Your treasure hunt could easily be set up by Beryl and Sid from Accounts, nice and cheap in-house team building, but remember, they are not team building professionals and will not have the bigger skills-development picture in their mind when planning the hunt. It will be more like a club or church treasure hunt. For a real benefit, you will need to use an external provider, but that will be expensive so naturally you want to make sure you get value for money. So what should you look for in a good corporate treasure hunt?

Not everyone can answer cryptic clues, not everyone is a keen observer. So good corporate treasure hunt geared to team building will be inclusive, that is, there will be a selection of different types of clue, easy, hard, cryptic. This enables everyone to make a contribution for some of the time. Not only will a good provider offer this range of clues, they will have treasure hunts set up in a wide range of venues too . Check with the providers about this before deciding whose services to use.

The clues address the communication aspect of team building, and to a degree, develop the lateral thinking skills needed for problem solving. To further develop these skills, each treasure hunt should include extra tasks, such as scavenging items or producing photographic evidence to show a task was completed.

Planning is essential to every organisation, team building exercises should always include this element. A good corporate treasure hunt should facilitate this. A poor corporate hunt or church/club treasure hunt will be linear, everyone follows the same route, a few minutes apart. Soon there is no need to think because the group in front are writing excitedly. You see this and you know where the next answer is! What use is that for skills development? A good provider will address this by supplying more clues than could possibly be answered in the time available. At the start of the hunt, each team should spend time considering their route, which clues they intend to answer and what contingency plan they will have if they are running behind or ahead of schedule.

One of the big complaints that employees have about team building exercises is the standing around with nothing to do. A good corporate treasure hunt provider will not let this happen, there will always be at least one activity that is not dependent on location, often in the form of logic puzzles or a quiz. Make sure that this is the case with the provider that you choose.

Business is about competition, getting your share of the market, keeping that share, expanding that share. But competitiveness within a business can be very destructive so it is important that you as the consumer does your part first. Make sure that the teams comprise members of different departments so that they can get to know one-another. After the hunt, they will have something in common and be more likely to co-operate in the workplace.

At the end of a team building exercise comes the dreaded feedback. This can either be one-to-one or small group ‘what-did-you-get-from-the-day’ session or by form filling. Either way, most people really do not enjoy this. With a treasure hunt, there is no need for this, in fact it would probably spoil it. Your staff will be buzzing for days if not weeks after the event, you will hear them discussing clues, strategies, if only, and so on.

Kevin Woodward of chevinside.com designs, builds and optimises many team building web sites, particularly http://www.huntfortreasure.co.uk and http://www.spy-games.com, both of which deliver innovative team building solutions for businesses of all sizes.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kevin_Woodward
http://EzineArticles.com/?How-to-Choose-Your-Corporate-Treasure-Hunt&id=280055

One of the reasons why treasure hunts are so popular, aside from the fact that they are great fun, is that they have something to offer everyone. Whether your preference is for action or cerebral challenge, for example puzzle solving, a well written treasure hunt will have something to appeal to most participants.

Themes integrate very well into the treasure hunt format and one of the most popular examples of this is the spy themed treasure hunt. This event may be based on James Bond or spying generally with the writing following the theme and challenges suited to it, including dead letter drops and following agents placed by the organiser.

More or less any theme can be used, including nationalities. Treasure hunts can also be organised abroad and they make an excellent base for sight seeing as clues take teams to famous locations and interesting places.

The treasure hunt event can be merged with other event formats to increase the experience and level of challenge. One idea which works particularly well is to combine a treasure hunt with a murder mystery, which will see teams dashing around collecting clues in an attempt to solve a fiendish crime.

Treasure hunts on mountain bikes in the country are very enjoyable and the New Forest in Hampshire is an alluring location, combining wonderful scenery with local pubs where events can finish with a good meal and the opportunity for vital social team bonding.

One of the most popular locations for treasure hunts in the UK’s fabulous capital, London. This city combines history and tradition with fascinating attractions and a reliable transport system so a large area can be covered.

London treasure hunts can make use of buses, the underground, London taxis and specialist transport such as people carriers or even stretch limousines. Experienced treasure hunt writers will know how to send teams to the most interesting and inspiring locations while avoiding the main tourist traps. No-one wants to spend their time queuing.

As a team building activity the treasure hunt is an ideal choice. The team is given a distinct task which must be completed in a specific time using limited resources.

A successful plan must be developed and delivery will depend on confidence and reliance on all members of the team. Good verbal communication is vital to business success and this activity will bring this to the fore.

In summary treasure hunts are a well established event format which can be developed to fit the objectives of more or less any event, whether it is purely a fun and memorable occasion or something linked to specific business goals. Most importantly of all, however, they appeal to the broadest possible section of a group both physically and mentally.

Progressive Resources Ltd runs a variety of corporate events including treasure hunts and themed events.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=James_Coakes
http://EzineArticles.com/?Why-Do-Treasure-Hunts-Make-Such-Popular-Corporate-Events?&id=493024