7 Fun Outdoor Team-Building Activities To Reconnect Your Staff

The great outdoors is the perfect setting for outdoor team building. During the pandemic, we stopped meeting indoors and spent much more time outdoors. We had to adjust to new conditions across the board—in our schools, workplaces, and social lives.

Engaging in outdoor team activities offered a chance to reconnect in a refreshing, open-air environment and participate in fun outdoor team-building activities. We also acknowledged that fresh air had never been so vital to our health. So why would it ever have to change?

Desk-bound jobs can be significantly improved by interspersing some outdoor-related activities into them.

Plus virtual meet-ups can’t match the kind of team-building that occurs when everyone is physically present. Having been working remotely for so long, your staff will value the opportunity to meet, especially if you’ve got new starters who joined during the pandemic.

This guide lists some accessible and fun outdoor team-building activities for your workplace or college. During this time, we all must stay physically and mentally healthy, so get your boots on and get out there!

Top team outdoor activities to try

Building the best glider

While some companies offer rather elaborate gliders or model aeroplane kits, the alternative is to have a go at creating the best paper aeroplane. Split your group up into teams and dish out the appropriate materials. Think paper, cards, decorative materials, tape, etc. Then let them get to work.

This task is accessible for those with mobility issues, as it can be completed while sitting down without much movement. The beauty of this activity is in its simplicity. Paper aeroplanes are familiar to everyone and evoke memories of childhood.

Now, with age and experience, you can bring that sense of fun to your team. It’s one of the simplest yet most engaging outdoor team-building activities for adults. Who knows, maybe one of you will craft the most incredible paper aeroplane known to man!

A treasure hunt

Hidden treasure is sure to set hearts racing, young and old. Especially when there’s a race on to find it.

A treasure hunt is one of the most exciting team-building outdoor activities, perfect for fostering teamwork and communication. Make it a timed event to add extra excitement and see how quickly the teams can come through.

When it comes to planning a treasure hunt, several components need to be considered. First, you need to figure out the items to hide and where to hide them. Then, you need to decide what clues to give to lead to the treasure and whether to hand out maps to add an element of orienteering.

Staff with mobility issues may find this exercise trickier than others. However, they can still be of great assistance in solving—or writing—the clues that will be used.

Outdoor yoga and meditation

The health benefits of yoga and meditation are well-known and well-regarded. Mindfulness can improve well-being and mental health. Outdoor yoga and meditation are excellent for team building in the outdoors, promoting both relaxation and unity. They also help your employees feel more centred and focused and restore work-life balance.

To get started, find an appropriate tutor—don’t just go for a YouTube video—and set a date. This activity and all the others in this article can form part of an itinerary for your team-building day.

Rock climbing

Rock climbing is an adventurous team-building outdoor activity that builds trust and confidence among team members. Nothing is scarier than scaling the heights of a cliff with Tom from accounting holding your ropes! But if you can feel the trust building from 50 feet up, you know your team will succeed on the ground.

Although climbing appears to be an extreme sport, many climbers enjoy and succeed in the activity, even if they’re disabled. If your team includes anyone with a disability or total beginners who might be nervous, make sure you use an experienced guide who can help everyone take part safely.

A potluck picnic

A potluck picnic can be one of the most straightforward yet enjoyable outdoor team activities, bringing everyone together in a relaxed setting. Get out the blankets and gazebos, have everyone bring one dish, and let the conversation flow. Make it even more enjoyable by getting your team members to make a dish their Nan might have made, or something traditional to their heritage.

If the time is right, you might even crack a bottle of bubbly or two. For an extra bit of entertainment, bring along some fun outdoor games for large groups, like frisbee, quizzes, or a collection of board games.

Pipeline

To play Pipeline, get your team to work together to transport a small ball from one location to another. Each team member has a small section of pipe, and as the ball leaves their section, they run around to the end where the ball is heading to become the next connection.

Spice this game up by making it a race or getting some oddly shaped sections of pipe for the teams to work with.

Anyone for a bit of surfing?

Learning to surf is an excellent option for teams that are a bit more adventurous. Don’t worry; you can learn to surf right here in the UK with all of your equipment provided. Surfing is a sport that many people would love to experience at least once, but it feels incredibly foreign. The beauty of this is that it will likely be the first time that most of your coworkers have given it a go. The experience of learning to surf takes everybody well outside their office environment and puts them among all of nature’s wonderful elements, which is partly what makes it so much fun. Surfing requires resilience, patience, and mutual encouragement—qualities that help build camaraderie as colleagues support each other in learning new skills. Whether you’re cheering on a team member catching a wave or having a laugh when you wipe out, it will be a fun and unique experience that everyone will remember.

Why outdoor team-building activities will help reconnect your staff

Hopefully, this article has made you buzz with new and fun ideas for great outdoor team-building activities. The past few years have been difficult in many ways, but if we can take some positives from the pandemic years, it’s that it gave us better outdoor team-building activities for work.

If your team is still working fully or partially remotely for long periods, getting everyone to have fun in the fresh air together will do wonders for their working relationships, productivity, and motivation.

These ideas can also be tweaked or trialled with smaller groups to see how they pan out first. Many of them can occur in an ample indoor space, such as a hall or a gym, should the weather turn nasty.

Embracing outdoor team building will help strengthen connections with your employees, and above all, everyone can have fun together.