Team building has become somewhat of a buzzword today. Companies are talking about it, organizing it, and simply using this term to refer to any event held by the company for its employees. Pizza Friday in the office is team building. Playing bowling (where it’s every man for himself) is team building. Eating cakes on birthday celebrations together is team building.

So you are doing all these things truly believing that the team is united now. But let’s do an experiment – just ask your employees if at least they know each other’s names. Names of the people they just shared pizza, cakes and played bowling with. Trust us, the answers may be shocking. Even in companies with less than 20 employees, not everyone knows each other by name. What’s more, your employees can be unaware that some of their colleagues even exist.

That is why, for us, team building stands for an event aimed at engaging people into activities that require team work and mutual support. Team members should work together, helping, encouraging and supporting each other. However, it’s essential to avoid any activity where someone has to lose. The victory should be gained though cooperation making it possible to achieve the goals together.

Keeping this in mind along with the widely known fact that IT jobs are mostly sedentary, we have chosen a rather original way of team building – jumping on a trampoline. The idea of the event had two objectives: to create the conditions for the team work in an informal atmosphere, as well as to change the office work for physical exercise that everyone can do. First, professional trainers taught the team members how to do the basic elements of jumps, and later the team had time to practice and get used to the trampoline. This elicited a lot of positive vibes but it was just a beginning. The second part of the event was even more exciting and was marked by a relay race.

This activity requires special attention, as it creates competition between the teams. In spite of this, the relay was perceived as a game, which aim was not to win, but rather to enjoy the process.

We had a lot of fun together and showed the great ability for team work, became more united. So we can truly call this event a team building.

Take care of your employees, develop relationships and communication in the team, because a strong and close-knit team is a guarantee to your business success!