UNITING A UNIT
We all work in small teams on small contributions to a large company goal. Ensuring that we are together in this, is vital. Sensing that you belong to the larger group (and its goals) should be equally strong as the connection you build with your day-to-day team. But in today's remote work setting, the larger group connection is missing. How can we bring a unit together?
When I was asked to organize quarterly events for a unit of 125 people, I saw it as an opportunity to create more than alignment on progress and plans. Due to remote working culture, when people meet at the office they often only see their own project team. And since many were hired during COVID they had no clue who else was in our unit. As a result there was little cross-unit collaboration, and no cohesion. For these events I wanted everyone to feel that they belonged also to the larger group. Because such feelings lead to a better, healthier unit, and to better plans.
A mixed planning team
A key choice I made was to form a mixed organizing team. Together we represented most employees in the unit, because we were from PM, Dev and Design. Even though we were just a team of 3 the mix helped to ensure we took the needs of our diverse unit into account.
Contributions from everyone
Instead of doing it all ourselves we asked everyone to contribute. We offered various ways to do so. People could participate through their group presentations. They could suggest which topics should be discussed. They could propose questions for the AskMeAnything with leadership. We also asked people to create fun content for the PubQuiz and the playlist. This way the entire event wasn't a top-down thing. It gave people part ownership and belonging.
Meeting new colleagues
We wanted everyone to meet new colleagues. To prevent that people automatically grouped themselves with familiar people, we mixed them up - in unexpected creative ways. This helped them to make new friends and build new connections across the unit.
Hoodies & cake
We took our 'unite the unit' goal by handing out unit-branded hoodies. That immediately created cohesion when people put them on during the events! Even the cake was branded with our unit's identity, and by eating it we metaphorically came together. Nice extra effect: At other office moments, people started to recognize their unit colleagues by their hoodies.
Creative challenges
Creativity is a valuable quality that all employees benefit from, regardless of their role. But it's also something that you need to train regularly. Mixing creativity training with fun, I invented the Creative Cup Challenge. The challenge varied each time, and the winners got to define the next one. We have folded origami, built marshmallow & spaghetti towers, and egg-drop-containers. The winners also got their photo printed on the next cake.
The results
To measure results we used surveys to gather feedback after each event. People were mostly very positive and asked for a repeat. We took all feedback, both positive and negative, into the plan of the next event.
Other noticeable effects were: Communication and collaboration between teams became more frequent and more diverse. And in general people started to recognize more people and say "Hi!".