Workplace Fundraising for Children in Need

Get Your Bake On!

CCC HQ were raising money for Children in Need this week with an office bake off.

It’s not too late to donate, see the official fundraising website for more info, ideas and resources.

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 #11

Last time on Easy Office-Based Team Building Ideas, we looked at fitting your team building into packed schedules by utilising your lunch hour. But there's another way to strengthen bonds and boost motivation without taking up masses of precious work time, by using a technique we call the Long-Term Team Build.

The idea behind the Long-Term Team Build is that one person puts a simple, fun activity in place that then pops up in very short bursts over the course of many weeks, months or even years!

The beauty of this idea is that once the seed has been planted, it takes care of itself and needs little further organising or planning; you don't even need to make sure that everyone is available to take part at any particular time. Furthermore, this style of team build results in frequent, short bursts of motivation, maintaining the good vibes for a longer period.

Our Top Three Long-Term Team Builds

The Sweepstake

If the Monday blues are an ongoing issue for your team, then a sweepstake could be a great idea for kicking off the week. Take any popular event happening over the weekend, such as sports games and TV talent shows, and turn it into a weekly motivation booster. At the beginning of a sports season or talent show series, have people pick names of teams or contestants from a hat. If their team or contestant is kicked out of the tournament over the weekend, they have to bring in a small treat, such as a tin of biscuits, the following week. The person who picks the winner wins a prize! (Be sure to pick something that has enough teams/contestants for at least one per employee - if you have any left over toss a coin or ask people to complete forfeits for the honour of getting to pick two!)

Our favourite sweepstake is based around The Great British Bake Off - we had one client who told us how they really took this idea to town. The treats the losers brought in each week had to be based around that week's Bake Off theme - cakes, desserts, biscuits, and so on, and they even made masks of 'their' contestants to wear each week!

Office Bingo

The concept of Office Bingo couldn't be simpler - everyone gets a bingo card like the one above, and when something happens to fit one of the squares, they cross it off! It works best on a 'first come first served basis' - so the moment there's a delivery, for example, only one person can declare that they are crossing off a square - no one else can have it. The first person to get a line wins a small prize, and to keep the momentum going you may want to consider another prize for a 'full house'.

You can either make your own, print off our version here, or do a Google image search for 'office bingo' for more ideas.

Photo Tag

Another simple yet effective idea, Photo Tag will have you looking at your office in a whole new light! To begin the game, take a photo of some obscure part of your office - the corner of a window frame, the light fitting in the boardroom - and email it to the rest of the office. Everyone gets one guess at where the photo was taken, and the winner has to take the next week's photo. If no one guesses correctly, the person who took the photo has to take another go, with the game getting more difficult - but also much funnier - as the weeks go on and there are fewer places to choose from.

If you need something more than our quick refreshers, check out our amazing, professional team building events on 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.

Easy Office-Based Team Building Ideas #9

Today's Easy Office-Based Team Building Idea takes TV classic Would I Lie To You? and turns it into a simple yet effective icebreaker tool that is both fun and effective. You'll learn unusual facts about one another, promoting team bonding, but you'll also be in stitches as usually-reserved colleagues try to convince you that they were once Judo champions!

To prepare for this exercise, ask each person who will be taking part to submit one or two unusual stories or facts about themselves that none of their colleagues are aware of. Tell people in advance what the stories will be used for, so that they only submit stories they are happy sharing and can have a think about personal facts that may surprise - and fool - others.

Meanwhile, it's your responsibility to come up with the 'Lies' that you will give out during the exercise. Be careful not to give anything that may be potentially embarrassing; judge it on how close you are as a team and how forthcoming people normally are. Here are some ideas to get you going:

• For two weeks I drove a car that could only turn left
• I used to speak French fluently, but have forgotten all of it
• I once won first place in my home town's windsurfing championships
• Until last Christmas I thought reindeer were mythical creatures
• I am a Grade 8 clarinet player
• I once wrote fan mail to Jason Donovan...and got a reply
• My middle name used to be 'Rainbow', so I changed it
• I was once interviewed by MI5 to be a spy
• I used to be in a rock band called 'Skullz'
• For two years my front door didn't lock properly so I leant an ironing board against it at night

Print each 'Lie' onto a separate piece of paper, and remember to write the word 'Lie' underneath, or use red ink to show it is false. Do the same with the 'Truths', writing 'True' or using green ink.

Then decide how many stories each person will tell - if you are short on time or there is a lot of you, just go for one per person. Decide who will tell their 'Truth' and who will tell one of your 'Lies' and pop the necessary pieces of paper into envelopes with the name of the person who will be reading them on the front. If you have more time, or there's only a small group taking part, you can give each person a few envelopes, one or two containing their 'Truths', the rest with your 'Lies' (make sure everyone gets the correct 'Truth'!) Allocating the 'Lies' yourself lends an element of surprise for everyone, but if you're short on time, you can always simply ask people to arrive with one truth and two lies of their own.

When you're ready to begin, explain the game and ask the first person to open an envelope. They must then relate what it says to the rest of the group, adding as much detail as they like, to convince them it is true. Other participants can then ask questions and discuss the answers to get more information and try to catch the main player out. Once everyone has asked a question, ask those who think it is a 'Lie' to raise their hand. Ask the main player to reveal the truth by turning the paper around for everyone to see, and give a point to those who were correct. If the main player gets a 'Truth' in their envelope, they may choose to double-bluff the other players by seeming as though they are lying - again, anyone who guesses correctly gets a point.

Taking it Further

This exercise works wells as a short icebreaker before meetings, but you can also make a whole afternoon or evening of it by splitting people into teams of two or three and adding extra rounds. Classic rounds from the TV show include:

• Ring of Truth: Everyone takes part in guessing during this round. 'Facts' are read out about well-known celebrities and players must guess whether they are true or false. For example: 'David Beckham gave a copy of his autobiography to Nelson Mandela for Christmas.' (True!)
• This is My...: If your colleagues are up for a bit of pre-game preparation, ask everyone to bring an object to tell a story about. Allocate people 'True' or 'False' stories beforehand so that you have an even spread. For example: 'This a lock of Simon Cowell's hair that I bought on eBay.'
• Quick-Fire Lies: If you've been inundated with funny stories people wanted to share, consider ending with a quick-fire round. Go around each person individually, giving them one story, and tell them who the story was from. They must answer within 10 seconds, without asking any questions.

Our Easy Office-Based Team Building Ideas are amazing, but our Corporate Team Building Events are on another level! To find out more, visit our website or call 0845 006 06 06 for a chat.

Easy Office-Based Team Building Ideas #8

Here at CCC Events, we get a massive buzz from motivating corporate groups through our fabulous team building events. But when the event day is over, we still want to help out - which is why we love our series on Easy Office Based Team Building Ideas. They are the perfect solution for those of you looking for quick, budget friendly motivators that you can run yourselves, between your 'official' team building days. This week, we are looking at Zoom, an illustrated book by Istvan Banyai, and how it can be utilised as a brilliant team building resource. Numerous corporate coaches use Zoom as a highly effective facilitation tool, but for a fraction of the cost it's easy to do it yourself.

Zoom is a world-renowned wordless children's book, written in 1995 and since published in 18 countries. Its illustrations take the reader though an amazing narrative as the eye of the reader 'zooms out' - see how it works here.

To apply Zoom as an easy motivational team building exercise, the only purchase you will need to make is of a couple of copies of the book, which is available for a couple of pounds here on Amazon. Separate and laminate the pages, shuffle them up and divide the pictures amongst your team.  Their task is then to arrange the pages in order of sequence, either 'zooming out' or 'zooming in'.

This is great energiser at the start of a small team meeting, but can also work as a fantastic icebreaker for large conferences. Simply prepare one page per person and place one at each table setting. Participants then have until the end of the conference to swap pages, the aim being that they can make up a complete sequence within their table. Swapping can be done during breaks or free time, providing a great conversation starter and encouraging plenty of networking.

Ready to take your team building to the next level? Check out our many amazing team building events on our website or call 0845 006 06 06 for a chat.

Easy Office-Based Team Building Ideas #7

This week's Easy Office-Based Team Building Idea takes inspiration from the hit TV show Minute to Win It. It's the perfect solution if you're after low-budget yet high-octane team challenges that bring people together for a fun Friday afternoon.

The concept of Minute to Win It is simple: a range of (seemingly) straight-forward challenges are set, which participants must complete in 60 seconds or less in order to earn points for their team. The beauty of using this concept as a team building exercise is that once the clock starts ticking, it becomes highly competitive whilst also being very light-hearted; participants will be so focused on completing their challenge in under a minute that they won't care how silly they look whilst doing it!

To prepare for your Minute to Win It team building afternoon, begin by deciding which challenges you want to set. You can find a full list of challenges, as well as explanatory videos on the US Minute To Win It website, but some of our favourites are:

• Defying Gravity - tap 3 balloons to keep them off the ground for 60 seconds
• Floatacious - build a floating tower out of fizzy drink cans
• Noodling Around - pick up six pieces of penne pasta from a table using only one piece of uncooked spaghetti in your mouth
• Office Tennis - using only a clipboard, volley a ball of paper into a bin 15 feet away
• Roll With It - unspool two rolls of toilet paper at the same time, using only one hand for each

Once you've gathered everything you need, divide the group into teams. Present the first challenge (you can either explain it yourself or play the website's video on a computer or through a projector) and give the teams 30 seconds to nominate their first player. Have the players come up and compete one at a time, keeping track of their scores. Once they are done, move onto the next challenge until everyone has competed at least once. Be sure to have a camera on hand - if you want to win, there's no way to tackle these challenges glamorously!

If you think our Easy Office-Based Team Building Ideas are great, you should see our Corporate Team Building Events - they're amazing! To find out more, visit our website or call 0845 006 06 06 to speak to our sales team - they're lovely.

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.

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!

Easy Office-Based Team Building Ideas #4

This week's Easy Office-Based Team Building Idea takes a classic family game that everyone is familiar with and turns it into the perfect brainstorming or icebreaker tool - whether you are a new team, or just want to get to know each other better.

Conversation Jenga

Sometimes icebreaker sessions can be difficult to structure and as a result can seem forced, making people shy and guarded - which is the opposite of what you are trying to achieve. Take the pressure off and make it into a game by playing Conversation Jenga - it's just as you would play it at home, except each block has a question on it which must be answered by the person who pulls it out.

Before the session, source a Jenga set (use the classic version or go for a giant garden set for extra impact) and either write directly onto the blocks or print off labels to stick on. It's up to you what you ask, but we'd suggest a mixture of work-centred and personal questions (without getting too personal!) Some examples are:

• What skill would you like to learn?
• Whose career do you most admire?
• Where is your favourite place you have travelled to?
• If you were to write a book, what would it be about?
• If you could have one super power, what would it be?

NB: It almost goes without saying, but the words "...and why?" should be assumed after each question - you're after interesting information, not a one-word answer.

To avoid putting people on the spot, have each person pull out a piece each before going back to the first person for their answer - this gives everyone time to think about what they want to say. After listening to their response, make it the start of a broader conversation by opening up the question to everyone, before moving onto the next person.

As well as being great for icebreaker sessions, Conversation Jenga is also perfect for brainstorming. If you have an issue or upcoming project which isn't resolving itself, no matter how many meetings you call, have a think about what you really want your team to reflect upon, and add them to the blocks as before. For example:

• How can we manage our time better?
• How can we ensure that we come in under budget?
• What past examples are there of when we performed best as a team?
• Under what circumstances do we work best together?
• If you could re-structure your day, what would it look like?

In this way, you make resolving issues into a fun team building activity, whilst ensuring that the topics you want to address are approached. Keeping the discussion points limited to what is already on the blocks means that your session will be more structured, and you will avoid going off-topic.

If you want to take your team building further, call in the professionals at CCC Events! Visit our website or call 0845 006 06 06 for more information.

Easy Office-Based Team Building Ideas #3

This week's Easy Office-Based Team Building Idea is inspired by The Farnsworth Family, who used it to build friendships and unity within a local youth group - but we reckon it would work brilliantly as a motivation-booster at work, too.

The idea is to have one person sit with their back to a whiteboard, and allow everyone else to come forward and write a positive adjective about that person without letting them see. You can then take a picture of each person with 'their' whiteboard, giving everyone a lovely memento to keep.

To translate this into an Easy Office Team Build, we'd suggest having the whiteboard set up in a separate room and allowing people to go in and write their adjective one at a time, keeping things anonymous to avoid any shyness.

It's a great way of promoting positive feelings with your team - and if you want to go the extra mile, you could even blow up the photos to display around your workplace as a constant reminder of what you value in each other.

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

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.