Act Like Kids

• We went into this team building experiment with a few things in mind:

  • Variety is the natural enemy of adaption. Let's do something that hasn't been done before.
  • Doing is a bigger contributor to happiness than having. Let's make this more about doing than receiving.
  • Laughter deepens and strengthens relationships, reduces stress, and boosts the immune system. Let's make them laugh.

• What We Did:

  • We devised a holiday-themed relay that took ten teams of five to five different stations throughout our office.
  • We started with ten team leaders and gave them three days to enlist the additional members of their team. They didn't know what they were building a team for, only that it required creativity, speed, and entertainment.
  • We scheduled each team a ten minute time slot, gave them directions, and watched as they ran wild around the office! The five stations included:
    • Marketing Department. Direction: Remove a bundle of ugly Christmas sweaters from a mannequin and dress one teammate, who would wear all of them for the duration of the relay.
    • Break room. Directions: Drink one gallon of Egg Nog as a team.
• • Sales Floor. Directions: Pick a Christmas song of your choosing and sing the first verse to the sales department.
  • IT Department. Directions: Put on a pair of gloves and unwrap a doubly wrapped present: a Santa hat and reindeer antlers headband.
  • The lobby. Directions: Select one team member to pull and one to ride as you make a loop around the office in a sled wearing the Santa and reindeer accessories.
  • The winning time members each received a $25 VISA gift card for a little holiday shopping. Ironically, no one really cared about the cards; they just wanted the victory!

• What We Learned:

  1. If you want to have a successful team-building experience, enlist a variety of gregarious participants at every level in the organization to champion it for you.
  2. Ambiguity can be a powerful tool. Use it. We didn't tell our employees what they were getting into and their imaginations ran wild. The excitement the competition generated prior to the activity promoted itself.
  3. Act like kids. This activity was pretty sophomoric, we admit, but sometimes it's nice to throw your inhibitions aside and be silly with your co-workers. The fact that everyone who wasn't participating directly got to watch and laugh (with or at) the teams made it even more fun.

  Sources:

  http://www.vskills.net/certification/article/boost-workplace-productivity-make-em-laugh