Team building is great for many reasons. It’s even better when the entire staff, rather than just top management, attends such an event. It sounds perfect, but only in the eye of a beholder or someone who is not a part of it: it’s definitely not tempting when you are in charge of overall organisation.

It’s far from being impossible or unchallenging, but it’s very demanding and complex. Drafting an entire agenda, from a location, to timeline, activities, educational workshops, to entertainment and evening activities, is very complicated and barely doable, due to a simple reason: You can never make 50 people satisfied. It’s not possible.

Therefore, the sooner you accept that simple truth, the easier it will be from the start. And that’s a good start.

Now we can move on.

1. Location selection is very important: you need a venue with many different elements, yet not too big, because the point is for everyone to integrate and socialise. Then suitable accommodation is vital: you have to ensure full-board, high hotel category, preferably with a spa centre, because people like to relax.
2. Daytime activities are perhaps the most important factor. In the evening hours, people will certainly get together and find some amusement, but a day should be packed with high-quality elements. It is necessary to draft an agenda that is appealing, dynamic and aimed at strengthening team spirit.
3. In the evening hours, it’s advisable to have some form of light entertainment – a quiz or a game to relax colleagues, followed by a pleasant dinner, and perhaps neutral acoustic live music, which will not disrupt conversation and socialising.
4. One of the must-haves in the morning is an hour or two of some form of education – lecture, on corporate objectives, plans or a summary of the previous year, but it’s also nice to have the entire staff informed on current developments in the company. A lecture on hot topics for the company by an external lecturer definitely contributes to stronger interaction and exchange of knowledge.

Ideally, a team building event should take three days (two nights), and here’s how we’ve organised it this year.

Mt. Zlatibor 2019 #ThisREPRESENTsUS

We chose Mt. Zlatibor as an always interesting and attractive destination that everyone likes, with the mountain offering something for everybody: hiking and mountaineering tracks, many restaurants and coffee shops, night life… You can pick whatever you like from a vast range of what it offers. We selected the Mona Hotel, which fulfilled all our expectations: an ideal location – in the very heart of Mt. Zlatibor, with a high hotel category, modern, clean and new rooms, and excellent food in the hotel restaurants. The hotel staff at our disposal for any type of assistance exceeded our expectations.

The hotel also has a spa centre, which made our selection of accommodation easier. They had enough available rooms for our booking dates, thanks to the fact that the hotel is really huge.

They also offered their ethno-restaurant for evening entertainment, so we organised a pub quiz for our colleagues there, with a live music party afterwards.

During the day, we went to Tornik and had a blast in an adventure park, bobsleighed on tracks, climbed to the top in a chairlift… Those who preferred walking could hike up or down… Everything was optional and no one “had to do” anything.

And that’s the key to success of team building: offer elements for various types of people and personalities, and everyone will find what they like the most. Don’t get discouraged by individuals with comments such as “Why this?”, or “That’s stupid, boring…”. Instead, believe in your idea and put it into practice in accordance with a pre-defined plan.

The best indicator will be if you personally are satisfied with how everything went. And in the end, let’s go back to the motto from the beginning – it’s impossible to make 50 people satisfied. 

Good luck with organisation!