Team Building Activities in London

So much depends on teamwork, whether that’s physically combining skills and strength to make things happen or more intellectual or creative collaboration. In each case, the combined efforts, strength and skills of the team can achieve far more than one person or even the same number of people working alone.

Humans are naturally social creatures and will often end up forming teams almost instinctively. But truly effective teamwork needs to be created and nurtured – and that’s where team building comes in.

Teamwork fundamentally comes down to collaboration and communication, and team building is about developing those skills within and among your people. There are many different ways of doing this, and none of them are definitely better than others. Which ones work best depends on your organisation, what you do, the mix of people you have, what changes or improvements you’re looking to make and what sort of group culture you’re fostering.

Classic team-building exercises – icebreakers where you tell each other your favourite film or your idea of the perfect breakfast, tasks like building model bridges over tubs of water or getting a tennis ball from one cup to another without touching it – can be effective but can also feel a bit impersonal and ‘samey’ these days. Something different and memorable will not be more fun for your people but will be more effective.

That’s where we believe our Jack the Ripper Tours of Whitechapel come in.

Something Out of the Ordinary

A tour of the history and locations of one of London’s most grisly and infamous crime sprees may not seem like a typical team-building activity; but that’s one of the things that make them worth considering.

Whether it’s a daytime tour or a more atmospheric journey through the East End in the hours of darkness, our tours will get everyone involved and interested. Shared experiences and group activities make for great team-building.

If you’re organising a multi-day retreat or conference for your team (or teams) in London, then a Jack the Ripper tour makes the perfect evening activity. It’s a change of scene, some gentle outdoor exercise and some unstructured socialising. Great for breaking the ice. Our guides can paint vivid pictures, whether with their words or our RipperVision projection technology, which can give even the most hardened team member chills and thrills – something that also promotes good team bonding!

A Flexible Event

We can adapt our tours to your requirements. Our guide can meet you in a particular location if you’re based in a venue or having a meal beforehand, or we can plan a tour route that incorporates or ends somewhere for food and drink – maybe even at one of the several Whitechapel pubs that were in open in 1888 and patronised by Jack the Ripper’s victims and others connected with the case.

Maybe your business is based in Whitechapel or elsewhere in the East End? This part of London has changed beyond recognition since the 19th century – often literally. Our guides can find the remaining fragments of streets, walls and buildings that survive from the dark days (and nights) of Jack the Ripper, and where redevelopment has completely reworked the urban landscape, they can still put you on the crucial spot where the story unfolded. Your people will come away with a new understanding and insight into the area where they work and the social and physical history of the East End – they’ll never look at their commute to work the same way again!

Just The Starting Point

Our tours can be just part of a bigger team building and skill development event. Maybe you want to give your team (or groups within it) the role of detectives and get them to present their own theories as to who Jack the Ripper was after the tour? That makes for a great opportunity to develop analysis, presentation and speaking skills in a direction we’re sure few of your people have gone before!

While our tours are enjoyable, of course they also involve some very sombre subjects. These can form the basis for more serious discussion as part of a retreat or conference. There are a lot of media companies in today’s East End – how about using the tour as the starting point for a group discussion or exercise into the part the press played in the events of 1888? Or for organisations with a social or charitable focus, how about team projects related to some of the social issues of Whitechapel at the time?

We can adapt our tours and their content to suit these and more variants. Just contact us to discuss your ideas and requirements.

Whether it’s as something to give your team an interesting and enjoyable experience in the East End to bring them together, or as part of a much broader programme of development and exploration, a Jack the Ripper tour makes for an effective and unforgettable team building exercise.