{"id":6325,"date":"2016-03-03T09:38:14","date_gmt":"2016-03-03T09:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.answerconnect.com\/blog\/?p=6325"},"modified":"2023-10-27T08:49:09","modified_gmt":"2023-10-27T08:49:09","slug":"team-building-6000-feet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.answerconnect.com\/blog\/news\/team-building-6000-feet\/","title":{"rendered":"Team Building at 6000 Feet"},"content":{"rendered":"

How to Organize a Team Building Meetup<\/h2>\n

Work doesn\u2019t just happen in the office. And neither does team building.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some of our Portland-area team members headed up to historic Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood to see just how remote we could go. We figured six thousand feet of elevation was a good start!<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Why Meetups Matter<\/span><\/h2>\n

We love remote working. It helps us focus, gives commuting time back to our team (an average of 51 minutes a day) and saves our company money, too. Most of all, remote working reduces our carbon footprint and helps fight climate change. It\u2019s really a win-win-win for the Triple Bottom Line.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Still, we\u2019re human beings. We like meeting up in person sometimes. It just doesn\u2019t have to be every day. In fact, an occasional meetup that is special and memorable\u2014like a trip to the mountain\u2014has lasting benefits. \u201c<\/span>It was wonderful to meet coworkers in person that I’ve only previously had contact with via chats, Skype, Anywhere Works, or Google Hangouts,\u201d says Nichole, who works in our human resources department.<\/span><\/p>\n

How to Plan Your Team Meetup<\/span><\/h2>\n

If you\u2019re part of a remote team (or even if you aren\u2019t), why not try a meetup sometime? Here are a few tips for planning the day:<\/span><\/p>\n

Involve your team<\/h3>\n

Send a quick survey with a few options for date, time, and activity. Giving people a choice of what to do and when to do it increases engagement. We find a simple Google Form to be an easy way to get everyone\u2019s input.<\/span><\/p>\n

Provide transportation<\/span><\/h3>\n

Traveling separately may work for meetups close to home. For longer trips, going together in a rented bus or carpool can be fun and give your team more chances to connect with one another. \u201cThe bus rides were fun and gave me a chance to talk to coworkers I had never met before,\u201d said Toni, one of our associates.<\/span><\/p>\n

For our trip to Timberline, we got a couple of buses from Seat to Summit<\/a> to make getting to the mountain easy for everyone.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Answering<\/a><\/p>\n

Feed the Team<\/span><\/h3>\n

Well-fed employees are happy employees. On our trip to Timberline we enjoyed some delicious kolaches from Happy Sparrow Cafe<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m now obsessed with kolaches!\u201d Toni says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Get Feedback<\/span><\/h3>\n

Like just about any business process, it\u2019s important to measure the success of your meetup. Send another form to ask people what went well, what could have been better, and get their ideas for future meetups! Beyond that, meetups have potential to generate concrete ideas for how to improve your business. By stepping a<\/span><\/p>\n

Building a Team…and an Igloo<\/span><\/h2>\n

Once we were up at the mountain, we offered our team a couple of options. For those comfortable being outside in the snow, we had a great activity planned. The experts from Life-Outside<\/a> showed us how to make an igloo.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Answering<\/a><\/p>\n

Building an igloo is pretty different from our day-to-day activities\u2014that\u2019s part of the point. Asking your team to work together to achieve something they\u2019ve never done before helps build team unity.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI particularly liked seeing everyone sort themselves into positions to help with the building of the igloo,\u201d says Calista, one of our remote team leads. \u201cEveryone found a place to be helpful and make the work go as fast as possible, and I thought that was awesome.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"AnswerConnect<\/a><\/p>\n

Of course, not everyone is up for an outdoor activity like building an igloo. Some of our team chose to stay inside Timberline Lodge<\/a>, the National Historic Landmark built between 1936 and 1938, to play a game of Forbidden Island<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"AnswerConnect<\/a><\/p>\n

Long-Lasting Benefits<\/span><\/h2>\n

Meetups help remote teams (or any team, really) strengthen relationships. The benefits continue after everyone goes back to work. For us, the next goal is to leverage the meetups even more, by facilitating important conversations among our team members. \u201cWe want to <\/span>create dialogue on how we can improve our business,\u201d says Donny, our director of global impact. \u201cWe have people from many different areas talking together some for the first time. It would be nice to find a way to use meetups as a way to communicate with each other on how we can improve as a business or our processes and capture that at the end.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Answering<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How to Organize a Team Building Meetup Work doesn\u2019t just happen in the office. And neither does team building. Some of our Portland-area team members headed up to historic Timberline…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9101,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wl_entities_gutenberg":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"wl_entity_type":[273],"class_list":["post-6325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wl_entity_type-article"],"yoast_head":"\nTeam Building at 6000 Feet - AnswerConnect Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Our Portland-area team took a trip up to Timberline Lodge for some team building. 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