Corporate team building has come a long way since its roots in the 1920s Hawthorne Studies. Today’s corporate world is moving beyond standard indoor activities that feel forced, and instead towards a more natural, primitive direction.
Walking holidays, as simple as they may first sound, seem to have all the right ingredients to make for a challenging outing. Physical activity and nature help create meaningful social interaction away from their usual power structures. It’s a more holistic approach, yet often ends up cheaper and more effective than flashy, forced modern solutions.
The Science Behind Walking
Walking-based team building works well due to key aspects of human psychology and group dynamics. When teams walk together, they naturally engage in side-by-side conversations, helping create honest communication that occurs naturally. In a relaxed, natural setting, workplace pressures fade, allowing team members to form real connections.
Physical movement releases endorphins, too. A tour organiser like Orbis Ways can help do the logistics (i.e. book the accommodation and transfer luggage between the stays) if need be. On a trail like Camino de Santiago, it can mean that the group focuses on the fun stuff, like walking up hills and stopping for a local lunch. Or, these additional services can be forgone in favour of letting logistics be managed between the group. The only issue is that this can sometimes revert to old power dynamics. Sometimes, it’s best to outsource.
Digital Detox
Walking holidays offer a unique chance for teams to disconnect from digital devices. Not just for the afternoon, but potentially all day, every day, for a long trip. It’s a valuable antidote to the workplace environment,
Without the interruptions of notifications and screens, team members can fully engage in nature and each other’s attention. Even beyond team-building, it’s a chance for the group to detox completely from their work life, recharge, and come back more productive than ever.
Natural Leadership Development
Walking holidays help create an ideal setting for natural leadership skills to emerge. This is something that’s often difficult to see in low-octane team-building activities that have no jeopardy, like paintballing.
On these trips, team members find themselves taking on roles like navigating or motivating the group, helping reveal leadership qualities that might otherwise go unnoticed due to their restrictive corporate role.
Real-world hikes are challenging enough to help show initiative and tackle challenges without relying on formal structures.
Cross-Hierarchical Relationship Building
The relaxed setting of a walking holiday helps dissolve traditional workplace hierarchies – nobody is assigned to be team leader, or even presumed to be, allowing team members at all levels to connect more freely. Everybody is in a new, unfamiliar environment.
Executives and entry-level employees can engage on equal terms, opening the door to conversations that rarely happen in formal office settings. Walking side by side in an informal environment creates genuine interactions, free from the constraints of meeting rooms, and studies continuously show that these casual exchanges build trust and understanding across an organisation.
Walking holidays represent more than a passing trend in corporate team building—they’re a return to the basics of human connection. Companies will always look for new ways to create better team dynamics, but sometimes an activity as simple as walking is all it takes.
