Team Building Activities That Rock!

Does that phrase “team building activities” make you cringe a little? At Kinetic, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. “Having fun” is a part of our culture and is even one of our core values.

All About Teamwork

Steve Jobs said, “Great things in business are never done by one person. They’re done by a team of people.” And we couldn’t agree more.

At Kinetic, our team produces and executes marketing strategies for dozens of clients across industries from video production to digital advertising and everything in between. Our team is busy, and we bet yours is, too!

According to the Harvard Business Review, there are a few common factors that highly successful teams share. One is they carry on side conversations daily. Another, they take breaks to catch up on non-work-related topics.

Built to Support People

The idea behind Kinetic was to build a company that people would love to work at. We adapted a hybrid work model to better meet our people’s needs plus we have remote workers across the country in order to offer more skills to our clients. Many offices are getting on board with hybrid or fully remote models. It adds huge value for our employees to be able to work from home, but that means we have to be more intentional about scheduling face-to-face time. What better way than through fun activities!?

That’s why we prioritize taking time outside of work to bring the entire Kinetic team together to reinforce relationships across teams, build trust and simply enjoy the awesome people we work with in a different setting!

Team Building Inspiration

Here are some of our most successful team building activities over the years. Plan a team building activity for your employees and see how your team flourishes and produces better work.

Take a Hike!

Montana hosts some of the most beautiful hiking from around the world. From majestic mountains to flowing waterfalls and stunning lakes, there are so many trails to choose from. Here are a few tried and true trails we love.

• Woodbine Falls

• Greenough Lake

• Mystic Lake Trail

• Red Lodge Trails

• Whitefish Trails

Host a Retreat

Since 2015, we have had an annual retreat that we use as a reward for hitting quarterly goals. You won’t get a better team builder than this! Plan a weekend getaway for your team — fill it with food, drinks, massages and adventure and you are in for an exponential team-bonding experience. Here are our recommendations:

Livingston and Bozeman: Get a massage, book an escape room, go shopping and hit the town for dinner, drinks and dancing.

Big Sky: Float the Madison River, indulge in food and drinks as a team and unwind with a relaxing massage. Amp up the adventure and take the team zip lining for an added dose of endorphins.

Sage Lodge: Massages are a must! Then see who has epic ax throwing skills, make dinner together and hit the hot tubs to relax and share stories at Sage Lodge.

In House

Play a murder mystery game. Murder mystery games are all the rage and easy to get online. There are tons of themes to choose from, too. The team must work together to discover the fictional killer, and you’ll find out who is true crime savant. It’s fun and encourages collaborative thinking. Be sure to pick teams that are out of the ordinary office structure.

Host a lunch and learn. Bring in a guest speaker or ask one of your own to educate the team over a delicious lunch.

Out of Office

Host a scavenger hunt. Use the app Goosechase Goal App to create a hilarious scavenger hunt game around town. This game is so fun — the goal is for each team to get as many of the “missions” completed and earn as many points as possible (certain missions are worth different points). The team with the most points wins!

Some of the missions were to take a picture, video, or check in at certain spots and upload it in the app for points. We set the timer to 45 minutes, and designated our final destination as the fabulous Doc Harper’s across the street from Kinetic.

We grouped our staff into three teams of six and gave out blue, orange and green bandanas to bring out some team spirit.

It was such a great time, and bonus — you get a ton of photos and videos of your team to give to your social media manager. Check out some of our highlights on Instagram.

Around Billings

Aerial yoga — get flexible but in the air! This one will be sure to challenge and delight your team. We give it a 10/10.

Cornhole and tacos at By All Means. Delicious AND fun.

Private movie showing at Art House Cinema. Be sure to have food and drinks afterwards to discuss the film.

Give Back

What better way to bond than through charity? Here are a few of Kinetic’s annual team building events that give back to the community.

Walk together for a cause. Each year we get together in Laurel, Montana for the Sam’s Run to support Step In, an organization that connects youth, family and friends in the community to resources that help combat suicide through prevention and awareness of mental illness.

Bingo at a retirement home. We had a blast hosting Bingo for the St. John’s United retirement community. If you haven’t hosted one yet, well, you’re missing out!

“Dress-A-Child” with Salvation Army. The Salvation Army of Yellowstone County hosts the “Dress-A-Child” program to provide warm clothing to school-aged children in Kindergarten through sixth grade. The program is so fun! You get to take a child in need on a shopping spree for warm clothes.

 

Make it Great!

Whatever you plan, make it great! Everyone’s time is valuable, and you want to make sure that you are providing great experiences for your employees, especially if you’re digging into their free time. If you have any questions or need some help organizing your team building event, we do that too! Check out how we planned and executed EBMS’ Health & Business Symposium with special activities from a party at the Moss Mansion to whitewater rafting. It was a blast!