Fun Outdoor Team Building Activities and Exercises

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Regardless of whether you are working with organizations in a professional environment, colleagues, or even a team of kids, everyone can benefit from team building activities. Some of the best and most fun team building activities and exercises are done outside. This gives colleagues and teams, particularly those who work or go to school indoors most of the time, a chance to get out and experience the fresh air, have some fun, and learn something new and valuable.

So what are some of these activities that you can do for your team? Some activities include simple games that involve all team members while others may be more brainteasers. All in all, it’s up to the project manager or team supervisor or manager to determine which games would be best suited for teams. You can even include team involvement to see which would be the most popular or which would be the most fun for teams.

Ultimately, teambuilding activities and exercises should reach at least several of the following common goals and outcomes, according to Out of the Square Experience:

·      Teamwork and team spirit

·      Communication

·      Leadership

·      Problem solving skills

·      Planning and goal setting

·      Cooperation

·      Team introductions

·      Establish team relationships

Why outdoors?

First off, who doesn’t like to be outside? Especially when the weather is beautiful. Human beings thrive off sunlight, which gives us Vitamin D, which is a crucial vitamin to our health. So aside from the health benefits of being outside, teambuilding activities are best held outside because they also place everyone on a solid, common ground. Outside or unpredictable events or unfamiliar territories can also resemble or relate to different business environments or structures, particularly those situations that may have decreased morale in a business or organizational setting, or that may have made team members and coworkers uncomfortable. This is why being outside also helps those involved and participating to let loose and feel more comfortable.

While most of these sound like a lot of fun, especially the “playing outside” part, the fact is, most people, regardless of age or gender, dislike teambuilding activities initially. They are one of those “ice breaking” moments that most people dread and roll their eyes at. However, prior to breaking out the activities, perhaps spend some time with teams and explain why and how teambuilding can be so effective. It’s not solely about meeting others or even playing games, it also can be a learning experience. If you were to interview or survey teams prior to engaging in a particular teambuilding activity, most would claim they are uncomfortable or dread them. However, if you were to survey the same team afterwards, nine times out of ten team members would admit to at least one thing they learned during the exercises.

All in all, when people relax and loosen up and are having fun and are engaging in activities and exercises, they are learning, developing, and utilizing new skills that can be used in the work place, in their teams, and even when working on projects or in their day to day tasks. Most of all, teambuilding teaches attitude and helps break negative attitude trends and promotes healthy communication. 

HOCKEY PLAYER IN ACTION
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The Wild Ride That Is Marriage

I've got one word that describes marriage: crazy. If you are married, or even if you aren't, you may have thought of other words, however, this is the first that comes to my mind, as well as an appropriate word to describe it...my opinion.

So, while you are probably doing your own free association right now, "crazy" doesn't always have to be negative. While, of course, marriage has its ups and downs, its good times and bad, its smooth seas and bumpy roads, it can often times be a little "crazy". In your own relationship or marriage, this could either be positive or negative...but I've learned that it's up to you.

In recent months, I've been through a number of changes at work and at home. One thing I've learned is it is up to me on how I want to handle it. I could easily sit here and say to you, "everything is horrible right now. I hate my job, I hate my marriage, I hate not having any money," blah, blah blah...fill in the blanks. But rather than complain, and while it is very easy for us to do, especially during moments when we want to vent, is that always the best solution? Think about it...other than stressing yourself out, raising your blood pressure, or hurting someone, where does anger get you? Where does complaining get you? What does it solve? Nine times out of ten, we just feel worse.

And why? Why is it harder for us to be positive? Why is getting angry and complaining always the easier way to deal with things? It's because we don't have good role models. Most of us want to blame our parents for something, well, here's your chance. We can totally blame our parents, our grandparents, and our ancestors for the way we communicate. We also each have our own individual "issues" that we've had since childhood. It also boils back down to child rearing. Whether we want to admit it or not, we become our parents. And in that, we take the good with the flaws. And with our flaws, sometimes, okay almost always, emotion gets in the way with how we SHOULD react.

So right now at work, we are undergoing a pretty large reorg. And for the first time in my life, this doesn't seem to mean layoffs for me. In this "reorg", we are basically combining two departments and making them all one job. Now while this means more work for all of us, the job will become more fulfilling and more rewarding, and it will also streamline our current process and work flows, and overall save the company money...which everyone likes. In preparing for this new position, we've formed several different "steering committees" to help put together new documentation, make changes to our current systems, and put together training materials. My job is to help put together training materials.

So I've been avidly working for the last six months on putting together quality and effective training materials to provide to everyone, new hires and colleagues, on how to do this new job. One of the activities I was working on putting together were some team building activities and ways to boost morale. One of the things we came across was something called Fish! Fish! was something that was formed by the guys that work at Pike Place Market in Seattle. To get to the point, one of the Fish! principles is "Choose Your Attitude". This really hit me. Think of all the moments in your day, week, life that you could very easily get angry or upset at someone or something. While some situations absolutely call for it, we DO have the ability to CHOOSE how we want to react to a certain situation. It may be hard, but we do have that choice.

So in tying this back into marriage and relationships, we have the ability, as a partner or spouse, to choose how we want to act towards one another. How we want and should communicate to one another. We have the ability to choose how we want to handle situations, whether they are stressful, difficult, challenging, or what have you. Sometimes there are moments where you could easily get angry at the other person, and I could go on all afternoon on the reasons why, but the next time you feel like getting upset, just think to yourself, "is this really worth arguing over? is this really worth hurting the other person? do I want to treat this person like this?" I bet you will answer "no" to each of these questions. I realize that there are situations that absolutely need to be dealt with and a compromise needs to be met, but choose your words carefully. You can do that.

Just because marriages or relationships have bumps in the road doesn't mean that they aren't valuable, or aren't worth the work, or the other person isn't worth it, or marriage is stupid altogether, it's that you choose to think that way. Sure every relationship and marriage has its issues...but those issues can be worked out, if you choose to work at it. Now, of course, I am by no means a licensed psychologist or counselor, nor have I been married for twenty years, I'm just going on what I have studied and what I have experienced in the short time that I have been married.

Is your marriage "crazy"? Maybe it is. Maybe that's a good thing, or maybe it's not so good. All in all, it's up to you to decide.

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