Practice Owner: In case you didn’t get the memo, here it is again! Staff get bored sometimes and need a little extra fun to spice things up!
“Corporate culture” is a hot topic these days and it’s all about keeping your team (and yourself) being creative, challenged and energized. While there can be lots of learning, interesting projects, stiff targets to meet that juice everyone up on the job, there are additional opportunities for a little lighter fun as a team.
Fun and Games
I started researching online to see what types of activities the team can be involved in (outside of their normal routines) that would make them feel more like a true team. There are many, many suggestions of activities, varying from team sports days…to community volunteerism as a group…to just plain fun games.
I chose “fun games” for a first attempt at this for my own team. It was a Photo Scavenger Hunt. I made a list of 50 assorted items that had to be found and photographed (usually with their phones). I divided the staff into two teams and gave them a deadline of one week for when they had to present their photo evidences. At the end of the week, I then tallied up the submissions and determined which team won. The prize was a $25 gift certificate for each winning team member (this varied in choices from Sportschek, to Starbucks, to Tim Hortons).
Helpful Hints for Your List
A sampling of the items on the list (and these had to be photos of the real item, not a photo of a photo or a download): a motorcycle with a side car, a robin, a decorated garbage can, a lion statue, roofers on a roof roofing, a roller coaster, a man wearing a red tie, a yellow VW Beetle (car), a green garbage truck, a squirrel in a tree, a church with a cross on top, an American flag flying, a Canadian flag flying, a palm tree, a giraffe, a boy with a hat on, a black dog on a leash, a row of birds on hydro wires, a kid on his or her dad’s shoulders, a pergola, and so on ….
Guidelines
The rules were that they had to be safe (i.e. no photos while driving), and they couldn’t do it on production time … only before and after work and on their lunch hours. The idea was that they keep in touch with the other members of the team to see who was getting what in order to prevent duplication,
Outcome:
My staff went nuts over this. Conspiring, taunting the other team, having a blast. They said it also made them feel more extroverted because they spent so much more time looking at everything in their environment. Their production improved on the job as well. They have absolutely demanded that we play this again and I am making the next scavenger list ready for next week.
So have fun with this!
We are all about you!
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