By Allison Goldberg
The weather is finally turning, Instagram is flooded with arguably inappropriate photos of needles in arms, and people are experiencing levels of optimism not seen since December 2019. That said, it’s still a highly unusual time for leaders to inspire positivity and collaboration; most people are continuing to work from home with no end in sight, making the usual happy hour, chair massage, or Taco Tuesday routine out-of-bounds for at least a few more months.
While many are familiar with the myriad of statistics oft-quoted regarding employee engagement, it is notable that in 2020, Gallup reported that, “the relationship between employee engagement and organizational outcomes, even conservatively expressed, is meaningful from a practical perspective.”
Therefore, it’s important to keep fun in mind, even when it feels like just another task weighing down the to-do list. As temperatures (and vaccination rates) rise, here are a variety of ways to take advantage of this unique spring in which many people are beginning to venture outdoors, yet appeals for cautiousness and social distancing remain strong.
These pre-historic looking gems are called passion flowers. Mark your boards.
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Flower Bingo
While this may seem unbearably cheesy at first, keep in mind that everyone became an overly obsessed plarent during quarantine. Capitalize on this by creating a bingo board with images of local spring flowers. Participation obviously doesn’t need to be mandatory for something like this, but have team members share photos when they see their bingo flowers out in the wild. You can play multiple rounds (Four Corners, Rows, etc.), giving out prizes for each.
Not just any stairs – the stairs to the Seattle Underground.
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Around Town Scavenger Hunt
Particularly for teams that span cities or countries, create a generic scavenger hunt that can be applied across sites, and share images to Slack. Similar to the Flower Bingo, have prizes delivered to winners. Activities can be centered around spring (finding your state bird, for instance), taking photos at local monuments, and supporting local businesses. (Who’s taste tested all the cold brew in a 5 mile radius, from establishments that don’t start with Star or end with Bucks?)
Does anyone else feel like quarantine took us back in time?
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Drive-in Movie
While vaccination rates have increased, they still vary widely by state and many are apprehensive to return to pre-pandemic activities. The perfect solution? Treat everyone to a drive-in movie. Colleagues can attend with their pod, while still saying hi from afar.
She put the stapler in Jello. Then realized that she’s at home, and it’s her stapler.
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Office Mockumentary
The Office continues to be streamed years after its finale, with viewings soaring yet again during the pandemic, probably as people wistfully acknowledged that they actually enjoyed going to an office every day. In celebration, devise an Office Mockumentary, in whatever way works for your teams. Secret confessionals about annoying coworkers who are actually children? Great. Ready to develop an extremely awkward, Michael Scott-esque alter ego? Just keep it workplace appropriate in a way that he never could. If enough mockumentary content is created, host a screening.
Humans, outside, wearing potato sacks. After a year like 2020, this looks awesome.
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Field Day
At this point, anything with other humans sounds exciting. Reimagine classic field day activities in a socially distant way. Play tug of war with each team member six feet apart on the rope. Instead of passing off the egg, putting the egg down on the ground for the next colleague to pick up only increases the challenge. Get creative. Have a chalk art challenge spread out across multiple sidewalks and/or parking lots.
Evidence shows that having fun with colleagues increases employee retention and wellbeing, as team dynamics strongly influence how one feels about the day-to-day experience at a company. Plus, after a year like 2020, employees need it now more than ever.
