Relevance of outdoor team building activities

Posted by Arjun Malhotra on October 24th, 2019

Outdoor team building activities are usually preferred more by employees and even the management compared to indoor team activities. The reason is quite obvious – outdoor activities are held right under the sun or the moon or the stars surrounded by nature all around. Nature and natural elements have a different kind of effect on the human brain and body that is almost impossible to achieve in a closed wall environment. Similar to nature walks and picnics that help boost health, team building activities in the outdoors

• Act as a great energy booster – a scientific study in this regard proved that spending about 20 minutes in the outdoors helps release energy-related hormones that compare with a cup of joe.

• It can involve more physical activities because of the availability of space and natural surroundings. It is common knowledge that workouts, daily walks, and fitness-related regimes are recommended for the outdoors by experts.

• Open-air is a great stress buster too allowing the mind to access and retain more information and knowledge.

• Psychologists have also found a close association of creativity with the openness of the outdoor environment which means that outdoor team building activities help participants to open their minds to come up with great and ingenious ideas.

One of the key reasons why outdoor team building activities are getting preference over indoor activities is that beyond the four walls of conventional office space, the openness of the outdoors helps participants bond better and stronger with one another. The communication between team members is enhanced, personal rapport starts to build and there is a kind of ease all around that the limited environment of the office can never induce in employees. They are more honest and franker with one another, are more participative, keen to learn, enthusiastic and lively about the sequence of events.

Corporates need to take advantage of such creatively designed outdoor team building activities more often to achieve higher employee engagement and strengthen the corporate culture. Outdoor activities blend well the physical and mental participation of employees thereby providing comprehensive and holistic learning. Participants need to be pay attention not only mentally but also involve their physical being to participate completely and wholly in team activities. This takes the entire event to another level, provided the activities have been properly planned, designed and executed.

Outdoor activities are perfect for employee engagement programs. Employee engagement is all about getting the team members aligned with the organizational goals and objectives. When the aim is to improve the engagement levels of employees the outdoors can play a crucial role. Here, team members are already