How many times have you taken part in a team building activity and, a week later, could not even remember what it was about? That happens when the activity is chosen just to fill a slot in the event agenda, not because it has something real to generate. In 28 years designing incentive programs and corporate events, we have learned that the best team building is not the kind that gets people into a room: it is the kind that leaves a story the group keeps telling months later.
The Most Common Mistake: Confusing Getting People Together With Building a Team
An office trivia game or a forced “icebreaker” can fill an hour on the agenda, but it rarely changes anything. People go through the motions, smile where expected, and leave exactly as they arrived. Team building that works has a different ingredient: it puts people in a real situation, with a clear challenge and some genuine pressure, where the outcome depends on the team actually coordinating, not just pretending to.
Here are some of the formats we use most, and why they work.
When the Kitchen Is the Excuse
Asado Challenge. Teams put on aprons with the company’s branding and compete in classic Argentine barbecue style, guided by specialists in the art of fire and the grill. A panel of judges evaluates each team’s presentation. It works because the asado is a ritual everyone understands, even foreigners who have never lit a grill in their life, and because the real competition (fire does not forgive mistakes) forces the team to genuinely organize itself.
Chef Challenge. We ran this one inside a winery in Mendoza: each team cooks its creation with the ingredients available and presents it as artfully and creatively as possible, defending their choices in front of the judges. The combination of limited time, fixed ingredients and a public defense produces exactly the kind of productive tension that reveals who leads, who solves problems, and who keeps their opinion to themselves until the end.
Celebrity Chef. In Bariloche, a surprise guest from the culinary world presents the day’s challenges, and teams compete to create the tastiest dish while working the company’s logo into the presentation. The surprise guest changes the whole tone of the activity: it stops feeling like “a company exercise” and starts feeling like a real event.
When the City Is the Board
Desafío Porteño. A scavenger hunt with clues through the historic San Telmo neighborhood and downtown Buenos Aires, where the team races against the clock to find iconic spots, solve challenges and score points. It is especially effective with international groups: beyond building teamwork, it gives them a real read on the city that no conventional city tour can offer.
Other Formats We’ve Also Run
Feliz Domingo, a corporate version of the classic Argentine TV show, with sports, trivia and entertainment challenges for the whole group. Tango Challenge, where participants learn the first steps of tango with professional dancers and close by performing what they learned live, which works especially well with international groups because nobody arrives knowing how, so everyone starts from the same place. And Artista por un Día, set up with the infrastructure of a real painting workshop, where the group creates its own artwork guided by artists and takes it home as a keepsake.
We have also designed corporate team building activations for clients like Chubb, at Aquahouse and in Córdoba, always adapting the format to the group’s profile and each company’s specific objective.
What to Ask Before Choosing an Activity
Before deciding which of these formats, or another one, makes sense for your next event, it is worth answering four questions:
- How many people are participating? An urban scavenger hunt works differently with 20 people than with 150. The format has to scale without losing its competitive core.
- What is the real objective? Building a team that just formed is not the same as recognizing a group that already has results. The objective determines whether the activity should be collaborative or competitive.
- What is the available budget? Some formats require specialized infrastructure (a painting workshop, a winery, culinary specialists), while others depend more on the design of the dynamic than on investment in the venue.
- Is the group local or international? With participants from different countries, it is better to prioritize activities where no one has a local’s advantage, like the Tango Challenge or the Chef Challenge, over activities that rely on prior knowledge of the city.
The best team building is not the most elaborate or the most expensive. It is the one that, six months later, someone in the group is still bringing up in a hallway conversation. That is the metric that actually matters.
If you are thinking about a team building activity for your next event or convention, at AV Business & Communication we can help you choose the right format for your group.
Write to us at [email protected] or fill out the contact form.