Getting Introverts to Unwind at Work X-Mas Party?

pongo asks: "My department has a large population of introverts, as confirmed by Meyers-Briggs testing. Somehow I was suckered into planning a holiday party with another department that suffers similiar symptoms. Any suggestions on ways (themes, decorations, food choices, games, etc) to encourage light banter and to get people meeting each other, which would make this party a big success? The party will be during business hours and alcohol is allowed." The key here is making a comfortable atmosphere where everyone can unwind and feel comfortable with meeting each other. What ways do you know of to encourage this kind of atmosphere?

the animal game

[ThePilgrim]

Preperation:

Get a long role of sticky labels
On enougth labels for one each of the guests write the name of a diffrent animal

As each guest arrives stick a label on their back and tell them they have to find out the name of their animall.

The other rules
Yoy cant tell somone the name of their animal directely.

You can ask any other question about your animal.

Throwing a successful party

[COBOL/MVS]

My company (an IT consulting/staffing firm) throws very successful parties.
Some of the things that make the party successful:

1. Lots of food. Not just any food, but good, high-quality food. The philosophy is that food relaxes you. Things like Shrimp, fried things (chicken wings, chipoltas, etc.), veggies, fruit, cookies--comfort food.
   
2. A bar with everything. Mixed drinks, beer, soda, water, whatever.
   
3. People greeting you at the door with a huge smile. Even if it isn't sincere, it can be very effective in getting people to relax and feel comfortable.
   
4. Good party music. Hire a good DJ with a decent sound system. It's good if the DJ doesn't get too involved in the party; too many games may scare off some of the introverts.
   
5. The most important thing to getting people to relax and open up is to invite upper management to the party. If they're personable folk, they'll mingle and enjoy the party too. Our upper management always attends all of our company
   parties, wherever they are in the country.
   

One caveat is that you need to be prepared to spend a lot of money. You do these things and I guarantee you that everyone will open up and let their hair down.

Re:Leave us alone!

[SuiteSisterMary]

Yup. Ditto. Second. If I wanted to spend time with you, I would. I'm sure you've either made it clear that a) you're available for such things if I so desire or b) you'd do it out of pity. But no thanks. Oh, and if YOU think that's 'anti-social' or 'a piss-poor attitude' or 'not a team player' than you've got far more problems with social interaction than I ever will. :-)

eye candy, lighting, seats, and some alcohol

[willhelm]

Serve alcohol--not so much to get people wasted, but to take the edge off.

Get one of the projectors from marketing, hook it up to a laptop with a serious 3d video card, and do the tunes with Winamp or some other player that has the ability for visual plug-ins like Geiss or something pretty that people can literally just stare at.

And get rid of the flourescent lights. Do some other lighting so people can see other people's faces, but aren't exposed to blaring light irritation.

Provide seating to. Most introverts I know are pretty non-excited about their bodies and feel awkward standing up which just causes them to be more shy than usual.

Don't run around telling people to have fun because it's a company party--that's just irritating.

Great Egg Race

[Rupert]

a.k.a. Junkyard Wars, a.k.a. The Ultimate Architect.

So, there were a few hundred geeks in Las Vegas last week for Windows Embedded DevCon. Thursday night was the XP Embedded launch party. The musical act was Credence Clearwater Revisited, with warm-up provided by the product manager's band. Sounds terrible, right?

Wrong. Because in one corner of the room, 10 teams of 4 geeks each were frantically collecting parts to build a device capable of transporting a full glass of beer across a flat 10 meter track. That was the most fun I've ever had at a work-related party.

Here's my recipe:
Pick your objective. It should be acheiveable, but challenging;
Give each team the absolute essentials (wheel, motors);
Put everything else (mix up Meccano, Lego, string, glue, bits of plumbing, stuff) on a big table in the middle, and keep it covered until the starting whistle blows;
Three hours seems about the right length of time. Adjust if your objective is particularly challenging;
Make sure someone is keeping the teams fed and watered;
Encourage strained interpretations of the rules (e.g. string can be used as a guidance system, but not as propulsion);
Award several prizes (fastest; best design; most colorful and so on)

Another "non-team" game...

[cr0sh]

I once worked at a small "mom-and-pop" style development house. Our office was situated in a small complex, on the second floor. The first floor of the complex was unused. For a couple of years while I was there, for Christmas we would open up that bottom floor (it was used for storage by the company), and have the party there.

Since there was no walls, etc inside, and a concrete floor - damn near anything could be done. We set up a dart board, food, etc - but the fun thing we would play was this funky little R/C car game.

At one time, these cars were made as a kit of four cars, but I would imagine enterprising geeks could build their own system. Essentially, each car was controlled by a person, goals were set up, and boundries were set, and there was a ball - the goal? Get the ball into a goal, and score a point. The cars ate batteries like popcorn, but simply buying a ton of batteries would keep everything going for a long time.

Today, I don't know if you can get cars, but you can get the cheap and cheesy retail "battlebots" sold at places like Walgreen's - these are radio controlled (or IR) that could be had fun with, too...

DOs and DONTs

[weave]

As an introvert at heart, especially at parties, let me list the DOs and DONTs that have impressed upon me from other parties I've been at. Some of these are repeats that others have said, so consider it a reinforcement of their ideas to. (This assumes a company function and due to timing, I'd say Christmas party.)

DONTs

• Don't talk about work problems. Talking shop among peers is fine, but damn, I hate it when people come up to me at a party and discuss their computer problems.
• Don't force people into social or team building activities. Maybe my idea of a good time is to just relax and sit around. I get enough stress during a work day. I don't want to worry about if I'm playing some stupid game correctly.
• Play music, but try to be a bit creative. If I hear "Celebration" one more time I will go postal. I also hate those typical line-dancing songs but a lot of people seem to enjoy them so I don't mind, but don't make me do it too. "Come on, everyone come learn how to do the line dance for..." Also, vary the music some. At parties our SGA run for students, they *ONLY* play rap music. Black rap music. And finding unobjectionable rap music means all the good shit isn't played. I don't mind rap, but play a little something for everyone, OK? (As for rap, I'd love to hear someone play Limp Bizkit's uncensored Break Stuff but I'm not holding out any hope. Hmm, or "N 2 Gether Now" would be perfect... STFU!).

DOs

• High-end administrative staff changes roles. They serve food, drinks, wait on people, even do trash runs.
• Play music, but see above.
• Dim lighting
• Don't make a dress code. Yeah, have seen this.
• Unstructured.
• If I want to leave it shouldn't be made difficult (block alternative exits) or deterred by having some VP or similar greeting people as they come and go.
• Food and lots of different food. Have Dominos make runs every 10 minutes even (and don't forget to tip them well damn it). Have lots of places to sit to eat it. It's impossible to hold a plate, a drink, and consume them while standing. (At one large employee function I went to, the local pizza chain, Grottos, has a tractor trailer that goes to large events and makes and serves real fresh pizza from it. Wow, that was a geek dream come true.)
• NOT MANDATORY. If I don't want to come, that's my business.
• No name tags. These are especially insultive when they pre-print them with all employee names and if your name isn't picked up, your supervisor asks you the next day why you didn't go and forces you to fill out a leave form. Name tags when used like this are so obviously an attendance device that it just causes massive resentment.
• No administrative speeches. No formal thank you for a job well done speeches. These often fall into administrators also thanking each other for their leadership, patting each other on the back, etc, etc... I get that all year long, I don't need it at a function allegedly for the employee's enjoyment.

Better yet, forget the entire idea. If a company wants to wish employees a happy Christmas for example, use the money and give them an extra day off so they can spend it with people they really care about... And do it on Dec 26, not the 24th or 23rd, else we'll just spend it at the Mall. Many countries have Boxing Day, the U.S. needs it too!