Team building is an essential part of managing large groups of people. While bonds can form naturally over time, it’s often advisable to accelerate the process by implementing team building exercises.

Some employees will naturally gravitate towards one another, but others might be reluctant to get to know one another, and team building exercises might be the only way to break down barriers and build stronger bonds.

Finding the right team building exercises for your organisation can be difficult, and you might need to try out different approaches before you find the most popular activity. 

To ensure your team building exercises are as inclusive and positive as possible, avoid the trap of making them all about bonding over after-work drinks. Instead, try to frame this in a more positive light by choosing a physical activity like walking or cycling.

Pedal power for stronger teams

Cycling challenges are an incredible way to bring teams together and encourage them to build stronger bonds. The challenge helps to break down barriers and encourage better habits within the office. By choosing an active challenge over a creative challenge, you can also improve mental health and resilience within teams.

Cycling is not just great for your health, it also has secondary benefits for the environment. Not to mention, by choosing to cycle to work, employees can enjoy greater stress management and lower commuting costs.

By choosing a cycling challenge for your team building events, you can improve collaboration and communication while encouraging everyone to adopt healthier habits.

Cycling challenges to consider

Once you’ve settled on a cycling challenge, there are a few different options ahead. If you learn that physical challenges are popular within your teams, you might try a few different ideas throughout the year.

Long distance cycling challenge

Entering a team for a long distance cycling challenge is a great way to boost the camaraderie within the office. Not everyone has to get involved if they don’t feel up to the challenge, but everyone should feel they are able to get involved if they want to.

Everyone else can get involved by being the supporters on the day and creating banners and tshirts while cheering on their colleagues. A distance cycling challenge could also inspire some healthy new habits within the office as everyone involved in the challenge will need to put in some training ahead of the event.

Stationary bikeathon

In the winter months, everyone might be less keen to get out on a bike, but that doesn’t mean you can’t plan a bike-themed challenge. A bikeathon using a stationary bike placed in a prominent spot in the office is a great way to inject some fun into the work day.

Set the team a distance goal, such as cycling the length of Great Britain, and then let them divide up how they will complete the challenge. Remember that someone has to be cycling at all times, so they’ll have to work together to ensure complete coverage.

Build a bike challenge

Another great team building challenge is to build a bike. These are planned events where your employees are split into teams. They have to complete challenges to “win” parts of a bike and then put these together with the help of a professional bike mechanic. At the end of the challenge, the bikes can be donated to a good cause to help give back to your community.

This type of challenge can be combined with a scavenger hunt to help make sure it remains an active and engaging event.

Tour de France challenge

An office sweepstakes on the tour de France can be combined with a weekly cycling challenge. Split everyone into teams and then reward points for activities like cycling to and from work, or completing cycling challenges on a bike at the gym. This is a great way to inspire a bit of competition, get everyone watching along with the Tour de France, and inspire healthy habits within the workplace.

How to make cycling challenges more accessible

Employers might be concerned about how accessible these challenges are, particularly for those with limited mobility or health concerns. Modified bikes are available to help those who cannot use a regular bike. You could also explore the use of tandem bikes to allow colleagues to team up. Another option would be to use stationary bikes like those found in the gym to help make these activities more accessible. 

Finally, you can also create a cheering team who are responsible for creating banners and being a voice of encouragement for their colleagues. Not everyone will want to be involved in a cycling challenge, and the last thing you want to do is force an activity like this on unwilling participants. By creating a cheering team, you can ensure no one is pushed to do a challenge they are unwilling or unable to complete.