Teamwork with a large group

Organizing a team building session for, say, 25 people is relatively easy. You have enough people to be able to choose from a wide range of activities without having so many that logistics become a problem. 40 people and one or two options start to drop out as the extra people cannot be physically accommodated in a specific spot or it means a limited resource would have to queue for an unreasonable amount of time. Most team activities really start to creak once you get to 50 people and 60 is an absolute upper limit for probably at least 80% or more of the options.

So what if your group size is bigger than this? For example, if you are hosting a team building event for the entire sales force of a large organization. Or even a whole company? What are the challenges involved and how can you choose something that will deliver the results you want without making a Sir Elton John party budget seem small by comparison?

The challenges are probably twofold: space and logistics. Unless your team-building event is being held in guaranteed sunny weather, you’ll need (if only as a backup) something that can be run indoors. For many options, you’ll also need enough space to run it for that many people in addition to the space they’ll take up just by being there. So if you have, say, 300 people at the event, you may need to book a spot with space for 900 just to add the extra space you need. Alternatively, you can select an activity that can be run at the tables they will be sitting at anyway. There are very few good options that will suit a large number of people, but require little space or facilities. But they exist.

Logistics as a problem increases exponentially with the size of the group. Most options that can handle large groups do so by using more people and/or equipment to increase the size of the bottlenecks. For example, if you choose to offer people something based on the “Crystal Maze” TV show, the vendors will bring multiple copies of each of the challenges (and maybe even the glass dome itself) and effectively run multiple simultaneous events. More smalls. This can add to the cost considerably, and it can also feel like it’s not really an activity.

If you have definite goals in mind that include helping people appreciate that everyone is part of a larger team, then you better have something that targets those goals and everyone is working toward the same goal at the same time. Of course, you can still choose to create a competitive spirit by organizing the group into teams and offering prizes to the best. However, it will be important to choose something that integrates with your key messages and makes people feel like they are part of the larger group and not independent of it.

Using technology as a foundation offers a great way to manage large groups within a single integrated team building activity. Carefully chosen to meet desired outcomes, technology-based activities don’t need to add a large number of expensive people, large amounts of bulky equipment, or multiple zeros at the end of the bill amount. What they can add is a sense of fairness to all participants and teams, and an added dimension in terms of how credible the activity is. Some team building simulations can really “pull people” into their scenarios and give them amazing experiences.

Another option is to stick to a very simple activity that requires the whole group to work together to achieve it. Your choice, as always, should be largely based on what you want to achieve, how much time you can spend, and of course, your budget. Simple activities have the advantage that they are usually priced accordingly.

Whichever option you choose, make sure activity providers have a track record of handling groups of a similar (or larger) size to yours. Hundreds of people complaining about an activity is an experience worth avoiding. On the other hand, there’s nothing like the buzz of a successful team building session in a large group!

Copyright 2006 Sandstone Limited