Team building event ideas

Let me begin by stating this isn’t intended to be a political message, difficult as that is to do on a day like today. I’m more than happy to share my personal beliefs in private, or on my personal Facebook wall – however, here on my work blog I must emphasize that’s NOT what I’m seeking to do. The words I write here don’t reflect my political preferences, and certainly don’t represent those of the event hosts, performers, producers, or others whom I work with through my company, TrivWorks.

As such, instead of focusing on the impact of last night’s presidential election and what it means for the country and world, I would like to try and take a step back, and apply my observations to something else I have some unique insight on: how people come together. If nothing else, this election and its results have demonstrated just how deeply divided this country is; divided by governing philosophy and belief in the role of government, divided by geography, by gender, by race, by values. This isn’t the first national election in recent years which seemed to visually parse the nation into two distinct groups: “urban intellectuals” and “elites” along the coasts, and “plain-spoken,” “small-town folks” all across the interior (“Starbucks” vs. “Budweiser” was an analogy I heard last night on TV).

The people who live in these two worlds are profoundly different, both in how they view themselves and each other. If nothing else, last night’s surprising election results demonstrated clearly just how wide this gulf is, with certain demographics overwhelmingly voting for one candidate over another, and in great numbers. Having seen this before, I ask myself: will the two Americas EVER be able to come together? Will there be anything which truly unites us? Or are we destined to endure an existence where one side perpetually feels left out, isolated, unrepresented, and voiceless?

Before moving into my professional take on this (I own a team building company, specializing in group bonding activities in NYC, the West Coast, and everywhere in between – so, both “Americas,” if you will), I wanted to offer up a personal example from my own life, which I think might help craft a response to the above questions.

I’d like to tell you about Artie. Artie was a guy who worked at my very first job out of college – and couldn’t have been more my opposite. Whereas I was an immature, directionless 22-year-old in a job I didn’t belong in (follow this link to learn more about that), he was a manager, at least 20 years older than me, with a wife and kids, on a clear career path. He also happened to be an evangelical Christian – and not just that, he served as the pastor of his church. I, on the other hand, am Jewish – not particularly religious or observant, but I still identify as such. In addition to enjoying his work in a way I didn’t, Artie would constantly try to “share the good news” with me, as it were, trying to get me to “join his flock.” You would think I wouldn’t really be crazy about a guy like Artie, and that he wouldn’t really choose to have anything to do with me, either.

Guess what? I loved Artie. He was easily my favorite person at work, hands down. And he loved me, too.

Why, you ask? How is this possible, coming from such vastly different backgrounds, faiths, interests and generations? Because we found common ground. Was I ever going to talk about work as passionately as he? No. Were either of us ever going to win an argument with the other about religion? Absolutely not. But putting those differences aside, once you cut away the obvious dissimilarities, we were left with who we really were on the inside. In this case, it turns out we were both complete goofballs who loved cracking jokes, action movies, observing pop culture, and eating good food (we’d have lunch together at least once a week, oftentimes more). We had way more in common than you’d would think we would on the surface, and as a result we formed a friendship in spite of our obvious differences.

Now, let me turn to the work I’ve been doing for the past ten years which I actually DO enjoy: producing team building events in New York City, Los Angeles, and everywhere in between. While a lot of these events often involve bringing together folks from the same department, who by default share at least some professional background and interests, many times I’m asked to create team bonding activities for entire companies, meetings, conferences, or for other disparate groups. We could be talking about people from literally everywhere, including different parts of the country and world. Very often, these groups are VASTLY different in culture, how they spend their days, their hobbies & interests, who they vote for, where they pray, etc. It’s my job to take this basket of – er, “collectables,” and give them a highly engaging and impactful group bonding experience, in a relatively short period of time.

I’m here to tell you, it can absolutely be done.

If you take people who would otherwise never have (or want to have) anything to do with one another – hardcore liberals and diehard conservatives, for instance – and put them together, yes, you’re bound to find some friction..if. That is, IF you stir the pot; IF you purposely invite argument and discourse; IF people are made to feel unfairly provoked or outnumbered.

What I’m saying is, you don’t have to do that. Instead of focusing on what obviously divides the group, you do the opposite: try to help them discover what it is about each other that they have in common. I’m not saying this easy, but it’s most definitely possible. In my line of work, focusing on trivia team building, I have the advantage of being able to ask diverse groups of people about pop culture trivia. Pop culture is something that we all know; when put into the form of trivia that’s been carefully crafted and selected for the group in attendance, it’s just awesome to see people of vastly different backgrounds realizing they’ve seen (and love) the same movies and TV shows, listen to the same music, guiltily follow the same celebrity news. When done right, this positive shared experience is buffeted by not just good-natured competition, but tons of laughter as well – which is the REAL secret to getting polarized audiences to bond (for further reading on this, click here).

As we look forward towards the next four years and wonder, “how will we EVER come together as a nation again?” I hope you will keep these lessons I’ve illustrated above in the back of your mind. It’s NOT as impossible as you think for people who disagree to connect – heck, Thanksgiving’s coming up, and I’m certain more than a few of you will be sharing the table with people whom you have intense disagreements with, maybe even despise on some level, but yet still love. Keep the faith, stay positive, and above all maintain an open mind. It may just make the different to you need to enjoy the years ahead not in frustration, but in peace.