We just had our second all-hands successful quarterly theme meeting of the year to go over our goals, win prizes and participate in team building exercises. If you want to see the post on our first meeting, check it out here. Building bridges is a year long theme and the bridges seem to be getting better (forget ‘seem’ – the winning bridge was a veritable masterpiece of Popsicle bridge building). This quarter’s bridge held 92 pounds and it could have held even more. Since it had already won the competition we decided to hang it on the wall for inspiration (and some harmless, friendly taunting). It’s fun to have the entire staff together in one place for good BBQ, prizes and competition.
The winning bridge. Solid as a rock! Can you see the ‘road’ is paved with glue?! Brilliant!
I am a full time child welfare trainer in NYC and I do this activity using newspaper, tape and straws. We use a golf ball to see if it can make it across without falling. Although no one really succeeds, they get the joys of having fun and working as a team to accomplish a goal. It is fun and it builds capacity within the team members! Great job Anne-Marie!!
How cool and fun! Reminds me of a high school physics project I had to do, but believe me, it was NOT any where near this much fun. 😉
What a great idea…and it looks like everyone had fun too!
How fun!! I can’t believe it’s possible to build a bridge out of popsicle sticks that will hold that much weight – that’s incredible!
Can you recommend any ‘team building’ websites/books? I am a new manager to a team of 12 and I need all the help I can get:) Any advice is welcome – thank you!!
I love this! If only all businesses could figure out, that if you have ‘team building days’ where relationships are formed, you get so much more from an employee. They don’t look at it like their job anymore…they look at it like it’s somewhere they are excited to go and to participate! I think it’s really cool, that you run your company like this and yet maintain the position as the boss too. It’s a fine balancing act, that only a few get right! Congrats on getting it right AM! I wish you were my boss!