In downtown Austin, TX there is a movie theatre called Alamo Drafthouse. It is a great place to go and watch movies because you can order drinks and food while you are watching the movie. Every year my management company, San Miguel Management, does an employee team building at Alamo Drafthouse. We begin our day with a scavenger hunt through the downtown area. We divide up into teams. The teams consist of all employees including the inside office team, the corporate office and the outside maintenance team. We strategically place each team member so that they are interacting with someone that they do not work with on an daily basis. We divide up and compete for points. In order to get points you must complete a scavenger hunt that takes on a journey of acting like a fool. You must find clues throughout the downtown area while doing tasks along...
I ran into a friend recently who had been to a team building exercise for the company he works for and he could not stop talking about it! His office went to a one day fire school where they were taught some of the methods and strategies that firefighters use to put out fires. I asked for as much information as I could gather in order to share it with you here. So, you can contact your local fire department to set up the training for anywhere from 5-30 people--they do charge a tuition for the class but prices will vary depending on your local department's policy. During the class, your office team will have to rely on each other to make it through the course, put out mock fires, and rescue each other from danger. I contacted my local fire department to get information on...
We used school supplies to represent leases. Each Leasing Person had a backpack to fill. As they leased an apartment they placed a school supply in the backpack. The Manager keeps a list of what each supply equals as a prize. Depending on your budget each one can be a prize or it may take several leases to get a prize. We did prizes for each item ranging from manicure, $10 additional bonus up to $50 additional bonus, various gift cards etc. In addition, the person with the most supplies at the end of the contest period received a Grand Prize. The BEST PART of all was that we then took the loaded back packs, along with our property pens, pencils and notepads (lots of them), to the local school we adopted and donated them!! This was really a ton of fun...