So here’s the scenario… You’re a middle manager in cubicle land. The economy sucks. You’ve laid off or outsourced half your work force and morale is low. The “team members” you have left are working extra to cover for the folks you’ve moved to the unemployment line. You fear that once the job market turns around, people are going to flee your company in droves. What’s a pointy haired boss to do?
Team building! Get these folks our of their cubicles and into something fun and kind of competitive. Give them a challenge, a goal they can hit in the hopes of capturing a laser printed certificate of achievement. And maybe, just maybe, your employees might get to interact with others from your organization, a hodge podge of unrelated departments.
In all seriousness, my company seems to be doing this kind of thing much more often now. And as much as I used to make fun of it, I’m starting to enjoy the stuff we do. So check out my suggestions for places to take your office group. I’ve tried most of these. Still hoping for my first certificate of achievement.
Andretti Karting – Roswell
By far my favorite place for something like this. The karts here are surprisingly fast and the racing is close. It was an intense experience. If you’re group is young and competitive, this is the place to go! They also have some rather large meeting rooms if you need to conduct some business. For those not interesting in racing, they have a ton of video games and pool tables. Also food and booze onsite.
Bowling
An old standby for team building events. Nevertheless it still works. Most bowling alleys have the gutter bumpers available. The game gets significantly more enjoyable when every other ball isn’t a gutter ball.
Try Brunswick Zone in Roswell or Stars and Strikes in Cumming.
WhirlyBall – Roswell
The karts here are several orders of magnitude slower than Andretti. But going fast is not really the objective. Whirleyball is like combining bumper cars, Jai-Alai and hockey into one crazy sport. And considering that you’re just sitting on your ass most of the time, I found that my heart was pumping pretty quick at the end of the game. It is a fun thing to do once and doesn’t require a lot of athleticism.
Corn Maze
Get lost. Literally. Here’s the idea… Group up teams of people who don’t work with one another. Make them work together to quickly get through a maze carved into a corn field. At the end, if they aren’t killing each other, maybe they will be more cohesive or something. If they can navigate a corn field together, then maybe they can solve your unpaid collections problems at work? Probably not. But then again, being outside in the early fall sure beats florescent lights and cubicles.
My suggestions for nearby corn mazes are Cagle’s Dairy in Cherokee County and Uncle Shucks in Dawsonville.
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