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Team Building Ideas
Part of my position at the law firm I work for is handling all the HR issues. It seems like over the past few months a civil war has broke out in our office between the 3rd floor employees and the 2nd floor employees.
The 3rd floor houses our litigation practice and the 2nd floor is our appellate practice group and our criminal defense practice group. We have issues everyday with people from opposite floors talking bad about each other, spreading rumors, sabotaging, backstabbing...you name it it's happening. It's like two high school rival cliques and it's becoming a serious issue.
I had a meeting yesterday with the Managing Attorney and one of the Senior Partners about it and was informed that the 2nd floor people think I'm allied with the 3rd floor so they aren't even comfortable coming to me with issues. We need to put a stop to this now.
Does anyone have any good ideas for team building and bringing the two floors together? We will always have a little division because of the physical separation, but we need to be united as one firm. I don't know if it matters but we have 9 attorneys, 7 support staff people, and 4 interns. Thank you!
Re: Team Building Ideas
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A few years ago our department did a team building exercise. (there is about 30 of us), and I will tell you it made a difference. (I think). We were paired into groups of 6, (we were paired with someone we don't normally work with) and the object of the exercise was to get a popcorn filled tin (think coffee tin) inside of another bucket without tipping it over.
The rules were, we had 2 hoses (sorry i'm not savy on bicycle lingo) from bicycle tires, a piece of rope (not sure of the size), could not step on the tarp (which was 5x5 or 6x6), and no leaning over using your hands. You could only use what was provided. It was on a time limit, but it was interesting to see everyone pull together, and you figured out where the communication breakdown was.
I really enjoyed it. So long story short, is there a way to do some type of teambuilding exercise between the 2 floors, but use mixed groups?
We'll just not tell H about this little fact, m'kay?
I like kaesha's idea!
At my old engineering firm we would hold lunchtime cookouts to try to get everyone out of their offices. We also did beer 30 @ 4:30 most Fridays. In the summer sometimes those would turn into ice cream social type deals for those who didn't drink.
We also use to have "friendly" competitions, put put golf, tricycle races around the parking lot. Once a year we would go on a company fishing trip.
We had the same division issue in our firm due to two different engineering disciplines and support staff and getting them out and together really seemed to help.
Good Luck!
Thanks Kat! I love the idea of doing something physical and mixing up the employees! I'm glad to hear you had fun doing it too!
I like it!
If they are going to act like little kids they should get a time out!
Love the prize idea!
Ooohh I really like the drinking and ice cream ideas!
Did you pair the drinking with the tricycle races? That would be hilarious...who wouldn't have a good time and get along at a drunken tricycle race?
Put Put golf and the tricycle races were on Friday afternoons and included a little alcohol. The golf we set up around the office and used one of the fisher price golf sets.
I don't remember all the details, but I know we got to throw water balloons at the 3 partners onetime, I think it had something to do with billable hours and productivity.
I do team building with teens all the time, I don't think that they will translate well for adults. I really encourage ice breakers and maybe a way for everyone to relate to each other.
I'm not sure what your budget is, but I've done team building at ropes courses before. It's a great way to get out of the office and spend time with people you might not otherwise.
Also, I'm not sure what the CLE requirements are in your state, but if there is a way to involve everyone and make it interactive, that might be a good idea and everyone will go because they have to do CLE anyway.