The best office night outs give the team something to talk about for weeks to come and get them excited for the next round, giving them something to look forward to. But if you want to take it a step further, you can use office Christmas parties as a way to encourage teamwork and nurture relationships between your employees. You will soon see your employees come together when they join in the office activities listed below.
Escape rooms
Escape rooms have taken off, overtaking mini-golf as the greatest way to spend an afternoon and they will require teamwork.
The point is to, well, escape the room. Maybe you’re in an Agatha Christie-style mansion lounge with a murderer, maybe you’ve all been falsely incarcerated, maybe you’ve just stumbled in, Blair Witch-style, but you need to get out. Like the mobile games that inspired it, you will be given a series of clues to help you get out, but deciding what is a clue, and what is simply a burst pipe in the facility will take some debate.
You will get a wealth of quotable sayings as the leaders of the pack emerge and the analytics of the team quietly think – and perhaps the sayings of the claustrophobic team member begging to get out.
Olympic challenges
If you’re looking for something that will get the blood flowing, you can host your own Olympic Games. There are dedicated services that will give you space and equipment to play, as well as an impartial third party to judge, but it’s just as easy to find a field or the best park and have a round of your favorite games. You can split the employees into teams and distribute medals to people who did the best in each sport.
Or you could appeal to humanity’s competitive nature and go Squid Game with it: the last person alive. To be clear: no one should meet the fate depicted in the Netflix special, only that if you lose you hit the bench, and the last one standing wins.
You can incorporate childhood games like marbles and hopscotch the way Squid Game did or opt for more team games like football and netball. And as team manager, you can dress up like one of Squid Game’s red men or the glittering Front Man to add to the fun.
But if you with this option there will need to be a reward for the winner, like a bottle of Prosecco waiting for them at their desk.
Trivia nights
For a more low-key option, you can create, or join, a trivia quiz. In the UK there is a pub on every corner and therefore there is a pub quiz on every corner. It can be a great night of everyone showing their strengths. The music questions go to Kate in accounting, the history questions go to the eldest on the team, etc. Plus, there are laughs to be had when two players have completely different answers. Who is right? The one that is adamant that they are correct? Rarely is that the case.
You can make the night a more personalized experience by hosting your own trivia night in the office. Don a glittering blazer, get yourself a mic, and become the Bruce Forsyth of your office, distributing laughs and questions as the night goes on.
Make your questions things about the office, like “This team member nailed the last contract when she told the client she had a sick puppy when she didn’t: name the team member”. Or create a point system and teams like Family Fortune to get everyone incentivized.