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| The "Eternal Flame" in the "Olympic Stadium." |
Just after I started work as Art Director for a national magazine at a company that boasted 500+ employees, the company “Activities Committee” announced registration for the first “Office Olympics.” Not knowing too many people other than my immediate staff, I decided to sign up for the week-long event as a way to meet more people within the company.
“Athletes” who signed up to participate were randomly placed on one of five teams: Blue, Green, Purple, Red and Yellow. This method of team building allowed employees from different departments to meet staff members they might not have the had opportunity to work with otherwise. Rather than pitting the Marketing staff against Maintenance, or an all-male team against an all-female team, there was an even balance of participants across all teams.
Kidding around and laughing during the week, one of the men on my team seemed like “just one of the guys.” It wasn’t until after the final medals ceremony, that someone pointed out this guy was the VP of Accounting. I was mortified! Ack! He saw the “silly side” of me. I cringed as I remembered playfully telling him to “shUH-uUHp!”
My first inclination was to apologize to him for my familiarity toward him. But then, I realized that he was just a regular person like me. His equal treatment of everyone increased my respect for him, as both a person and executive. It made me happy to have landed at a company where people of such caliber were hired.
Opening Ceremony
Events were held during the lunch hour every day for one week. The opening ceremonies were marked with all the pageantry of the “real” Olympics. Including the arrival of the “Olympic Torch” carried in by the company president, who, like me, was just newly hired.
Dressed in a t-shirt, knee-high tube socks, jogging shorts and running shoes, the “torch bearer” ran into the “Olympic Stadium”—also known as the cafeteria—and to the delight of the crowd gathered there, made one complete lap around the room. Cheers resonated through the office halls as she “lit” the “Olympic Flame” in the center of the atrium declaring that the games were officially open. I loved walking through the cafeteria during the week and seeing the “Eternal Flame”, a silent tribute to teamwork and camaraderie.
On that first day, introductions were made, teams were announced and rules were read. The teams were given time to relegate events to each member and to discuss possible strategies.
Scheduled activities included: The Floppy Disk Throw, Recycled Paper Regatta, Accounting/Warehouse/Shipping Triathlon, World Travel Race, and the Maintenance/Test Kitchen Relay. The results of each event were recorded on an official score board posted in the center of the “Olympic Stadium.”
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| Green, Red and Purple teams cheer for their teammates. |
Held outdoors and in the grassy area beyond the back parking lot, the Floppy Disk throw required two members from each team to throw a computer floppy disk further than their competitors. The greater throw between the two teammates would be recorded as the official result for their team. Some variables came into play making this event harder than it sounded. Gusts of wind could alter the flight path of the lightweight disk. Not to mention that square floppies are not aerodynamically designed.
Heading back inside, contestants gathered for the Around-the-World Traveler Relay which represented the sister-company’s travel business. The objective was for each team to dress one teammate as a tourist. At one of the “Olympic Stadium”, stood one team member on a box. At the sound of the starting whistle, team members ran one-by-one to their teammate on the box and dressed them with travel accessories such as camera bags, hats and sunglasses, rain coats, Hawaiian leis and other things. The team to completely dress their teammate in the least amount of time would win the event.
The Olympic Spirit was every where. 11” x 17” posters promoting one team or another began popping up on bulletin boards in break rooms and inside restroom stalls. All over the building, friendly competition was in abundance. Energized with team spirit after that first day of competition, I made red pennant flags on sticks to support my team: “The Big Red Machine.” I made sure that I had something red to wear every day. I even dug my old high school cheerleader shoes and mega-phone from the back of my closet.
Although I was not the captain of our team, I sent emails to my team members with mini-pep talks. Every morning I reminded them what event was scheduled that day and encouraged those not participating that day to attend and cheer for their teammates. At the end of the day, our team captain would email everyone, with a summary of the day’s event, and reporting our team’s progress. The emailed messages encouraged friendly banter among us and helped build unity in our team even though we worked in different parts of the building.
Second Day of Competition
The Recycled Paper Regatta was a timed two-man event. The first person folded an origami boat out of recycled office paper. The second person placed the boat in a designated rain-gutter filled with water and propelled the craft from one end to the other, without touching it. In preparation for the event, teams were allowed to practice folding the boats.
While most teams propelled their paper boat with “lung-power”, one team came prepared with a battery-operated hand-held personal fan. There was no rule against this, and as long as a player did not touch the boat with his or her hands, it was fair. It was “out of the box” thinking at its best.
The Regatta played out rather quickly as the fan-propelled boat came in first. There was excited buzz about the close race for second and third place as the spectators and teams began to disperse.
Then I noticed that the first member for the Yellow team was still struggling to fold a boat. I stood on a chair above the crowd and started chanting, “Yell-ow. Yell-ow.”
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| Loud and Proud: The Big Red Machine |
Thinking that Human Resources would not take too kindly to me standing on the furniture in the workplace, I looked around the cafeteria. Instead of disapproving glances from HR personnel, I saw other the team’s members begin to realize that the event was not yet over. One by one, the others began to gather again, and join in: “Yell-ow! Yell-ow!”
Finally the “Yellow” boat was built and placed in the water. “Yell-ow!! Yell-ow!!” Huffing and puffing, the Yellow team member blew the boat inch by inch down the gutter. Diners in the cafeteria were startled with wonder when the room erupted in a loud roar of cheers as the little “Yellow” boat reached the finish line. That was the beginning of real competitive spirit.
The Spirit Stick
At the end of each day, one team earned the right to display the “Spirit Stick”. A simple broom-stick handle decorated with brightly colored streamers, the “Spirit Stick” was awarded to the team that demonstrated the most team spirit. Although our team began the cheer for “Team Yellow”, we were not awarded the “Stick” that afternoon. At that point, my “Red” teammates made it their goal to win that “Spirit Stick”. It was a goal that was achieved on the third day of the games. I was honored by my teammates when they declared that the “Stick” should be displayed in my cubicle.
The basic concept of the Office Olympic games was to reflect the strengths and specialties of the employees. At that time, our company flourished as a full-function facility, housing everything from a national call-center, and catalog warehouse fulfillment and distribution center, to marketing and publication production, all under one roof.
The Accounting/Warehouse/Distribution Triathlon represented those departments by first requiring teams to process a customer order for billing, locate an item for packaging, and then package it for shipping, in the most accurate and fastest time. It was a great way to learn what our coworkers in other departments did forty hours a week. Those who actually worked in those departments were FAST!
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| Little cakes...my favorite! |
Final Day of Competition
The final event was Maintenance/Test Kitchen Field Event was a timed tag-team event that featured a one-man “Nail and Hammer” event and the frosting and eating of a small cake by a pair of teammates. I was part of that tandem team. After our teammate hammered 6 nails into a board, my partner and I had to dress in a baker’s uniform. Placing my hands behind my back, my teammate slipped her hands forward through my arms. Her hands became my hands, and guided only by my verbal instructions, she had to frost a small cake, and then feed it to me.
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| Little cakes...mphff ffphvvvrttt! |
I like cake. If I could eat cake every day, I would. So I thought quickly eating a small cake should be, well, “a piece of cake.” But it wasn’t as easy as one might think, especially when another person is blindly stuffing it up your nose, and you’re both laughing.
All week, our team was running neck-and-neck for the Gold with another team. I did not win my event, but the points we received helped advance my team.
The Medals Ceremony
I had some difficulty sleeping the night before the Medals Ceremony. It was too close to call which team would win the Gold. The next day, at the presentation, every team member received a certificate of participation, and a gift bag. The Fourth and Fifth place winners were acknowledged and cheered. Then Barb Newton, the president of the company, placed a “Bronze Medal” with a ribbon on the neck of each member of the team that came in Third place.
It was down to the Purple Team and the Red Team. When the winner of the “Silver Medal” was announced, a loud cheer rocked the cafeteria. It did not immediately register in my mind that “The Big Red Machine” had won Gold until my teammates began jumping up and down and hugging one another. We waited patiently as the Purple Team received their medals. Then, with a congratulatory handshake, the company president awarded each of my teammates Gold medals.
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| Spirit Award Recipient draws the first name for the raffle. |
The First Place team members also received small figurines depicting various “office gods”. I received a statue of “Deliverus”, the mythological office god of communication who delivers mail, packages, email and instant messages. He is depicted as a mail-toting messenger with winged hat and feet riding the back of an eagle.
Following the Medals Ceremony, a special award was given to the individual participant who most embodied the ideal employee attitude. Roy Reiman, the founder of the company, made the presentation, saying he was proud to award the “Most Spirited Athlete” to an employee who was “a relative newcomer to the company.” My coworkers cheered as he announced my name. He shook my hand and said with a great smile, “Congratulations, you should be especially proud.” Ten years later, when I remember that honor, I still think, ‘Wow!’
Additional raffles and door prizes were handed out to participants and spectators alike. Then the Eternal Flame was extinguished, and the games of the first Office Olympics were closed.
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| The Champions of the first Office Olympic Games. |
The Olympic Spirit
Everyone went back to work but the Olympic spirit lingered for days afterward. The biweekly employee newsletter reported the official results of the Office Olympics. When asked for my thoughts on “team spirit”, I quoted the opening sentence in Rick Warren’s best-selling book, The Purpose Driven Life: “It’s not about you.”
I didn’t win that Gold all by myself. I was part of a team in which each person brought some value and skill to the playing field and was regarded as an equal. Not only did we enjoy our teammates, but we enjoyed the friendly competitiveness of the other teams. For seven years, seven months and seven days, that gold medal hung in my cubicle as a daily reminder that.
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| Symbols of Olympic Victory and Spirit. |
For all the extra-curricular activities that week, the employee production level did not wane. No one seemed to mind putting in a few extra hours for the sake of team-building. Many lasting friendships were forged over the course of the competition. And valuable lessons were learned by everyone. I continue to apply three basic principles from the Office Olympics to my career: Be Productive. Nurture your Network. Enjoy the Moment.
Those principles can be applied to everyday life, too, and that is a truth that is as good as gold.
Inspired by the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia.
