TV Inspired Teambuilding

Channel 4s The Great British Bake Off is back, bringing its familiar mix of baking brilliance, questionable decisions, dramatic showstoppers and the inevitable panic when something doesn't quite go to plan. And not go be overshadowed, the BBC has bought back the new series of The Celebrity Traitors, once again filling our evenings with suspicion, secret alliances and the question everyone wants answered: who can you actually trust?

At The Team Building Company, we've taken inspiration from these favourite British TV formats and turned them into hands-on team building experiences. So, whether your team would rather be battling for Star Baker or trying to expose a hidden traitor, we've got an event for you.

 

Ready, Steady, Bake! – Bring Bake Off to Your Team

Let's start with the sweeter option. Inspired by the much-loved world of The Great British Bake Off, our Ready, Steady, Bake! event gets teams out of the meeting room and into the baking kitchen. Each team has its own purpose-built baking station, with a professional chef providing a demonstration before the competition begins. Teams then go head-to-head against the clock to create a selection of sweet and savoury baked goods.

And, just like Bake Off itself, there is plenty of opportunity for things to go brilliantly… or spectacularly wrong.

Will your team produce something worthy of Star Baker? Will someone forget an essential ingredient? Will the pressure of the clock cause complete kitchen chaos?

Most importantly, will there be a soggy bottom?

 

Why Baking Makes Such Good Team Building

It might look like a bit of fun, and it absolutely is, but baking is surprisingly good at bringing teams together. People naturally fall into different roles. Someone might take charge of the recipe, another might have an eye for presentation, someone else might be brilliant at keeping an eye on the clock, while another person discovers that their previously hidden talent is making an excellent pastry.

The important thing is that everyone has something to contribute. Teams need to communicate, divide tasks, make decisions quickly and keep each other calm when something inevitably doesn't go according to plan. And unlike a traditional meeting, there is usually a fairly obvious reward at the end. Cake!

Our Ready, Steady, Bake! event is designed for groups of 10–200 people and can run for between one and three hours, making it suitable for everything from a shorter team activity to a larger corporate away day.

You don't need to be a professional baker either. In fact, the best part of Ready, Steady, Bake! is watching people discover what they can achieve when they have to work together.

Your resident spreadsheet expert might turn out to be an incredible baker. Your quietest team member might have the best decorating skills. And the person who confidently announces that they've “watched loads of Bake Off” may discover that watching someone make a soufflé and actually making one are two very different things.

 

What If Your Team Is More Traitors Than Tent?

If baking doesn't sound like your team's idea of fun, don't worry. With The Traitors becoming one of the biggest television phenomena of recent years, we've created our own version for corporate teams:

 

Saboteurs

Think The Traitors, but instead of watching from the sofa, your team becomes part of the game. In Saboteurs, teams are challenged to complete a series of tasks and build their prize pot. The catch?

Hidden within the group are Saboteurs. Their job is to subtly undermine the team's progress without being discovered. Suddenly, every decision becomes a little more complicated.

Can you trust the person sitting next to you?

Is that terrible suggestion genuinely a bad idea… or is someone deliberately trying to derail the team?

Why is James suddenly being incredibly helpful?

And why does Livvy keep suggesting that everyone changes direction?

The event combines challenges, strategy, communication, negotiation and deception, with teams needing to work together while simultaneously trying to identify who might be working against them.

 

Saboteurs: The Ultimate Test of Trust

One of the reasons The Traitors works so well on television is that it plays with something everyone understands: trust.

We trust our colleagues every day. We trust them to give us accurate information, make sensible decisions, pull their weight and work towards the same goal.

Saboteurs takes those everyday team dynamics and puts them into a safe, competitive and very entertaining environment!

Your team needs to communicate effectively, but they also need to question information. They need to reach agreements, but they also need to consider whether everyone has the same agenda. And when it comes to the all-important discussions, everyone suddenly becomes a detective.

The result is an event that can be hilarious, competitive and surprisingly revealing. Most importantly, nobody needs to take it too seriously. It's a game, but it can still demonstrate just how important communication and trust are within a successful team.

 

Take It One Step Further With a Traitors Murder Mystery

If your team loves The Traitors but you're looking for something a little less active and more theatrical, we have another option.

Our Traitors Murder Mystery combines the atmosphere of a traditional murder mystery with the deception and hidden agendas that have made The Traitors such a hit. Professional actors bring the story to life while your group becomes part detective, part suspect. The event can begin with pre-dinner drinks before a murder takes place. As the evening progresses, characters reveal their versions of events, clues emerge and suspicions begin to grow.

But there is a twist… Someone knows more than they're letting on.

Guests are given clues during the evening, with one participant holding information about the identity of the murderer. Their challenge is to keep that information hidden while everyone else attempts to work out exactly what has happened.

By the end of the evening, teams must put their detective skills to work and decide who committed the murder, why they did it and how they managed it.

It's ideal for a corporate dinner, conference evening or Christmas party where you want something more memorable than simply sitting down for dinner.

 

Which TV-Inspired Team Building Event Is Right For Your Team?

Choose Ready, Steady, Bake! if…

• Your team enjoys food, competition and getting stuck into something practical.
• It's particularly good for groups who want a relaxed and sociable activity where everyone can get involved, regardless of their previous baking experience.

Choose Saboteurs if…

• Your team loves strategy, competition and a bit of suspicion.
• It's perfect for groups who enjoy The Traitors, escape rooms, puzzles, challenges and anything that involves trying to outsmart their colleagues.

Choose the Traitors Murder Mystery if…

• You're planning an evening event and want to combine dinner, entertainment and a murder mystery
• It's a particularly good option for conferences, corporate dinners and team celebrations where you want the entertainment to continue after the day's meetings have finished.

 

From the TV Screen to Your Next Team Event

The reason TV-inspired team building works so well is simple - Everyone understands the format.

You don't need to spend ages explaining a complicated concept because your team already understands the basic idea. They know what a showstopper is. They know what a Traitor does. They know that when someone says “trust me”, it probably means you absolutely shouldn't.

That familiarity makes it easy for people to get involved. But once the game begins, it becomes something completely different. You're no longer watching someone else compete. You're the contestants. You're making the decisions, taking the risks, solving the problems and, potentially, blaming James when everything goes wrong.

Whether your team is more Paul Hollywood than Claudia Winkleman, more Star Baker than Traitor, or somewhere in between, at The Team Building Company we have a TV-inspired team building event to suit. So this autumn, don't just watch your favourite programmes.

Step away from the sofa, bring your team together and see what happens when the cameras aren't there.

Just remember…

In Ready, Steady, Bake!, trust your recipe.

In Saboteurs, trust absolutely nobody.

And in the Traitors Murder Mystery…

trust no one with an envelope.