Dubai is a city at a crossroads. The city sits on the cultural crossroads between East, West, Middle East – as well as the geographical crossroads, with most destinations in the world being one flight away. It also sits at a crossroads in time, transitioning as it is from local towards global status.

At the heart of this is the meeting and mixing of people. Dubai is a place of great opportunity and need organisations to build teams to make the most of this crossroads.

The Need

We all know that building good teams at work leads to giving them the best chance of achieving results. 70% of a team’s performance capability comes from the health of the team’s own culture & climate; If a team is struggling with a culture issue, for example toxic behaviour, blame, poor leadership, lack of clarity on action and goals – then this will directly impact its ability to achieve results.

Therefore, any organization should take care to work on the culture climate on its teams, and it can be argued that teams in the UAE face a greater challenge when it comes to building a great team. The transient nature of the workforce, the diverse mix of nationalities and backgrounds and the traditional need to keep ones visa and not ‘rock the boat’ in the team all make it harder to build teams. This means the need for team building and team coaching in Dubai and the UAE is greater than perhaps elsewhere in the world.

The Opportunity

Dubai presents a great opportunity as well for doing team building activities and team coaching sessions. Yes, it is needed, but luckily, there are several reasons why team building in Dubai is a good idea. 

Global Location

We know that team building is more effective face to face; yes, we can work on things remotely but we miss so much if we are not in the same room. Dubai has an excellent global travel network, making it easier for people to gather in Dubai that a lot of other places. We are frequently working with regional or global teams for whom Dubai is a very convenient hub location to run a team building program.

Local Location

Once in Dubai, you are spoilt for choice for locations to host team building and coaching sessions. The city is geared up for visitors; there are hundreds of hotels and other venues with excellent facilities to suit all budgets and group sizes. 

Weather

Yes, it is too hot for a lot of the year to run team building activities in Dubai outdoors. But for the cooler months, Dubai is a great choice for running outdoor activities – you have to just time it right! There are lots of options for outdoor team building activities from mountains, deserts, to beaches and grass areas. There are plenty of ways these locations lend themselves to great team building experiences. And with near-guaranteed dry weather and sunshine, you can commit to an outdoor event without needing a wet weather alternative. 

What To Consider

When you are thinking about running a team building activity in Dubai, you should consider a few things if you want to get the maximum impact out of the session. Here are some of the things you need to consider:

Relevance

Is the activity you are choosing relevant to your team, and what you want to address? For example, if you want to promote better collaboration, it’s probably wise to avoid something that is competitive. 

Engagement

Is the team building activity you are going to run going to engage your team members? Will they like it and want to do it? When you say ‘we are going to do a team building activity’ to your team, you will always get a mixed response. Some people just don’t like them, some love them, and a majority sit somewhere in the middle. Accept that there will always be some people you won’t win over, but try to pick something that will have as much mass appeal as possible.

Cultural Acceptance

There are many different cultures represented in work teams in Dubai, and some have particular or traditional ways of doing things. As an example, some cultures will not accept having men and women touch each other – so just be sensitive to these when you are selecting your team building activity. 

Timing

How long should your team building activity session be? This will be dictated more by other factors like what else the team is doing and cost, but have a think about time spent versus expected outcome. If you only have 30 minutes, you can still do team building in Dubai, but accept it will be more of a fun energizer than anything truly meaningful. If you want influence and effect real behaviour change, this takes longer – and might be something you need to do over multiple sessions.

Outcome & Longevity

What is the outcome you want from your team building activity? Are you happy with something simple like just having fun together as a bonding exercise, or do you want to have something that has long lasting, memorable impact on the team’s culture? If the latter, then try to do something where there is a longer lasting and memorable element to the session. We’d advocate for building behaviour agreements and commitments as part of your time together, and timetabling follow up time to keep the conversation going with the team.

Dubai is a great place for team building activities – we have run hundreds of highly successful programs and if you are thinking about doing one, please get in touch so we can offer you some advice!