Startup Outing Ideas for Creating a Better Team and Company Culture
There is no doubt that the market is more competitive than ever. In order to stay ahead of the competition, your startup needs to be able to muster every bit of competitive advantage you can get. This means building a stronger team and creating a corporate culture that motivates the entire team to be more productive.
An outing with the entire team is one of the best ways to quickly establish a stronger bond and build a strong company culture. A lot of startups have used this method in the past to create a solid team capable of tackling market challenges. These next few ideas will help you get started with your own startup outing in no time.
Weekly Lunch or Informal Meeting
One of the easiest ways to start creating a stronger bond between team members is by getting together in a more informal situation. Being in a meeting about business or other serious topics several times a week is not enough. You need to take the whole team out for lunch or set up a retrospective meeting at the end of the week to establish a good, fun environment for everyone to share their insights.
Lunch works really well for this purpose. Lunch tend to be less formal and very easy to organize, since the entire team is at the office already. All you have to do is pick a spot near the office where everyone can get together for lunch and you are all set. You can even turn this into a weekly thing and create a tradition that everyone really loves.
During the get-together, talk about things other than serious topics. You can let an employee share a particular expertise of his for 10 minutes before allowing the rest of the team to ask questions. If an employee is really good at SEO, for instance, a sharing session about SEO and personal blogging can be very fruitful.
Go on a Trip
A trip to somewhere nice is another great way to create a strong bond between team members. There are a few things to keep in mind when organizing a trip like this. First of all, try to find a villa or a holiday rental that can accommodate the entire team instead of booking hotel rooms. Being able to share the experience closely is far more effective than staying in a hotel and only meeting each other for certain activities.
You can also add fun activities along the way. Check out www.ticketoffices.com and find shows or sporting events to attend as part of the team outing. When the entire team share this kind of an experience, they will find it much easier to bond with each other and connect on a more personal level. Once that connection is established, the rest will be downhill from there.
Alternatively, you can arrange a weekend getaway for the entire team to somewhere quiet. It doesn’t have to be a trip to somewhere particularly far too. A nice, quiet villa just a few hours from the office is often more than enough. It’s not the destination that matters; it’s the experience you can share with the rest of the company during that short trip.
Incubators for Employees’ Ideas
One last idea to try is setting up incubators for team members. Each team member will have their own ideas they want to develop. A lot of companies now allow employees to spend some time on their personal projects. In return, employees are far more motivated to contribute more to the company. Besides, some of the ideas developed in the incubator can actually benefit the company and its products.
At the end of every term, organize a breakfast or lunch with the entire team and let some of them present their ideas to the rest of the company. Again, it doesn’t have to be a formal occasion or a trip to somewhere far. Employees – whether they were working on personal ideas or developing something as a smaller team – can present prototypes or concepts they have in mind and gather feedback from the rest of the company.
You can also take this a step further and actually let potential ideas be developed further. Interesting ideas can be turned into products under the company’s guidance and funding, allowing employees to grow further than before.
The creative nature of this process can turn a simple breakfast or lunch into a long process that really improves employees’ sense of ownership, motivation and team values. At the end of the day, you will have a stronger team and a more positive corporate culture.
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