10 Survival Team Building Exercises & Activities from Bear Grylls

Working in a busy office or corporate environment means it’s not always that easy to switch off and get away from the stresses of thing. We can also often lose sight of the fact that we should be working as part of a team.

By using effective team building exercises, you can help to change that. It will bring you and your colleagues or employees closer together, making you work as a cohesive unit with benefits that will remain into the future once back in the workplace.

You will undoubtedly see many companies that offer team building days, but at the Bear Grylls’ Survival Academy we do things a little differently. Our events and ideas are all based around the theme of survival – and you can see all of the survival team building activities we offer below.

If you know Bear Grylls, then you should know what expect from our survival team building exercises for corporate teams… challenging activities.

We have taken some of Bear’s most challenging survival activities and turned them into a survival team building day which multiple challenges and tasks. Each survival challenge is designed to test a different aspect of your team’s character, personality, and skills – many of which they would never even have known they had before.

Each survival team building activity will help to challenge your colleagues. Each exercise will help to promote the importance of team development, co-operation, communication, and trust on the day, and afterwards in the workplace.

There will be no excuses, as each person in the team will have a task to complete, as you will need to rely on each other in working towards a common shared goal… typically of survival!

All of our survival activities for team building takes place outdoors. This means your team will be away from the confines of an office space, in an environment where the exercises are bound to bring out different aspects of their character.

So, if you want to see your corporate team’s motivation increased as they flex with problem solving skills with the Bear Grylls’ survival team building activity exercises, look no further.

Survival team building activities & exercises

This is just a short selection of our Bear Grylls’ inspired survival activities for team building. We are also able to plan and arrange bespoke corporate events for your company, in a Covid safe and secure manner.

1. Axe Throwing

To get your team warmed up, this popular survival activity requires stepping outdoors and moving stealthily like Bear to avoid detection from predators. Your team will then be taught to perfectly rotate an axe and hit the target in one throw. Can you and your team win this exciting challenge?

2. Archery

An important skill for you to master not only for survival in the wilderness, but to hunt for food and even firing a burning arrow into the sky for rescue! Be guided and coached by our team of instructors, using modern equipment before really testing your newly learned skill with improvised ash arrows – will you still hit the target and contribute towards your team's success?

3. Giant Knot Tie

It might not sound like a survival activity at first, but rest assured, you will need to work hard on this as a team as you will always need to tie a knot in the wild. In this task you will need to learn a variety of potential life-saving knots before attempting the giant knot challenge with the whole team to see who wins this event.

4. Commando Crawl

If you are looking for a survival team building activity where you get your hands dirty, look no further. This is the perfect survival challenge event for teams that really want to test themselves with something straight out of an army training manual. You will need to cross the gorge commando style on top of the rope using balance, strength and core stability skills to regain your position.

5. Tyrolean Traverse

In this high ropes’ activity, watch out instructors use their expertise to create a Tyrolean Traverse. Your corporate team will then have to use a fixed line to cross from one point to another, while wearing a harness. Clip onto the rope and pull yourself and crucial stores across – you might need a head for heights… kind of.

6. Raft Build & Race Challenge

Prepare to get wet in this extreme survival team building exercise as you compete in teams to build rafts and then race the other contestants. Does your team have what it takes both creatively, mentally, and physically to plan and build the perfect floating raft? We will have to see won't we!

7. Stretcher Race

A member of your team / crew has been injured. The pressure is now on to use your team's physical strengths, experience and mental skills to treat and carry the casualty to safety. You'll need to make use of what's around you, to build an improvised stretcher and as the patient's condition deteriorates, the race against time (and the other teams) begins to reach the pick-up point as quickly (and safely) as possible.

8. Fire Lighting

A fundamental skill which can determine how likely you are to survive when left alone to survive in the great outdoors! You will learn the most effective ways of building and lighting your fire in the wild, and just as importantly; how to put it out again before continuing your journey on... possibly to find food in the next challenge...

9. Stalking

To hunt for your food in the wild, you need to keep a low profile. Being aware of your physical shape and silhouette, your smell and sounds you might make while moving slowly will all increase your chances of a successful hunt! Let's see who in your team has got what it takes to capture their prey... or alternatively which team member would simply starve in the wild!

10. Wild Food Preparation

Hunting and catching your food is one thing, but knowing how to prepare and cook it is just as important. Knowing when the fire is ready and how to place your food to make sure it's cooked correctly is vital to ensure you remain in peak physical shape to survive. Without food, you will soon start to waver in your attempt to win any of our Bear Grylls' themed survival team building challenges.

Want to know more?

While we do have “off the shelf” team building events available, we also specialise in creating exclusive experiences, which are designed to meet your desired outcomes, with a good dose of Bear Grylls GRIT thrown in!

Get in touch with our team today or request a call back – we look forward to speaking to you!