92Y Case Study: Producing a Trivia Team Building Activity for a Former Employer

Last week, I had the unique honor of capping my 6-year tenure as Director of Adult Education Programs at New York’s 92nd Street Y in the most special of ways: by being invited to produce a trivia team building holiday party for the entire staff!

Seeing how I was leaving my post within the organization to pursue a career as an NYC corporate team building professional, I was in a unique position to know intimately the people and culture which make up the institution – particularly how hard employees work to produce the incredibly array of programs and services which 92Y is renowned for. What a great honor and privilege, then, to be asked by the organization’s senior management to produce a holiday team building activity customized especially for 92Y’s staff, on my very last day of employment!

As with all of our TrivWorks trivia events, we started off with a comprehensive customization meeting, held with the holiday planning committee in the Executive Director’s office. We determined right off the bat that the trivia entertainment would be a surprise. Like many institutions, 92Y’s annual holiday party is centered around the same traditionally-held activities; we wanted this year to be different, and as such staff would only be told to expect a “surprise activity” to go along with the food, speeches and awards that were expected every year.

Since I myself had been a longtime employee, I had a distinct advantage in knowing firsthand how the place “ticked” – every character, quirk and foible among the staff, coupled with the institution’s rich history, famous building and breadth of program offerings. With such terrific material to choose from, crafting customized trivia questions which would resonate perfectly for this group would be not so much a challenge as a sheer delight!

Following an extremely warm and gracious introduction at the holiday party by Sol Adler, 92Y’s executive director, the TrivWorks team and I went to work with our trivia party for the institution’s 300 staff members, asking an assortment of carefully-written general knowledge, pop culture and 92Y-specific trivia questions which only that select group of people would know. The event was extraordinarily well-received, complete with laughter, cheers, high energy and competition to a fever pitch throughout.

It was so wonderful to see that the group was thrilled with the outcome of the event, and I was delighted to have been told afterwards by rank-and-file employees right up to executive management that the event was the most enjoyable 92Y holiday party in memory. It was such a joy to produce a holiday party team building activity for my own employer, on my last day of employment no less.

A singularly unique and memorable experience indeed, and an incredible way to transition from one profession to another!