How Trivia Team Building Reduces Workplace Frustration
I’ve had a pretty frustrating week.
Riding high off of an incredibly busy June – over a dozen corporate trivia events all around the country, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia and Anaheim – I’ve been looking forward to finalizing another batch of events for July. This includes not just valued repeat TrivWorks clients, but new ones as well – big ones, including a multinational Fortune 500 company, and even the corporate office of a Major League baseball team!
The gigs were booked, staff arranged, contracts drafted/sent. All that was left to do was await signatures by the clients, so that we could begin customizing their events. Yet I noticed that one of the contracts from one of the new clients hadn’t come back.
This was concerning to me, since it was a last-minute event with a fast turnaround. I followed up via phone as well as Email. No response. I tried again the next day. No response. After the third day I received a perfunctory Email:
“Thank you David for connecting. After further consideration, we have decided to move forward with another vendor. We’ll keep you in mind for the future. Thanks.”
I was understandably pissed. Not only had this client already told me they wanted to move forward, but both my staff and I were holding the date/turning other opportunities away. To make things worse, I had significantly reduced my rate to meet their budget (as well as conducted the sales call and paperwork generation while traveling on vacation). Needless to say, my follow-up call & Email asking for further explanation went unanswered.
Yeah. Frustrating.
You Win Some, You Lose…Three
If you’re a self-employed business owner like me, you’ll no doubt recognize this experience as just part of the deal. You win some, you lose some – or, as this case illustrates, you lose some that you thought you had won. I was pretty peeved as mentioned, but I got over it.
Then it happened two more times.
That’s right. Two more new clients whom I had “sold” trivia events to – contracts drafted, staff arranged, etc. – weren’t getting back to me with their signatures. Two more clients weren’t responding to my follow-ups. Two more clients sent me “After much deliberation, we’re going in another direction” Emails. Two more times I asked why; two more times I was left high and dry.
How I Deal with Workplace Frustration
Thankfully, this sort of thing is uncommon. Usually once a new client (or repeat client, for that matter) gives the green light, that means the event is a go. Rarely does a client back out right before signing on the dotted line. I’ve taken one-two punches before, but three in the span of a week? Man, that’s tough. The hardest part for me is having to tell my professional corporate emcees and producers holding the date that the gigs aren’t happening after all. They know it’s not my fault, and I think they get over it faster than I do, but I HATE the idea of dangling work opportunities before people, only to take them away. When this happens I take a deep breath, tell myself it’s nothing I did wrong, and that there will be more work for all of us right around the corner. Luckily, there always is.
Rather than devote an entire blog post to me complaining about losing gigs – who wants to read about THAT, after all? – I want to use it as a way to discuss something important to TrivWorks clients old and new. That is, workplace frustration. Granted, the frustration I feel as a business owner losing three gigs in a week is different from the frustration teams feel. However, a big reason companies hire me in the first place is to release workplace tension, and reduce the power struggle that exists whenever a group of human beings are thrust into working together.
My trivia team building events are naturally well-suited to deal with this, and I’m proud to say that what we do here at TrivWorks is incredibly effective at reducing common workplace frustration. Here’s a brief overview of how.
People Love Good-Natured Competition
I’ve written extensively on this blog about how competitive activities are best for team-building, since they get people bonding in unique ways. However, “good-natured” is the key term here. We don’t want over-the-top, high-intensity rivalries, however producing an event centered around lighthearted competition boosts spirit and morale, which in turn reduces the everyday workplace frustrations that intensify like steam in a kettle. (That said, if your group is a bunch of competitive sports nuts, check out our newly-announced 2026 FIFA World Cup soccer trivia package).
Customized Team Building Events Make More Impact
I love just how customizable trivia is as a team building activity, especially when compared to other things corporate groups can do. It’s one thing to know the answer to questions, and get the satisfaction of collectively coming to the answer (which I’ll get to in a moment). It’s an entirely different thing altogether when the questions are geared to the specific group in attendance: inside jokes, shared experiences, company history, colleague fun facts. This type of trivia just hits differently than generic questions, and people instantly feel that. The result is that folks feel more comfortable at the event, and with each other – which instantly reduces the tensions brought into the room.
Everybody Loves Winning
Of course, the winning team at a company trivia night will feel great. No matter who is on that team – it could be a tight-knit group who works together every day, or people who absolutely hate each other back at the office – I guarantee if they win trivia night, whatever frustrations they had will be out the window. However, this doesn’t apply to just the wining team. Getting ANY trivia question right feels great. If done correctly, which I believe at TrivWorks we do, every correct answer announced results in a raucous cheer from the teams that got it right. People just aren’t used to cheering together at work, so when they do it at a trivia event, it makes an impact. (For more, visit “Why Do People Love Trivia Events?”)
Bottom Line: Trivia Works for Corporate Team Building
I like to think that after almost 20 years of doing this, I’ve learned to take frustrations like losing gigs in stride (writing blog posts like this also helps, so thanks for letting me process the hit!). However, I’ve also gotten pretty good at helping companies large and small reduce the common employee frustrations which are inescapable. Trivia works so, so well for this, helping to foster a positive shared experience which makes a huge impact in a brief period of time. I’m proud to do it, and hope to show you just why TrivWorks is the industry leader in corporate team building.
If you’d like to know more about this topic, check out my earlier article, “Why Does Trivia Work for Corporate Team Building?”