One of the areas that I most enjoy but have the most difficult time creatively with is creating events that energize a team. The easy answers are picnics or bowling, etc. However, when I have pushed myself to spend time creatively, the results are always worth the effort.
My first professional year, I worked for a consulting company. They rented several limos and we embarked on a scavenger hunt that took us from just outside of Chicago to the end point of a cubs game. It was such a fantastic event and I still smile thinking about running through the mall. So I challenged myself with this event in mind to create a scaled down but similar vibe event. I decided on a picture scavenger hunt where certain pictures were worth 1 point, 5 points, 10 points, and 25 points. The challenges ranged from finding people (tigers fan, executive), with objects (geese, spork), with company trivia (the recording studio). Coming up with a list of 50 challenges was not easy…I had to solicit some help.
Sure it bombed at parts: Don’t have a question like “take a picture with someone that has a mohawk” when the guy with a mohawk shaved it off the day before. But actually, that just made it more fun for them and me as we all laughed at the odds of that.
I also had no experience with how long it would take. I still remember a developer hurdling over someone to get out the door first (and yes that team won). We set it for an hour and grilled while they were out hunting. So as they ate, we judged the pictures for point tallying and awarded the winners with sea monkeys.
I was so nervous that they would think this was dumb or not have fun. But everyone had a blast and the event definitely boosted energy within the team. I foresee this event again in my future.
What’s an event that helped energize your team?
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