Earlier I wrote about our experience with Corporate Champions Vancouver and how it’s helped us to become better teammates at work. Click to read We Are The Champions! A Teamwork Success Story.
I thought I’d share some more specific ideas about factors to consider when embarking on your own team challenges.
In The Beginning: Team Success Tips from Year 1
In our first year, we had decent participation, some good teambuilding, and some great times together. My recommendations for when you’re starting out are…
1. Practice, Practice, Practice!!
We should have practiced more as a team.
It wasn’t so much that we needed to have practiced more to win (although that’s true too), it’s more that additional practice would have brought us closer together, forming new bonds as teammates and enabling us to identify more as a unit.
2. Consider Lifestyle
We should have thought more carefully about the events we chose.
We were so excited to get going with the program that we didn’t really weigh all our options. It sounds obvious, but if one of your goals is participation, it’s so important to consider your people and the multiple facets of their lives outside work.
The way Corporate Champions is set up, there are opportunities to enter your company teams in a number of different sporting activities – basketball, soccer, volleyball, etc.
When we made our selections, we were thinking about participation in the sense that we tried to pick the sports that the majority of people would enjoy, and where as many people as possible could participate.
What we also should have considered are factors, like:
- The venues available to us to practice each sport
- The times of day the events would take place
- The days of the week the events would take place
As we discovered, these ‘lifestyle’ factors have great impact on participation levels.
Examples of some important questions to ask yourselves as part of an organizing team:
- How many of your people have kids?
- Do they need to be picked up after school, and do they have weekend commitments that involve their parents?
Rolling Right Along: Team Success Tips from Year 2
In our second year, more people signed up and we saw even better teambuilding, even amongst people who don’t usually work together. The additional people enrolled and the familiarity with the events added a level of comfort and engagement that made this possible. And we definitely had fun. All I really have to say about keeping things going is that you should…
Coming Together: Team Success Tips from Year 3
It’s June 2012 and we’ve just wrapped up our third year…our most successful year so far.
The number of participants doubled from last year. For some newcomers, this was their first time participating in any Creation event!
Part of the kudos has to go to CCV for including new sports like badminton and table tennis in their selection, increasing the variety of interests represented. But we’d learned from our first two years. Here are the lessons we learned:
2. Be Accomodating
We tried as best we could to be considerate of people’s personal schedules, with some practices during business hours and some after. We were also proactive in helping people remember to coordinate activities – we sent out emails and put up posters detailing events and timetables.
3. Unite Under One Banner!
There’s a reason that the team uniform and brand indentity figures prominently in sports psychology. It’s an important element in forming team cohesion.
We ordered team jerseys with our company logo.
We decided on a theme – to be the best we can be, while having fun!
As a team, it’s very powerful when you can rally behind one common goal, and know that your teammates will be there to support you.
What have been your best experiences competing together as part of a team? What did you learn, or how were you changed afterward?
It’s so great to see companies coming together and making an effort to stay active! I’m writing on behalf of the KEEN Footwear. We’re encouraging workplaces to make healthy lifestyle choices. Even taking a 10-minute recess break during the day can help reduce your stress and boost your energy level. Our Recess at Work page has fun some ideas: http://recess.keenfootwear.com/recess-at-work/
Keep up the great work!
Best,
KEEN Recess Team
Thanks for your comments! The idea of KEEN teaming up with Instant Recess is a great one; many companies are looking for ways to engage and help inspire people to be the best they can be, and this program looks to do just that. You’ve got some great tools on your site as well!
Thanks for checking out our page! It’s great to hear about other companies who share our goals.