Blessed is he who has learned to laugh at himself, for he shall never cease to be entertained.
— John Powell
According to the above comment, I’ll never have to be concerned about being entertained, but what about my co-workers?
It’s my job to keep them happy and healthy.
So, it was a Tuesday afternoon and everyone was way too quiet around the “planet.” Work, work, work was looming over us like a dark cloud – yep… time for some fun! My challenge – What can I come up with in a short period of time that would not take hours from our busy schedules and still bring a smile to the face of my beloved team?
How about a treasure hunt! (This idea is brought forward from my days of living on an island when we had to create ways to entertain ourselves.) I had started working on a small treasure hunt a month or so ago when it was rainy season, but when it was finished, I thought it was too cheesy so I never introduced it. But hey, it was the only thing I could think of that I could pull out of the hat on such short notice.
I wrote funny little clues written on slips of paper with a letter penciled on the back. The rules: follow the clues, find all the letters, unscramble the word, be the fastest team to win. Simple… break them up into teams of two, let each team go separately (so everyone else can work while the others are running around like… well we won’t go there). Hit the stopwatch when they get the first clue and let em rip.
We had four teams with the fastest time being 2 min. 36 sec. and the slowest time was 6 min. 16 sec. It was cheesy, but it was also fun. Everyone had a few minutes away from their desk, everyone had a few minutes of thinking “outside the box’ and the best thing of all is that everyone laughed and that is a good thing.
Here are a few of the clues I used to give you an idea: (there were 7 clues in all, but any number will work)
- Count those trophies – One, two, three – Only the Gold – Holds the key. (Clue was under our Gold 2011 W3 Trophy)
- A flush – A blush – This isn’t the place – Where you want to rush (surely I don’t need to tell you where this clue was hidden.)
- Now the last letter – Is hidden quite well – Look for a comfy chair – And sit for a spell. (Clue was under a comfy chair in our conference room.)
So you can see that it was a bit silly and simple, but in the end everyone got a good laugh and had some well earned FUN!
Bottom line – you need fun and humor in the work place. It decreases stress and increases productivity. It’s a no BRAINER!
BOT WAR UPDATE: Last Friday we played another death defying round of BOT wars. I’m excited to say that “Rusty” once again came out the #1 Champion. Go Rusty!!
