Easy Office-Based Team Building Ideas #12 - Christmas Edition!

With only a few weeks to go until Santa comes, we're rounding up our favourite Christmas-themed Easy Office-Based Team Building Ideas to get you in the festive spirit and carry your team through the last few weeks of the year.

• Deck the Halls...and reception...and loo...

One of our regular clients is a huge fan of their annual desk-decorating competition. Teams are made up out of the 'islands' their desks are arranged in, and all decoration must be complete by the 1st of December. The CEO then acts as a judge and declares her favourite before prizes are given and mulled wine enjoyed by all. Apparently they get very competitive, with last year's winning desk being transformed into a German Christmas market! If you don't want to go quite as extreme, simply declare 4pm this Friday as 'the decorating hour' and watch as your colleagues are transformed into excited children again. Magical.

• The Christmas Bake-Off

Our last Office Bake-Off was a huge hit, so we'll definitely be recreating it this year with our favourite Christmas treats. An American take on this would be to do a cookie swap, in which everyone bakes their favourite biscuit (bake at least one biscuit per colleague) and swaps them so that everyone has a lovely selection to take home. Alternatively, ask everyone to make a mixture of sweet and savoury goods to result in a huge lunch feast for all. We'll be making Paul Hollywood's Savoury Christmas Chelsea Buns in the hope of being crowned Ultimate Christmas Baking Champion.

• Elf Yourself

For a simple yet hilarious way to get even the most Scrooge-like of colleagues into the Christmas spirit, visit Elf Yourself and get uploading. It's really easy to use, all you'll need is some photos of your colleagues, but be sure to put yourself in there too to show that you're game.

• Lend a Hand

Nothing builds motivation and teamwork like helping out those less fortunate at Christmas time. At CCC we'll be donning our sparkly sweaters and supporting Save the Children on Christmas Jumper Day, but there's a multitude of other ways you could give back. Popular ideas include asking everyone to spend a few pounds on an extra toy to be given to a children's charity, taking flowers or treats from your Bake-Off to a local care home and spending some time with the elderly, or 'treating' other nearby businesses to lunchtime carolling and donating the proceeds.

• Secret Santa Advent Raffle

A twist on the classic office Secret Santa - source one gift per person (either ask everyone to bring one in or have the company provide them). Attach raffle tickets to each gift and place them somewhere prominent. In the countdown to Christmas, hold a daily raffle, having one person pick a ticket from a hat each day - they then win whichever gift matches their ticket! Any leftovers are picked on the final day of work before Christmas, and it's a nice way of having something small going on every day rather than one big present-giving.

Want to take the load off this Christmas? Let us take care of the entertainment! Our evening events are perfect for office parties. Visit our website or call 0845 006 06 06 for a chat with our lovely sales team.

Easy Office-Based Team Building Ideas #10

At CCC Events, we're big advocates of the benefits of regularly coming together as a team away from the stresses of everyday working life. The advantages of taking off your 'work hats' for a while and getting together in a relaxed environment are numerous - better working relationships, higher morale and increased productivity to name just a few. However, the number one reason many of our clients find it difficult to make this happen is lack of time; there's always things to be done and urgent tasks to attend to. Therefore, today's edition of Easy Office-Based Team Building Ideas looks at how you can slot fun team building activities right into your lunch break. Spending lunchtime with colleagues can strengthen bonds immeasurably, and having an activity to focus on will break the ice and carry the benefits over into the afternoon.

The key to lunchtime-based team building is to keep it light; it is people's free time, after all, so look at this more as 'lunch time entertainment' and make participation optional. You'll find that with enough prior notice, most people will want to get involved in something different to their usual deli run or desk picnic, and may even make it a regular activity off their own backs. Try any of the activities below or do a different one each week!

• Retro Boardgames

Simple yet effective, you can't beat the humble boardgame when it comes to creating light-hearted banter! Ask everyone to bring their favourite from home, then set up a designated 'arena' for the games to take place. To keep things relaxed, let people play whomever and whatever they like, but play against the clock - so when the lunch hour is up, whoever is in the lead wins, regardless of whether that game has finished. Our favourites are Jenga, Scrabble and good old Snakes and Ladders.

• Pot Luck Lunch

For a lunchtime feast that'll beat boring sandwiches any day, hold a Pot Luck Lunch. Everyone brings one dish - easily portable things like pasta salad, cold cuts, quiches and cakes work best - and shares them out at lunchtime. It's a lot more sociable than going out separately, and if you have any culinary geniuses amongst you, you'll get to enjoy the best lunchtime treats you've had in a long time.

• Get Arty

Getting artistic at the office actually works best for teams who think they have no creative skill whatsoever - taken with a big pinch of salt, creative lunchtimes can be a fun way of activating the parts of your brain you haven't used since primary school. Keep it simple with the materials - at the very least you'll need some paper and pens, but you can add felt tips or coloured pencils if you like. If you're already quite close as a team, a brilliant starting point is to pair up and draw one another's portraits - it's not for the easily offended, but in the right circumstances this activity can leave you crying with laughter.

• The Great Outdoors

We know the weather can be grim, but that's even more reason to take advantage when the it's not raining and get outside for a bit. Office lighting and heating can make people sluggish and demotivated, and even just a short burst of fresh air and vitamin D can boost moods and productivity. No need to get the hiking boots out - a quick group stroll to a nearby cafe (we find the promise of hot chocolate can persuade many) works wonders. Blow away the cobwebs and you'll return invigorated and positive - we promise.

• Start a Club

If you're an office of literature lovers, then a book club can be a great way of structuring lunchtime team bonding.  Simply take it in turns to choose a new book each month (there are some great suggestions here), decide on where you'll all read up to before your next meeting, and get together one lunchtime to discuss! If books aren't your bag, then choose something that is - the sky's the limit on this one! Running, card games, crochet; whatever you're into, put the feelers out and form a club - you might be surprised at who shows an interest!

For professional, corporate team building events to suit your schedule - from one-hour icebreakers to full day programmes - visit CCC Events or call us on 0845 006 06 06.

Team Motivation: Art for your Office #6

The latest in our series on team motivation reminds us that the application of every member is integral to achieving our goals as a team. If it's been a while since your last team building event and your team is lacking inspiration, the words of Vince Lombardi are sure to inspire.

Click here for a free, printable version of this poster.

Need a bigger boost? Give yourselves something to look forward to by planning your summer team building now! Visit our website or call 0845 006 06 06 for a chat.

Team Motivation: Art for Your Office #5

This week's motivational poster is a reminder that when times get tough, the best teams pull together and tackle the problem as a group. It can be easy to lose sight of the importance of a strong team sometimes - remind yourselves by printing our poster here and sticking it up in your office. You can also check out the rest of this series here.

"Tough times don't last - tough teams do"

If you want to boost motivation further, check out our range of team building events or call 0845 006 06 06 to have a chat about the many team building options available with CCC.

Easy Office-Based Team Building Ideas #6

If you're looking for budget-friendly team building ideas that are simple yet effective and that you can run from the comfort of your office, check out our series on Easy Office-Based Team Building Ideas. This week, we're taking a look at how a simple deck of cards can be used in a range of icebreakers and team builds - pick and choose from our list, or tackle them all for a fun, motivational afternoon.

• House of Cards - Give each person 10 playing cards, and divide the group into pairs. Each pair must try and build a house of cards within two minutes - the catch is, each person is only allowed to use one hand. The team that manages to build the most layers wins. 

• Fruity Throwing - This one is great fun and is good if you want to get everyone giggling. Cut a watermelon in half lengthways and prop it up on a bookcase or filing cabinet, with the flesh facing outwards. Divide the group into two teams and give one team black cards and the other red. Everyone must stand 15 feet away, and should throw their cards in such a way that they stick into the watermelon, like darts. You could have people throw one at a time, but we prefer the added chaos of getting everyone to throw at once and adding up the cards still left in the watermelon at the end by colour. The team with the most cards still stuck wins!

• Say What You See - Divide the group into teams and deal one card per person. The teams must use the first letters of the numbers or suits to create a sentence. For example, if a team had a King, jack, one and five, their sentence might be; "Kangaroos jump over fences". Each team must show their cards to the rest of the group before acting out their sentence. If another team guesses it, both the team acting out and the team that guessed correctly get a point.

• Don't Blow It - Take 2-litre plastic bottle, fill it with around 100ml of water and place a deck of cards on the lid. Teams must blow the cards off of the bottle without it falling over - the catch is, the bottom card must be left in place. Set a time limit of three minutes - the team that has removed the most cards (without removing the bottom card) by the end wins.

• Pick a Card - Structure an icebreaker session by allocating categories to each card type, then asking individuals to speak on that subject. For example, hearts might be "Where I've travelled", spades "Careers I admire", Kings "My proudest moment" and so on. Ask each person to pick out four cards, and encourage them to speak for at least a minute or so.

• Pick a Card (with a twist) - For a more entertaining take on 'Pick a Card', allocate forfeits to some of the cards - for example, if someone picks a Joker, they have to tell their best one-liner, if it's a Queen they must say the alphabet backwards, and so on. Picking an Ace means you get the honour of choosing the next person to pick!

If you're ready to take your team building to the next level, check out our website or call 0845 006 06 06.

Team Motivation: Art for your Office #4

Today's motivational poster is based on the concept that when it comes to thinking up new ideas, there are no limits. If you or your team have been in a rut recently, stick this quote from Deepak Chopra up in the office and wait for the inspiration to flow!

Instead of thinking outside the box, get rid of the box" - Deepak Chopra

Find a free, printable version of this poster here, and take a look at the rest of our motivational posters here.

If you want to boost team motivation even further, bring in the professionals! CCC Events has over twenty years experience in the industry and offers over 75 team building events to suit your brief. Call 0845 006 06 06 for a chat with our lovely sales team or check out our website.

Easy Office-Based Team Building Ideas #5

If your workplace is anything like ours, then you love yourselves a slice of cake. Birthdays, Fridays, national celebrations - in our eyes, they're all the perfect excuse to swap our lunchtime sarnies for a bit of Victoria Sponge. This week's Easy Office-Based Team Building Idea adds a competitive element to your average office tea party: behold, The Great Team Building Bake Off!

Here at CCC HQ, we'll be holding our own Bake Off in the run up to Easter Weekend - we're looking forward to it so much that we'd thought we'd share our tips on how to organise your own.

A few weeks before you plan on holding your Bake Off, be sure to email everyone to let them know which day it will be held and display our poster to remind everyone. This will give people time to think about what they want to bake and get people talking in the run up to your team build.

Competitors can be as traditional or as unusual as they like - there's at least one person in every office who will claim that their Grandmother's recipe for Fruit Cake will be the ultimate contender, but unusual, savoury options such as cheese and jalapeño scones can often be the dark horse and blow everyone away.

Once you know who's going to be taking part, split competitors into three or more teams. Let them know their teams beforehand so that they can plan on bringing a range of baked goods between them and ensure there won't be two of the same thing within their team. This will also get the competitive banter going - you'll be surprised how much trash talking there can be about baking!

On the day, have teams place their baked goods together, and number each cake. For example, you might have the Red Team, with cakes 1-8, the Blue Team, with cakes 9-16, and so on. Send another email to encourage everyone (competitors and spectators) to taste as much as possible throughout the day and to place their ballot. It's fun to include a range of categories, such as 'Best Sweet', 'Best Savoury', 'Best Presentation', and of course 'Best Team Overall'. Place the ballot box (this can just be a shoebox with a slot cut into it) near the cakes, and ask people to write their names at the top of their voting slip to ensure there's no tactical voting.

Once the votes are counted, announce the category winners before awarding the main prize to the Best Overall Team. The best thing about this team build is that regardless of the results, everyone's a winner - at the end of the day, everyone will have had the best lunch ever!

If your team can't get enough of cooking, treat them to a Cookery-based Team Building Event. We'll provide all the supplies - just make sure to bring your appetites!

Team Motivation: Art for Your Office #3

The latest in our series on Team Motivation considers one of life's great stumbling blocks: procrastination! If you sometimes find that the planning takes more precedence than the doing, we hope these words will inspire action!

"You could make a wish, or you could make it happen"

Click here for a free, printable version of this poster. Alternatively, call 0845 006 06 06 or visit our website to find out how you can boost motivation through team building.

Team Motivation: Art for your Office #2

This week's free team building poster is a quote from Henry Ford, and will give your office a much-needed burst of colour in the winter months. "Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success" - Henry Ford

Click here for a free, printable version of this poster.

Need a bigger dose of motivation at work? Call 0845 006 06 06 to discuss the many team building events on offer with CCC Events.

Team Motivation: Art for your Office #1

If it's been a while since your last team building event and you need some motivation, try decorating your desk area with this week's free, printable poster. Instant office chic and a good motto to live by, all in one.

"None of us is as smart as all of us. Work together, achieve more"

Click here for a printable version of this poster. Alternatively, give us a call on 0845 006 06 06 to discuss how to boost motivation through team building.

Easy Office-Based Team Building Ideas #2

If you're looking for a small team build you can run yourselves, from your office, with minimum planning or fuss, look no further than our Easy Office Based Team Building Ideas!

Creation Through Communication

The aim of this activity is for each team member to create a piece of origami by being given only verbal instructions by their team leader. It is beneficial for groups who are having communication issues, as it encourages everyone to assess how they listen to instructions, how they interpret them and how they implement them. It's also a great way of looking at the art of giving instructions, and is a fantastic DIY team build because the only equipment it requires is paper.

To prepare this activity, trim some A4 paper into squares and print off some Origami diagrams. There are plenty of resources online but ideally you want something easy and without written instructions, so that the instructor describes what they see in their own words. We like Origami Diagram - try the Flutter Fly as it's nice and simple.

If you have a small group (ten or fewer), this activity can be run as one large group, with the person running the activity giving instructions. For more people, divide the group into teams of about four to six people and ask them to nominate a team leader who will be giving out instructions.

Give each person a piece of paper (using coloured paper is nice but not essential) and explain the activity. Ask the team leaders to give out a series of instructions to best describe the diagrams you have given them, which everyone should follow. People should avoid asking questions, but they can ask for instructions to be repeated or re-phrased. Do not let people know exactly what they will be making, although you should have one example already made up to reveal at the end.

Give the teams a time limit, depending on the difficulty of the design you have given them (fifteen to twenty minutes for the Flutter Fly would be ideal).

If you are working in teams, when the time is up come back together to de-brief.  Reveal your "Here's one I made earlier" example, and explain that it's okay if not everybody's is perfect - that's the whole point of the exercise!

Some points for discussion to consider are:

• How do the end products compare to each other? If there are noticeable differences, why do you think this might be?
• What did people find challenging about this exercise? Are these challenges similar to those you have when communicating at work?
• Do you think that if you could see diagrams of the instructions, or have an example of the end result, your product would look the same? This would have meant relying less on yourselves and your own understanding of the instructions - would that have been a good thing?
• Participants had to trust the person giving instructions - how did this feel?
• What can you feed back about how the instructions were given? Did those giving instructions speak clearly and slowly enough, waiting for everybody to be ready before they moved on to the next point, or not? You may find it's beneficial to repeat the exercise with different people giving out different instructions, so that everyone has the chance to work on these skills.
• What have we learned about communication - both listening and instructing - that we can transfer to our working lives?

If you want to take your team building further, check out our website for ideas or call 0845 006 06 06 to speak to our fabulous team.

Easy Office-Based Team Building Ideas - #1

Here at CCC Events we understand that it's not always possible to get your whole team out of the office for an 'official' Team Build as often as you'd like. That's why we're proud to introduce our new blog series, Easy Office-Based Team Building Ideas! Whether it's your first foray into the world of team building, or you are looking for something to tide you over until your next away day, we'll be posting a series of small team builds that you can run yourselves, from your office, with minimum planning or fuss.

The Scavenger Hunt

A Scavenger Hunt is an easy way to get everybody working together in a fun frenzy of activity. Use it to get over the mid-day slump or before a meeting and your staff will be buzzing with excitement - especially the winning team.

The aim of The Scavenger Hunt is for each team to try and find as many of the items on the list as possible within a set time limit. This is an office-based activity, but if you work in a city or near a park, you may want to allow teams to get out and about as they search for items (if you trust them to come back!)

Begin by dividing the group into teams - three to six people per team is perfect. A mixture of senior/junior, male/female and different age groups in each team is a great way of getting people to mix with those they might not otherwise. Alternatively, simply pick names from a hat.

Once everybody has found their team, hand out a list of Scavenger Hunt Items. A range of easy and difficult items is good - here are some of our favourites:

• Coin dated 1999
• Cassette Tape
• Picture of the MD
• Your company logo
• Safety pin
• Stress Ball
• The Queen
• Novelty hat
• Stuffed animal
• Golf Tee
• Balloon
• Promotional Item
• Company Award

Encourage teams to think outside of the box - items don't have to be literal. A hand-drawn caricature of the MD, for example, is more creative and will provide more laughs than a printed photo from your website! Give the teams a time limit - 15 minutes if you're looking for a quick motivator, or up to an hour if if you really want to get the teams working together (adjust the number of items on the list accordingly).

When everyone has returned, get the teams to present the items they managed to find - the team that got the most is the winner!

Award a small prize or treat to the winning team, and if you want to get your office looking ship-shape again, consider giving another prize to the first team to return all of their items to where they found them.

If you want to take your team building further, take a look at our website or call 0845 006 06 06 to speak to one of our fabulous team.