What’s Missing From Team Building Days

There is a difference between doing something together and achieving something together. Corporate team building often confuses the two. Putting colleagues in the same room for an afternoon may create an experience, but it does not automatically create the challenge, vulnerability or shared accomplishment that gives people a reason to remember it.

According to the International Institute for Learning, 80% of leaders believe team building improves morale, yet only 31% of employees say they enjoy it. That gap points to a fundamental disconnect: companies see team building as valuable, while many of the people taking part are yet to be convinced.

That disconnect becomes more clear when employees describe the experience themselves. According to YouGov, 60% of Britons who have taken part in workplace team-building exercises found them embarrassing or cringe-worthy. Companies clearly have not given up on team building. But if so many employees are uncomfortable with the experience, it raises a more useful question: what actually makes a team-building day work?

Part of the answer may lie in the challenge itself. There is a difference between an activity designed simply to encourage participation and one that asks people to genuinely stretch themselves. When there is uncertainty, a new skill to learn and the possibility of getting it wrong, success carries more weight. The experience becomes less about completing an activity together and more about achieving something together.

For the past thirteen years, Neil Laughton has watched that dynamic play out in an unusual setting. Through the UK’s Penny Farthing Club, he has taught people from all over the world to ride the iconic Victorian high-wheel bicycles, from tourists and London locals looking for a fun new experience to a growing number of corporate groups seeking a different way to bring their teams together. 

Most arrive having never attempted anything like it before, and many are unsure they will be able to do it at all. Within three hours, they are riding through the streets of central London, with a big smile on their face.

Laughton’s connection to the penny farthing extends well beyond teaching. An adventurer and multiple Guinness World Record holder, he has spent years championing the Victorian bicycle and introducing it to new audiences. The Penny Farthing Club has become a destination in its own right, attracting enthusiasts and curious first-time riders who travel to London specifically for the opportunity to learn. What began with an unusual mode of transport has made Laughton one of the most recognizable modern advocates for keeping the penny farthing alive.

For corporate groups, Laughton describes the experience as a great leveller. Once someone gets on the bicycle, job titles and seniority offer little advantage. The chief executive and the newest hire can find themselves starting from exactly the same place, each learning an unfamiliar skill from scratch. At that moment, the usual workplace hierarchy begins to matter far less. What matters instead is who is willing to try, make mistakes and keep going.

“It takes five minutes to learn and ten years to master,” Laughton says. “But in three hours, even the most inexperienced rider will be riding safely through the streets.”

The challenge is real, but it is carefully managed. The first hour is spent in one-to-one instruction, with an instructor running alongside each rider and close enough to step in when needed. Corporate groups are deliberately kept small, typically ten to twelve participants with two instructors, so support remains constant. The goal is not to see who can succeed and who cannot. It is to give everyone enough support to attempt something that initially feels beyond them.

What makes the experience different is not just the novelty of the bicycle, although that brings its own sense of excitement and fun. It is also the nature of the challenge itself. The risk is carefully managed, but the nerves are real. Participants have to move beyond their initial hesitation, trust the support around them and learn something completely unfamiliar. When they eventually succeed, there is a genuine sense of achievement because, only a few hours earlier, many were not convinced they could do it at all.

That sense of achievement may be becoming increasingly important as companies become more selective about where they invest. The 2026 Events Industry Report, covered by PA Life, found that while the number of team away days declined, average spend per event increased by 9%. Companies may be holding fewer events, but they appear willing to invest more in making the ones they do hold worthwhile.

At the same time, the appetite for team building remains strong. According to the Foxhills 2025 Mindful Mornings, Active Afternoons Survey, 90% of respondents viewed team building as essential to business success. Taken together, the figures point to a shift in expectations: simply putting people together for a day is no longer enough. The experience needs to give them something worth taking away from it.

After thirteen years of teaching novices, Laughton has seen thousands of people arrive with some degree of hesitation and leave having accomplished something they were not sure they could do. Fun and novelty are part of the experience, but what stays with people is often the achievement itself and the fact that they shared it with the people around them.

Perhaps that is what the best team-building experiences get right. Bringing people together is only the starting point. Give them something unfamiliar to learn, enough of a challenge to push them beyond what feels comfortable and the support to succeed together, and they leave with more than an enjoyable day. They leave with a shared achievement, a lasting memory and, ideally, a stronger connection to the people they experienced it with.