With tension and high stress levels the order of the day and one of the main reasons for poor productivity and reduced effectiveness, make sure that your team getaways provide for meaningful team building and rejuvenation rather than simply a wasteful time that adds more stress to an already cluttered timetable.

If your goal is creating a more cohesive and productive workplace, then it is certainly worth investing time and resources in arranging more calming introspective team-building activities.

That’s where a range of health and wellness activities can have a huge impact. “Five years ago, you might have put yoga or meditation on a programme as an afterthought, but now it’s something many of us are actively seeking out. If you are organising a team building time-out or a conference at Granny Mouse, think of adding a yoga workshop to your programme. Who knows, this could even be carried through to your return to your workplace and become a regular lunchtime activity that will help with stress management, calmness and serenity.

It is becoming more and more evident that yoga can be a useful corporate tool that can help manage stress and even assist with preventing office related injuries. It also acts as a great way for different members of a team to bond.

Although experiencing a yoga class is a different experience from a trust exercise or a ropes course, it gives people a chance to get in touch with their individual strengths. In turn, this creates strength within the team.

Yoga builds confidence. Participating in a yoga class gives a team a challenge they experience together. Even though everyone participates and does the same poses, each individual’s experience is unique. One must rely on individual strength and mental clarity to successfully participate in yoga. At the end of the class, all participants have experienced a common challenge.

It’s exciting at the end of an office yoga class as your team will definitely share the various techniques and challenges they experienced. In addition, there are fun and challenging partner yoga poses that can be taught during team building classes. There is potential to have the same team building benefits of trust exercises without going through the motions of an official trust building game that can also be included.

The Advantages of the Yoga Workshop Team Building Activity:

• Create a positive energy within the team and company
• Improve motivation
• Optimize teamwork
• Reduce stress
• Get to know one another
• Improve communication
• Increase employee dedication to the companies’ growth and success
• Identify the strengths of each member in the team
• Creates a sense of belonging
• Mobilize and tighten team spirit
• Encourage collaboration in the team
• Increase trust among the team members
• Sharing of a common vision
• Stimulate creativity
• And lots of fun!

By utilising yoga in a team building environment, it is possible to not only build a well bonded team, but also create a direct link with what employers want their teams to be able to do in the workplace – namely, work together thoughtfully with a calm controlled focus and a consistent level of cohesion.