- While most of our simulations integrate team challenges that are a lot of fun, we are first and foremost, management consultants and team building facilitators.
- Our team building ranges from 1 – 4+ days.
- We do NOT specialize in activities that are strictly recreational.
For over a decade, many hotels and companies that specialize in recreational activities have been marketing their services as “team building”. While recreational events for teams have some benefits, corporate play days don’t generate bottom line results. They are NOT a substitute for “real” team building.
We integrate our expert business facilitation with engaging indoor and outdoor recreational team challenges to keep your team energized and create effective business team building simulations.
We hope that this chart, video, and podcast and these articles and blog posts (below) will help clarify the difference between team building and team recreation.
| Team Building | Team Recreation | |
|---|---|---|
| Comparison | What we Do | What They Do |
| Pre |
|
– |
| Briefings |
|
– |
| Simulation |
|
– |
| Activities | Optional | Just for Fun |
| Debriefing |
|
– |
NPR Podcast: Paintballing The Boss: Office Team-Building Exercises Gone Bad
Some Definitions
Here are the differences between team building and team recreation.
Team Building vs Team Recreation
Team Building
Team building seeks to enhance team cohesiveness and performance to improve business results. In team building initiatives, a facilitator guides teams through the predictable phases of team development often described as forming, storming, norming, and performing. The goal is to help the team generate solutions, make decisions, resolve issues, strategize, plan, and execute initiatives smoothly
Let’s be clear. Many team building sessions involve recreation, however, recreation is a means to an end, not the end. Team building is never delivered just to have fun. That’s team recreation.
What we Offer
Core Services
Our core service is the design and faciltation of:
Team building can be delivered on-site at your company premises, off-site as a day session or at a hotel or resort involving overnight stays, locally or at a foreign destination.
What we Don’t Offer
We do NOT offer short, low-cost, stand-alone recreational activities for teams.
Value Added Services & Upgrades
We offer clients who book our facilitation services, the convenience of one stop shopping to find suitable venues, handle logistics, and plan events.
Team Recreation
Team recreation is intended to get your team out of the office for a time of relaxation, recreation, and leisure.
Team members interact for fun and to get to know each other better.
There are no specific business objectives or outcomes. However, it is hoped that if team members are more relaxed and comfortable with each other, this will improve interaction and communication at work.
Yes, team building can include recreational activities but a recreational just because a group engages in activities that are “fun”, this does not constitute “team building”.
Team Entertainment, Socials, or Corporate Events
This is strictly for pleasure. It could be an interactive event such a chef’s table or an Improv night with audience participation or something more passive like a dinner, concert or even dinner theatre.
Executive retreats and team building retreats often include socials in the evening or during downtime.
If you want to reward your team with entertainment or recreation, that’s important to do from time to time but never try to pass it off as “team building”.
Media Articles
Our President and founder has been interviewed by a number of publications, clarifying the difference between team building and team recreation:
- U.S. News & World Report Corporate Team-Building Activities: The Good, the Bad and the Really Ugly
- Huffington Post UK: Corporate Team-Building Events: The Good, The Bad & the Ugly
- The Huffington Post: Who Loses When Organizations Overspend on Team Recreation?
- The Huffington Post: Is Corporate Team Building a Waste of Time?
Blog Post
A number of our blog posts have also addressed this issue.
- What Does “Real” Team Building Look Like?
- LinkedIn Pulse: How Team Building Facilitators can Help Executives Achieve Bottom Line Results
- Team Building: What is the Role of Fun in Corporate Team Building?
- Team Building: Back to Basics
- Team Building: What’s up with the 2 Hour Team Building?
- Are some hotels misleading business clients by marketing recreation as “team building”?
Team Building Upgrades
We offer clients who book our facilitation services, the convenience of one- stop shopping to find suitable venues, handle logistics, and plan events.
Global – Available in all countries
- Lemons to Lemonade
- Visexecutaries
- Inc. Inc.: Breaking Down Silos
- Cooking Team Building
- Restaurant Inc.
Canada & Toronto Team Building
Jamaica Team Building
Dubai Team Building
- The Quest for Black Gold (Dubai)
- In Search of the Golden Camel (Dubai)
Team Building in Oman
Asia Team Building
Anne Thornley-Brown, MBA, the founder and President of Executive Oasis International, has spearheaded management development initiatives for 2 major Canadian corporations. For over 20 years, she has shaped the direction of The Training Oasis, Inc. and its sister company Executive Oasis International. Anne has also been interviewed and featured in Forbes, The Globe and Mail, the National Post, Profit Magazine, Successful Meetings, Smart Meetings, and numerous other publications. In addition to designing and faciltating programmes for companies from 18 countries, she is a well respected blogger. She has blogged for Plan Your Meetings by MPI, The Huffington Post, Event Manager Blog, Cvent Blog, EventMobi Blog, and Elite Meetings, to name a few. For over 8 years, she managed the Event Planning and Event Management group on LinkedIn. As the group grew from 4,000 to 350,000+ members, I launched 18 related groups and recruited, trained, and managed the leadership team.
