial or has been designed purely to manufacture enthusiasm.
This is especially true in the workplace.
People are conscious of how they’re being perceived by colleagues, managers, and senior leaders. Nobody wants to look foolish in front of the people they work with every day.
The more pressure there is to “join in”, the more uncomfortable some participants become. Ironically, the harder you try to create fun, the less enjoyable it often becomes.
Good Team Building Doesn’t Feel Like Team Building
One of the nicest compliments I receive after an event is:
“I wasn’t expecting to enjoy that as much as I did.”
That’s because my aim isn’t to force enthusiasm. It’s to create an environment where enthusiasm develops naturally.
Give people an engaging challenge that you, as the facilitator, has designed and thought about in depth, make the rules clear, encourage collaboration, and keep everyone involved.
Then stand back and let the experience do the work.
By the end of the activity, people are laughing, celebrating, encouraging one another, and talking about what just happened – not because they were told to, but because they genuinely enjoyed themselves.
It’s About Psychological Safety
There’s another reason forced fun often fails.
People need to feel safe before they’re willing to participate wholeheartedly. If they’re worried about embarrassment, failure, or being singled out, they’ll naturally hold back.
That’s why the best facilitators spend just as much time creating a comfortable atmosphere as they do explaining the activity itself.
When people know they won’t be judged, they’re far more willing to contribute, experiment, and enjoy the experience.
The Role of the Facilitator
The activity matters. But the facilitator matters even more. The same challenge can feel awkward in one room and unforgettable in another.
An experienced facilitator knows when to encourage, when to step back, when to increase the energy, and when to allow quieter moments to develop naturally.
The goal isn’t to become the centre of attention. It’s to create the conditions where the experience becomes the centre of attention. A skilled facilitator can manage this smoothly, allowing genuine fun to arise authentically, not manufacturing forced fun.
The Best Fun Is Never Forced
People don’t remember a team building event because someone told them to have fun. They remember the moment their team solved an impossible challenge. The unexpected idea that changed everything. The colleague who surprised everyone. The shared laughter after something went spectacularly wrong.
Those moments can’t be scripted and they can’t be demanded.
They simply happen when people are given the right environment, the right challenge, and the freedom to enjoy the experience in their own way.
That’s why I never try to create forced fun. I simply create the conditions where genuine fun has every opportunity to emerge.