Team Building Activity: Explore Your Community

Take your team on an exploration of the neighborhood, town or city in which your workplace is located. The longer we work at one place, the more likely we will fall into "auto pilot" in our commute and as we interact on our grounds.

To do this well, pick a couple of creative employees and give them permission to take an afternoon to develop a short tour of the neighborhood. Ask them to find places that may have been overlooked. (For example, when I went to work in a new place, I discovered a beautiful park just up the road. Others who had worked there for quite awhile were glad to be reminded of the  nice place for a lunch break.) Allow them to do a little research about the history of the town or to try out a new place for lunch.)

Select a half day (or full day if you are bold) and tell employees they can dress casually. Take the information the first employees put together and take your team on a walk. End with a lunch at the little known park or restaurant.

At the lunch, talk about what new things the team discovered about their work community. Then, expand the conversation to brainstorming about things they may be overlooking at work. Ask questions such as:

• What interesting services could we begin to offer our clients?
• How could we make our own workplace more appealing/welcoming?
• How can we engage within our own neighborhood more effectively?
• How would we grade our neighbor's perception of our workplace?
• What places in the community stood out to you as professional, approachable, and/or places where you would want to do business? Why?

If you note some type of improvement to take back at the workplace, be sure to implement it within a month. If you don't act on feedback quickly, your follow through credibility will be diminished. Have fun!