Reclaim a fulfilling worklife and integrate connection with these ideas.
On May 1, people joined us from all over including San Francisco to St Cloud, Trinidad to to the Twin Cities, Washington to Wilmar. They came together for a tailored session of 50 Fun Thing to Reconnect Your Workplaces hosted by Jeannette Grace, Expressive! Communication Consulting & Training and facilitated by Teresa Thomas, creator of 50 Fun Things®.
This fun and purposeful session provided a chance for participants to create their own 50 Fun Things chart to amp up quality of life, reclaim a fulfilling work life and to integrate reconnection. We set the intention for everyone to leave with a feeling of empowerment and excitement for when we to can return to work. In this interactive online session, participants were guided to dive in to identify and achieve 50 ways to reconnect with colleagues now and when they return to work.
Here is the list participants compiled in this interactive hour:
I love embracing my inner weirdo = so anything that involves a sense of humor I am game for!
Showing appreciation
Inspiring others
Having a sense of humor
Showing kindness or concern
Developing others
Recognizing talent
Giving permission to make mistakes
Create a climate of positivity
Crazy shirt day
Crazy sock day
Jersey day
Exercise classes on zoom
All hands meeting- social event, bring food/drinks
Mondays meet for prayer and pastries, prayer requests and praises
Full house challenge, video 5-10 seconds and put video montage together
Google photo album to share pet pictures
Lip sync sessions to express missing your teams
Share Podcasts recommendations
Make and share TikTok videos
Virtual happy hours. After work times where everyone gets a drink and join to chat.
Use the Marco Polo app to send quick messages and short videos to each other.
Sunshine fairy email — sent out every day and group dialogue about funny things for the day.
Peer recognition programs, including recognition through Slack using the Kudos app
Daily lunch time together, and or coffee on zoom
Companies buying gifts or treats for employees to boost morale
Share the 50 Fun Things ideas to reconnect with your team
Practice being more positive
Focusing on gratitude
Be more helpful
Connecting with others more; building stronger relationships
Meeting guide
Growth and development opportunities
Walking meetings
Be a community resource
Our organization sent out free resources through the Care app for relieving stress.
Lunch and learns
Microsoft sharepoint to facilitate shoutouts and highlight persons
Dance-offs (online for now)
Just calling your team to check-in
National high-five. e.g. Send an instant message, "Hey, it's national high-five day."
Know your co-workers interests. e.g. Wish a happy national grilled cheese day to the cheese lover.
Microsoft teams
Send bad jokes
Yammer site- people post what they made or how to use their computer better
Send inspirational quotes to members of the team
Check-in with contract employees- Say hi, how are you doing?
Birthdays or anniversaries don't let them slip by- Recognize each person.
Hallway gathering once a week to update what's happening in world
Celebrate rare holidays (international dancing day)
Virtual activities (i.e. Bingo)
Create themes for your Happy Hours
Start meetings with a personal question (favorite movie, color, food)
Contest >> cutest pet day wins a $10 amazon card.
Good News: start each meeting by sharing good news
Sharing work from home pictures on our company intranet - helps us feel connected during this time
Virtual coffee break
Try this! Goat 2 Meeting: https://www.sweetfarm.org/goat-2-meeting. I've seen llama meetings too :)
The goat idea sparked an idea for me. My brother has horses and chickens. I may ask him to pop onto my next video meeting and just show one of his farm animals :)
Sharing DIY projects with the team on zoom is an idea
We have an Employee Resource Group that sent out an email asking if you are solo at home, caregiver, or parent and they set up different groups to meet once a week. I'm in the solo at home and there are four of us that we check out once a week.
Shared a photo with our staff and asked for everyone to share a caption. I discovered a wild turkey walking on sidewalk trying to get into Caribou door when mall was closed.
Share baby pics and have a guessing game as to who is who based on baby pictures.
We've written "together stories" where we each take turns writing one sentence at a time. The results have been really entertaining.
Our company shares meditation and home workout ideas as well
It would be hilarious to have a team meeting where our kids ran the meeting.
Have your company sign up for desk-yogi.com. They have monthly challenges and you can set up reminders to take a break and do some stretching or breathing exercises lead by desk-yogi teachers.
Bring pets to work day.
When we go out to work, won't it be nice to have more potlucks so we can all have lunch together
Zen room at the office
Daily notes on the whiteboard kitchen
If you have created a cute or cool face mask since outside is close...bring it to the office and show it to your team.
We had a zoom meeting where everyone had 2 minutes to run and grab an object from their house that represents something about them or something fun they have been doing
Outside of work I've been doing the "wine and paint night" with my mom on video chat. You could turn that into a craft night/day w/ coworkers.
Ping pong
Hallway Mini Golf
Virtual Water Cooler
Friday/Daily Morning Coffee Break
Scavenger Hunt
Sharing at home workspace, books being read, etc.
Small group chats on specific topics/webinars
Play virtual games together, such as Scattergories
Dad jokes competition to get staff to laugh
Office photos, share photos of when team has been together or pictures of your staff at work.
Book club
All hands meeting- social event, bring food/drinks
Mondays meet for prayer and pastries, prayer requests and praises
Full house challenge, video 5-10 seconds and put video montage together
Google photo album to share pets
Virtual walk and talks. For social distancing, put on a headset and go for a walk as you catch up with someone by phone. Once we can see each other again, invite your colleagues to walk and talks to get to know them better.
Share links or articles to useful resiliency tools.
Ask your team to each share a favorite or funny moment that happened at work.
Funny hat or mask day. Wear your protective mask when you don't need to.
Write and express gratitude daily. call people and tell them why I am grateful for them
Cooking together or recipe share.
Eat healthy/share healthy recipes.
Mail cards to people to brighten their day.
Have your team take the G Factor assessment here...https://expressivecct.com/ and then discuss your results.
Check out the other ideas we shared on the 50 Fun Things to Keep On Keepin' On document.
As you can see, the group came up with lots of ideas. Select your favorite 50 and add your own ideas to a list or chart to Reconnect Your Workplace!