A great corporate team building program always has three essential parts that are vital to the success of the team building event.  First, you want to add interactive activities that build camaraderie. You also want to teach valuable lessons about company interdependency. Finally, if you want a great corporate team building program, add a "Wow!" moment along the way.

Interactive Activities that Build Camaraderie

Interactive activities are the first essential component of a great team building event. For instance, a group can really find a lot out about their fellow team members when given challenging questions that require them to seek the answers from others in their group. This not only encourages valuable interaction but they enjoy learning about each other in the process. Also, when tasks are given that require a variety of skill sets, team members find out about the various talents and skills that make up their group.

Teach Valuable Lessons on Company Interdependency

You also want to teach valuable lessons about how all of the component departments (divisions, regions, etc.) of a company are interdependent with each other. For example a good way to learn this lesson in a team building activity is when "competing" groups are "stumped" in solving puzzles and answering questions unless they collaborate and cooperate with the respective competition [other teams]. It's kind of fun to witness the green light go on when people realize that when we all work together for the overall good, everyone comes out a winner.

Add a "Wow!" Moment Along the Way.

The most important part of great team building is the "Wow!" factor. When a group takes part in a team building program and are pleasantly surprised, or emotionally touched, I would call that a "Wow Factor". At a philanthropic corporate team building program in Toronto recently, most of the group were completely surprised to learn that the bikes that they had built as part of the activities at the event were being donated right then and there to boys and girls from a local charity. The adults who built the bikes were just as excited as the kids streaming into the room who received the bikes. There have been many moments where tears of joy were shed, but there is a special "Wow" moment that stands out in my mind. That occurred at an event in Virginia, when a chaperone with the children from the charity shared with the team building participants that most of the children were receiving their first new bikes in their young lives.

So if you want to create a great corporate team building program, add interactive activities, teach valuable lessons about interdependency, and add a "Wow!" moment along the way that leaves your team feeling really good about the activity as a whole.