How do you get your team to genuinely bond and gel?
They may know each other’s names and even interact daily but do they really understand what each other’s needs are? Are they comfortable and willing to be open and share more deeply beyond social niceties? Do they care about the team’s outcome? Are they pulling in the same direction, clear as to their shared goal and how each can contribute?
Do you need to crack your team out of their comfort zone and allow them to really see what each other can do with an effective team building event?
A key element of a successful team event is experiencing something new and different together. A shared experience bonds people. A different setting, or experiencing a known setting in a different way is an excellent way to advance your corporate team building.
Taking people out of their comfort zone, or a known location, can help connect team members. It can inspire, more deeply engage and remove boundaries that a formal environment like the workplace or a corporate meeting area can sometimes unwittingly impose. A fresh space can provoke a fresh mindset, and provide a level playing field for all.
At Urban Quest, we recognise this and craft our team building events to harness this benefit.
Urban Quest provides three different settings for its Melbourne-based team building activities: Melbourne’s CBD, The Docklands and King’s Domain parklands. Each provides a very different outdoor team building setting, whilst still providing the same clever quest concept, genuine challenges and carefully crafted fun group interactions.
1. A classic central business district Melbourne team building event setting
The CBD Urban Quest is set in the central CBD, along streets, down alleyways and past significant iconic buildings. In this Quest, instead of heading to a meeting, going shopping, or transiting to and from the office, you are being challenged to interact with this possibly well-known environment in a different way. This is an excellent route for challenging established ways and exploring new ways of thinking. Look for different things and visit different locations. See things in different ways.
On a CBD Urban Quest, once they crack their first clue and determine where they need to head, teams burst out of Melbourne Central and dive into the City streets. The thrill of the chase has been ignited and teams race ahead, smartphones fiercely clutched. United by a shared mission, individual teams hunt down each team challenge, scanning the location to reveal each task. Out in the fresh air, amidst the buzz of the City, it feels good to be working as a team to solve each task. And each problem is genuinely challenging ensuring you need your full team’s talents!
And of course, the CBD is the ideal setting to share with colleagues visiting from interstate or overseas – a fun way to showcase Melbourne and experience it together, building stronger team bonds. There is huge value in reminiscing on a fabulous fun experience together after a team building event!
2. A modern and fresh but less known Docklands Melbourne team building setting
The Docklands Urban Quest is totally different – an all-modern setting, the waterfront stretching in front of you, Marvel stadium at the Centre of things. The novel setting allows for some refreshingly different interactions with this very special environment. It was largely designed to showcase some of the interesting artworks and unknown areas tucked around the Docklands. Initially developed to cater for those businesses at the waterfront end of the City, if you’re based at this end of town, it removes the need to head further into the CBD for your team building activity.
On a Docklands Quest, you weave your way around highrises and interesting spaces, then burst out onto the waterfront, clear waters and bobbing craft stretching out before you. Enjoy the open-air spaces and stunning views. Encounter public artworks and uncover clues with the ‘clink’ of watercraft lulling you in the background. Your teams will love discovering unusual and interesting parts of Docklands while cracking crafty codes and pitting their wits against the Quest masterminds.
3. More relaxed and natural King’s Domain Melbourne parkland team building activities
Or are you looking for a green natural setting? The relaxed vibe a park can provide? An Urban Quest in the Kings Domain by the Botanic Gardens may be the perfect match; so different to the City and yet right on its doorstep!
In Kings Domain the lush lawns and curving pathways defy you to unleash your team’s inner detective and unravel codes and confront challenges that can only be successfully solved with the force of multiple minds. While you quest for challenges with your team, you move amongst the trees, kick up the leaves and pass notable monuments and memorials along the way. This may be a part of the city you do not know well at all. The Kings Domain setting provides a totally different mood to the concrete cityscape of the CBD and Docklands’ waterways. The setting may be sedate but the dilemmas will tax your teams as hard as any Urban Quest – challenging them to pull together to triumph!
As a staff member of Urban Quest, one of the joys is seeing the delight players experience in the different event settings. All discovering somewhere new. All enjoying the same surprise. These experiences provide a shared bond – something to talk about at the end of the event, or in the future. Shared emotions pave the way for more natural connections to follow.
Is an Urban Quest the answer to help your team genuinely connect?
Returning companies recognise the value an Urban Quest provides for genuine team building. There is true interaction with colleagues, genuine thought-provoking dilemmas, and the shared satisfaction that comes from successfully completing challenges together. This is all under time pressure and in competition, wrapped up in a lot of fun. After your initial Urban Quest adventure, returning for subsequent quests is an easy decision. You know the Urban Quest experience, but each new quest in a different setting is a whole new outdoor team building adventure with the same genuine team benefits enjoyed.
