Sports day. Is it something from your primary or secondary school memory? When was the last time you fought hard and competed with each other for your team? When did you last join a sports day?
Shake Off the Pandemic Toll
It’s been two years of countless online meetings and messaging; now, slowly but finally, we are getting back on our feet - and office life. But did you recognise right away the faces of your employees without that fancy app filter? Are any of your colleagues trying painstakingly to shed the ‘pandemic pounds’ or ‘COVID lethargy’? What would be the best way to reconnect and motivate a team that lost their fitness and mojo?
The answer is simple. Corporate Sports Day.
Be Creative, Resourceful & Inclusive
Thanks to the pandemic, I think now we all treasure our health and the value of exercise, as much as the chances to socialise; your employees would actually be thrilled to get out of their chairs!
Indoor: Best for First-timers
Unlike typical school sports day, there are tonnes of Corporate Sports Day activity options, from rigorous ball games to mind-stimulating orienteering. If this is your (team’s) first corporate sports day, it’d be best and safest to start indoors. Book one (or more as needed) indoor basketball courts, separate the teammates by department, then let them compete for the overall champion of the day. The games could be basketball shooting, bubble soccer, soft-headed archery war game, telegames or kin-ball.
The advantages of indoor sports day is no sunburn, no (or less) weather conditions, nice washrooms and changing/shower rooms; it is also more inclusive as a team building activity for colleagues with lower sports readiness and stamina level.
Outdoor: Game It Up
If you believe your employees are up for more challenges, try the outdoor sports day. Apart from the weather and sunburn considerations, a proper venue that includes basic facilities is essential for a decent corporation function. For games to play, learning a new sport together (workshop) and then competing with each other (match) would be a golden formula. This will prevent someone who is good at a particular sport killing the mood of others.
A district-wide or park-wide orienteering would be a perfect idea for team sports day, too. Once they arrive at the checkpoint, assign them different kinds of tasks or team exercises that they need to complete. Let them role play to achieve specific team goals, e.g. only one person can read the next checkpoint note and he/she is not allowed to speak while giving hints to the rest of the team (until they have reached the next checkpoint).
Through the design of the game mechanism, scoring method and team allocation, a corporate sports day will be more than just a sweating day and will enhance team collaboration efficiency, employee motivation and relationships within your organisation. At least, it is a great way to introduce the newcomers who joined the company during the pandemic, whom your team might have never met in person!
Wayne Rooney & Team Bonding
There are numberless proven successes of team bonding in every sector, every industry. Wayne Rooney, for example, is known for extending his captaincy duties away from the pitch through his ‘Team Bonding Sessions’ - team building nights where players’ wives and girlfriends are included. Explaining his belief in the importance for families of players, particularly new players and foreign players, to know and interact with each other:
‘’If they can do that, it will certainly help players settle in a lot quicker. I felt it was important for the team and for the lads to enjoy themselves’’.
[source from Teamtactics.co.uk]
So how about a Corporate Sports Day as the first company function after pandemic? The benefits and fun will be way beyond your imagination!