EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
Top 5 Team-Building Activities Inspired By The Olympics
This years’ delayed Olympics has been a bright light of competitiveness, community, sportsmanship, and cultural respect amid 18 months of cautious internationalism. It has once again brought the very best and brightest of our global sporting community together to battle for Olympic champion in 399 events, over 41 different sports. It has been, and continues to be, inspiring to millions.
But at home, this inspiration doesn’t and shouldn’t stop in the gyms, tracks, sports halls, and courts of particular sports streamed to our digital devices. It should continue into our lives and work, and companies should look to the Olympics to inspire their staff to come together in healthy competition and community events to bolster morale and build up team dynamics!
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Is competitiveness good at work?
Yes! Competition within some workplaces is inevitable, and when curated in the right way can be incredibly beneficial to morale, productivity, and team building.
So is there anything we can learn from this year's Olympics in Tokyo that can inform, prepare, or encourage business leaders to incorporate some health competitiveness into their workplace? Can you use the Olympics as inspiration for team-building events? Can any of this be done remotely?
Yes, again! Here are our top 5 team-building activities inspired by the Olympics, that you can bring to work!
Collaborative Events
Some of the most exciting events at the Olympics are team events, especially mixed medleys! Taking inspiration from this, leaders & managers should always consider the effectiveness of group activities in building team morale.
- Ideas for group activities: Treasure hunts, adventure days, business escape rooms, competitive board games, office debates, water cooler trivia, scavenger hunts!
Leaders & managers should always consider the effectiveness of group activities in building team morale.
Office Olympics
Bringing the whole office together for some competitive action is always assured to bring teams together and get people laughing. Split your office into teams, get some medals for an impromptu medal ceremony after the day's drama, and you have your office Olympics!
- Ideas for Office Olympics: Employ tech and get your teams pumping. Thanks to fitness apps like Stridekick or Strava, you can unite you people's individual local exercise into one virtual experience.
Remote Team Building
The digital economy has had to rapidly adapt and expand its offer to take stock of full-time, large-scale team interactions being held purely online.
Incorporating a healthy dose of competitiveness into the remote working space can be a huge challenge - but there are things you can take inspiration from to better connect your teams. A big part of this comes from the tech sector, specifically driven through iterative processes, such as in “coding competitions” or “Hackathons”. The tech sector understands that a healthy competitive edge can actually work towards a collaborative goal - adapt and expand this for your team across any industry and you’ll find some happy, engaged, and well-rewarded staff!
- Ideas for remote team building: Olympic quizzes (HQ trivia), online company events, adapted “hackathons”, sweepstakes for the Olympics, or even continue the sporting vein into workplace fantasy sports teams for leagues around the world!
Altruism and Selflessness
The Olympics Team of any country is the pride of their nation, where “winning” is set in the context of inspiration - inspiring next generations of sportspeople to try something new, engage in a new sport, or simply learn a new skill.
Every business leader across the planet should tap into this altruistic drive to impress upon another generation by encouraging their staff to volunteer with local charities; do “pro bono” work for smaller startups or non-profit companies, or to fundraise within the company for good causes: this type of giving back incorporates the message at the heart of the Olympics.
- Ideas for incorporating Olympic altruism: volunteer away days, charity competitions, and events!
Team Sports Days
There is no wider concept for this - this is quite literally holding a sports day for your staff! Getting your team away from the office and into a space where they can express themselves, compete, and win prizes (which should, of course, be incentivizing!) can do wonders for staff morale.
- Ideas for Sports Days: a company sports competition!
The Bottom Line
The Olympics are already over, but they have once again taught us the power of competition and the pride of being the best. Hosting Olympics-themed events brings people together to work collaboratively, and if done right will have your staff talking for weeks about healthy rivalries!
