Team Building Event!
Are you looking for a new way to build equity and connections in your team? Continue reading to learn how AnaTheresa Linton, Sr. Success Architect at MURAL recently experimented like an owner (one of MURAL’s core values) and led members of the MURAL CS team through a new and exciting type of team event.
Being part of a distributed team encourages us to get creative with the way we connect. It takes a bit of intentional spontaneity to create the moments we can remember with our colleagues. For those that are nearby we can meet up for coffee, happy hour, even dinner however I wanted to create a team building event that would be inclusive for the whole team, not just those that are co-located. My creative juices started flowing and with a little inspiration from our Slack channels, and a family event I was led to the one thing that always brings people together...FOOD!
In my family, food is what brings us closer as we sit at a big dining room table together for a dinner experience. I call it an experience because we don’t just eat and run. We sit for appetizers, then dinner, then to carry on our conversations while we digest before coffee and dessert. The dinner table and the food on our plate are what spark discussion and connect us on a deeper level.
We spend countless hours a week with our colleagues but do we really know each other? Well, how about we share a meal together and start a conversation? But how can I make that happen from behind a screen, miles away from each other without the need for delivery service or budget approval?
Introducing MURAL ON OUR PLATE - a wild and crazy idea turned into fruition on September 17th and was a successful experiment!
MURAL ON OUR PLATE has a place setting with each team member’s name and a variety of recipe templates to select from, encouraging anyone interested to drop in a favorite family recipe or something they like to cook that could be made in less than an hour with the rest of the team.
After everyone submitted their recipes we held a voting session to determine the winner and then sent out an invite to the team! The winner would host a 60 minute meeting with the team where they would flex their best cooking show acting skills and we would all make the same meal in our own homes to enjoy together or share with our loved ones later. “Pop-Pop’s Crumb Cake” got the most votes and @Dbinder5 (who also runs a food blog on the side) was excited to walk us through how to make her Pop-Pop’s recipe!
Interestingly enough another team at MURAL had been cooking something up themselves and let me experiment in Virbela, a virtual office campus. I was able to decorate Virbela’s auditorium area with posters, recipe instructions, mural links and even broadcast a video Danielle made for us!
This was a nice change of scenery from your standard Zoom happy hour. Not only did we learn something new together as a group, we even had an afterparty at the beach where some broke off into smaller groups to have side conversations and others grabbed a team mate they haven’t met yet and went on a speed boat joy ride!
Overall, my idea became real through some MURAL Magic ✨ and a little creativity. The team loved it and the crumb cake was delicious!
🍴🌏️ Try it with your own team using the template here!
Comments
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This is so creative! Love how you brought it to life one step further with "The winner would host a 60 minute meeting with the team where they would flex their best cooking show acting skills and we would all make the same meal in our own homes to enjoy together or share with our loved ones later."
👏 All the claps!
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I really love this MURAL -- I have a MURAL account. How can I use this template? It only lets me in as a guest with view only capabilities. Thanks so much!!!!
Katie Wimmer
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@KatieWimmer - I didn't think anyone would want to re-use it, I'm honored!! Here is a link to the template version. Feel free to make it your own!
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