3 Things That Kill Office Holiday Parties
It’s holiday party planning season, so it’s time for me to write another article on the annual rite!
By nature of my job as a corporate event entertainer and producer, I’ve had more experience producing office holiday party entertainment than most people. After nearly 20 years of programming these affairs using interactive trivia, I’ve picked up many things about what works – and what doesn’t. While it’s true that every company, group, culture etc. is unique, I feel confident making a few “broad stroke” observations which hopefully will make your upcoming function more successful.
Let’s take a look!
Too Much Structure, Not Enough Socialization
The annual office Christmas party is not merely a way to reward hard-working colleagues with a good time. It’s a vital opportunity for coworkers to let their hair down and interact with each other, without the typical workplace pressures and power struggles. While I love the idea of a structured component for the entire room – a performance, an interactive game, etc. – I advise TrivWorks clients not to make this the entire event. Unlike a corporate trivia team building activity, we want to use this brief time of relaxation for people to mix and mingle, and hopefully get to know one another better. This simply cannot happen if the whole party consists of a meal, speeches/awards and a show.
Think of this as akin to a first date. Which would you choose in order to get to know the other person, seeing a movie or going to bar/coffee shop? The same holds true at a work party. Yes, we want people to have fun and to give them an enjoyable experience. But we want them to have a chance to chat it up as well. For TrivWorks, this realistically means a shorter team trivia competition (if holding one at all), balanced out with more casual engagement formats like roving trivia.
(For more on this, check out “Company Holiday Party Entertainment: Structured, Casual, or Both?”)
Too Many Speeches
This is a nice follow-up to too much structure, because it’s a variation on the same theme. You can’t have a company holiday party without at least one speech, but does EVERYONE have to speak? Do we really need to bring things to a grinding halt to hear from all of the executives, as well as folks who are retiring, celebrating milestones, receiving awards and countless other opportunities to relinquish the floor?
I don’t mean to be a Grinch about this, I really don’t. But from what I’ve observed over nearly two decades of doing this, as well as through my own personal experience, people don’t want to sit through tons of speeches at the party – particularly if many don’t want to be there in the first place. They want to eat, drink, socialize and have fun. I’ve yet to attend one of these things where anyone said, “You know, there weren’t enough speeches..!”
(If you ARE speaking at this year’s event, however, you might enjoy this older post which still holds up, “6 Essentials of the Perfect Office Holiday Party Speech.”)
Not Reading the Room
People look forward to these events, and there’s a lot of anticipation that it will be a fun time. As the planner, you’re no doubt wanting to meet those expectations, even exceed then. So there is a disappointing disconnect on all sides when attendees show up and find that the party isn’t at all what they expected, and the planner is stunned to see unhappy faces. This is primarily due to not reading he room.
What do I mean by this? As event programmers, we often can be blinded by our own preferences: if I like something and think it’s cool, so will everyone else. That’s all well and good, but what if it’s not actually true? What if your audience is hungering for something completely different than what you’re planning? What if they’re tired of the same old format, and want to try something new? Or, conversely, what if they don’t want anything new, and want to keep traditions alive? If you as the planner don’t take the pulse of your event attendees and learn what kind of experience they want, then you run the risk of having your event flop. You’re putting way too much time and effort into this to have that happen – so don’t let it!
One Final Thought
Notice how I did not include “holding the event onsite” as a holiday party killer. That’s because I’ve seen firsthand what a great option this actually is, particularly if there are no viable offsite alternatives. So long as an effort is made to convert the ordinary workplace into something festive/special, with great food, libations and perhaps a high-quality corporate entertainer, there’s no reason an onsite party needs to be a dud.
For further reading, you may enjoy “15 Ways to Ensure Your Company Holiday Party Doesn’t Suck.”