With two separate offices and remote workers, sometimes we can feel a little disconnected as a team. So we make an extra effort to come together as a team, from smaller gestures such as decorating the office for birthdays, to bigger gestures like flying team members in to be together for other outings and our annual holiday party.
- Annual Holiday Party
It’s our favorite tradition and the most anticipated event of the year for the Kinetic team. We spend the day participating in festive team building activities, like holiday BINGO, a white elephant gift exchange, an ugly Christmas sweater competition, and new office games each year. Then in the evening, the teams returns to the office dressed to the nines and ready for some seriously delicious food (catered by Empyrean Events and Catering) and fun. We bring in a photo booth, raffle off some amazing gifts, and end the night with conference room karaoke. It’s an entire day/night dedicated to spending time as a team, making memories together, and celebrating the year.
- Escape Room
Participating in Escape Rooms allows us to work with our teammates to reach an objective that isn’t work-related—and is very time-sensitive. It’s always interesting to see peoples’ personalities and skills come to life in a non-work environment. It’s also just a lot of fun, and we find ourselves talking about the puzzles we could/couldn’t tackle for weeks to come.
- Food Truck Thursdays
From June-August in Fort Wayne, a dozen or more food trucks line up on Thursday afternoons in a plaza just a few blocks from our downtown office. The selection varies by week, but you can expect to see trucks from Affine, Bravas, Mocha Lounge, Sol Kitchen, Pizza Bomba, Vietnummy, Who Cut the Cheese?, and more. The team looks forward to Thursdays, and it gives us a chance to step outside of the office environment and normal work-related conversations, enjoy the beautiful sunshine (most days), and support some of Fort Wayne’s local businesses.
- Happy Hour
Fridays at the end of the day, we receive a company-wide message on Slack, prompting us to “crack open a beer” or “shake our martini.” Sometimes we bust out the cornhole boards, while other Fridays, we might play Cards Against Humanity (or other games), spend the hour tasting cheese, or simply gathering around and hanging out. It’s a great way to end our week.
- March Madness Bracket
There are admittedly only a few team members who can say they know much about basketball, but we all participate in a bracket, anyway! It’s nice to have a little friendly competition in the office, and it gives us a little something different to talk about for the month of madness. This year, we awarded the champion with a blinged medal!
- Pedal City
This bike pub crawl was pretty much exactly as it sounds: a bunch of us pedaling this “bar on wheels” at a crawling pace to some of our favorite local downtown bars, like Henry’s and The Deck. It was a hot one, and the Indiana heat was blazing, but it was still a ton of fun to have this unique experience with the team!
- Scavenger Hunt
We’re pretty big on themes around here, so our scavenger hunts usually have themes, as well, such as exploring downtown, or holiday festivities. We divide into small teams and see who can complete the tasks the fastest—with creative photos documenting the tasks earning bonus points, of course! We get pretty competitive, and looking at the pictures everyone submitted afterward is a good time in itself.
- Solar Eclipse Outing
It was quite the last-minute scramble, but by dividing and conquering—and demonstrating the true meaning of teamwork—we were able to find solar eclipse glasses for the entire team (after a few stops, a couple very long lines, and several phone calls).
- Soundtrack to Ulysses’ Life
If you’ve read our other posts, you may recall that our unicorn mascot’s name is Ulysses (short for Lord Ulysses the Unicorn of Fort Millayne). We have a Slack channel dedicated to submitting songs for our playlist to Ulysses’ life. According to our current playlist, which features songs such as “Don’t Stop Believin’,” “Welcome to the Jungle,” “Raise Your Glass,” and “Happy,” Ulysses is a pretty upbeat, happy-go-lucky guy who likes to have a good time. We throw this playlist on shuffle during Happy Hour, setting a positive tone, laughter, and great conversation about who chose songs and why.
- Team Lunches & Dinners
Whether it’s celebrating a birthday or trying out a new restaurant, we love getting out of the office to celebrate or experience something new together.
- Themed Celebrations
Everyone’s birthday celebration has a theme and consists of a birthday sign on the front desk, accessories for the entire team to participate in the theme (such as hats, necklaces, etc.), a decorated office space, a birthday banner, a special birthday treat, and sometimes even a piñata. The themes are always unique to the birthday guy/gal—and a surprise until they show up at the office on the morning of their special day! Themed celebrations are a fun and simple way to get the team involved and boost morale in the office. It also takes teamwork to pull off some of our more elaborate themes!
- Tincaps Game
Another fun summer team outing is attending a Tincaps game. This last summer, we rented a space and invited families and guests to join in on the festivities. We had great seats during the game, food and drink to enjoy, and got to see the fireworks at the end of the night. Sometimes it’s a nice little spin to be able to include families and guests in Kinetic’s team outings!
- Wine Tasting at Wine Down or Grapevine
Both of our offices are short distances from some great wine tasting opportunities—so we definitely take advantage of those opportunities! Our offices are full of foodies and wine-lovers, so this one was a must on our list. Wine, cheese, sweets, a happy team and a good time—what more could we ask for from a team building activity?
