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Tech Team Traditions? 173

Posted by Cliff from the team-bonding-activities dept.
Antigua Nice asks: "I have recently been promoted to manager of a young IT department and would like to introduce a tradition and/or mascot for the upcoming season. Although we are busy 24/7/365 we are especially busy during the NFL season since we are a sports related company. The goal of this is to add some excitement to the new team, unite the members and keep department moral high. It might also be worth mentioning that I have recently added two more administrators to the team. If you currently have any department traditions or know of any, could you please take a moment to share them with me. They could be anything from going out for beer and wings after the first game to each member bleaching their hair. Any and all input is welcome."
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Tech Team Traditions? More

Tech Team Traditions?

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  • Don't just pick one (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 09, 2004 @10:44PM (#10209099)
    The worst experiences I've had are when someone tries to artificially create a tradition and force it on everyone. The best traditions develop naturally. Try a few things, see if they work/people like them/they catch on.

    • Re:Don't just pick one (Score:5, Funny)

      by MarsDefenseMinister ( 738128 ) <dallapieta80@gmail.com> on Friday September 10, 2004 @10:29AM (#10212372) Homepage Journal
      Right, that's like picking your own nickname. When I was in college, my suitemate decided to give himself a nickname. One day, he said "call me Jizz". Of course we agreed.

      The stupid fucker had no idea what "Jizz" meant though, and just heard it somewhere and thought it sounded cool.

      There's a rule: you can't ever pick your own nickname.

      • You can pick your own nickname, it just backfires terribly :) I write music, and the "stage name" I thought up was "Omegadan". Back in college, I started using my band website email for all my business. Pretty soon my friends, professors and my employer were all calling me "Omegadan" or "OD".

        Ok, so fast forward two years. I'm at a good friends wedding reception, a lavish affair with about 300 people in an upscale resturant which has been rented in its entirety. After dinner they do the boquet toss, a

    • The worst experiences I've had are when someone tries to artificially create a tradition and force it on everyone.

      Absolutely! I remember this one twitchy manager that was trying to boost team morale. He decided we would all take turns bringing donuts to the meeting at 10:30AM. Well me and my buddy refused to participate because we always went to lunch at 11:30AM. The guy nearly went postal on us. And he wondered why his team had problems...
      • Food-related rituals generally suck. Why do they have to involve crap you shouldn't eat? Never eat a donut. If you're willing to shorten your life by ingesting some big gobbet of sugar and fat that puts you into an insulin coma, eat good tiramisu or something.

  • Just watch... (Score:3, Funny)

    by HotNeedleOfInquiry ( 598897 ) on Thursday September 09, 2004 @10:47PM (#10209123)
    American Hotrod and try some variations. I like the funnel-down-the-pants one.

  • Bonzo, the clown. (Score:3, Funny)

    by Xaviar21 ( 790883 ) on Thursday September 09, 2004 @10:47PM (#10209128)
    I work for a tech support office that handles several sites across the state... We have a "Bonzo the clown" in the tech Van... Whenever all four of us go on a trip (usually just me.. but sometimes we take a trip), one of my coworkers, the responsible one, usually tries to plan things out in the vehicle, to make sure everything'll go smoothly when we get there. My boss, however, is a bit more immature. Whenever my coworker tries to do this, my boss picks Bonzo off the dash, waves it at her, and repeats "BONZO'S NOT LISTENING!!" over and over. Kind of a mascot, and kind of a tradition.

  • Hot CheerLeaders (Score:5, Funny)

    by BladeMelbourne ( 518866 ) on Thursday September 09, 2004 @10:52PM (#10209165)
    Have hot cheerleader mascots. Keep them under your desk (pref @ groin level). Naturally, cheer leaders must try out... and you are the manager.

    This will not only raise moral but raise nerdy appendages.

    You may have to resort to the blow up kind if your department is ultra-nerdy ;-)
  • I guarentee somone will officially name a child after their favorite sports team. I can see it now:
    "Hello little girl, what is your name?"
    "Steelers 'I hate my father' Smith"

  • Hawaiian Shirt day (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Kevin Stevens ( 227724 ) <kevstev@gmail . c om> on Thursday September 09, 2004 @11:01PM (#10209230)
    "Oh, and next Friday...is Hawaiian shirt day...so, you know,
    if you want to you can go ahead and wear a Hawaiian shirt and jeans."

    Seriously... traditions aren't made, they happen. If you want to make one happen, I recommend maybe starting with a bi-weekly happy hour or poker night, or something similarly social along those lines, possibly subsidized by the company.
    • ...starting with a bi-weekly happy hour or poker night...

      Essentially, anytime guys sit around, drink and talk about women, eventually a tradition will sprout. All the best traditions involve some combination of one or more of these three.

      --trb

    • Re:Hawaiian Shirt day (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Kevin Stevens ( 227724 ) <kevstev@gmail . c om> on Friday September 10, 2004 @10:37AM (#10212471)
      I just thought of a few more that have worked at past and current companies...

      Monthly birthday cakes for workers- essentially a monthly friday break for 15 minutes. It was a nice touch that we all appreciated.

      Pizza Fridays. Everyone gets together in the conference room or kitchen and eats pizza (on the company) Again, one of those real nice touches whose benefits far outweigh the cost.

      Beer/Wine Friday's. Everyone brings in a few beers or a bottle of wine (make sure the managers shell out for good stuff) and everyone tries them out in a blind test and rates them. Of course, do this around 4:30 on a Friday.

      Hazing of new guys. Every business has its own language that can be exploited for great fun to everyone else. For example, here at my finance company, junior guys are often told to run upstairs and get a box of "odd lots" when they are starting out (odd lots are merely stock orders that are not divisible by 100). Of course they go to the tipped off guy upstairs and then are sent to some other department, while everyone is trying their hardest to keep a straight face, and then rinse and repeat. Yeah it embarasses the hell out of them, but its one of those locker room things that also says "hey youre one of us now"

      Hazing of managers. Much rarer, but at some friend's companies they would at times play tricks on the manager. Most were typical vaseline on the phone type pranks, but one in particular that I found funny was that they locked his office door one morning when they knew he would be late, and put a sign on it to meet with an HR person that agreed to go along with it in the conference room. She met him in there with a scowl and then made a fake call to security and told him to wait in there while she returned. They let him sweat in there for a few minutes until they let him know it was a joke.

      Alot of people dismissed the idea of Lan games and happy hours as exclusive to some, but teams are diverse, and no matter what you do, someone is not going to be interested. If they choose not to participate, then so be it.
      • Alot of people dismissed the idea of Lan games and happy hours as exclusive to some, but teams are diverse, and no matter what you do, someone is not going to be interested. If they choose not to participate, then so be it.

        Just don't choose something that is going to exclude someone - like beer & wine day. If you want everyone to go out for drinks, fine. But for those of us who don't drink for religious, personal, or medical reasons, don't deliberately build it around alcohol ("oh, you don't drink
        • I'd generalise this advice beyond the alcohol issue: make sure your "team building" activities really do try to include the whole team. If someone's not interested in participating, that's one thing, but if it's something they (for whatever reason) can't participate in, it can backfire.

          I've seen things like: going out for coffee together one morning a week (when one guy's shift starts at noon), doing a Christmas gift exchange of some kind (when one guy is a Jehovah's Witness), and having social events fo

    • Re:Hawaiian Shirt day (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anne_Nonymous ( 313852 ) on Friday September 10, 2004 @11:18AM (#10212926) Homepage Journal
      Try "no outsourcing Friday", employees love shit like that.

  • WTF (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 09, 2004 @11:03PM (#10209239)
    Ok, that's enough. I'm dropping Ask Slashdot from home page preferences again. Who let the MBAs in the room anyway?

  • Perpetual hazing (Score:5, Funny)

    by MarkusQ ( 450076 ) on Thursday September 09, 2004 @11:09PM (#10209287) Journal

    ...I have recently added two more administrators...
    One perinial favorite is "perpetual hazing" of administrators (or sales droids, if your team is fortunate enough to have access to some). Nothing brings a team together like having a common interest in tormenting someone who isn't part of the team.

    Be careful when setting bounds though. For example, back in the late 70's (before I knew better) one of my rules was

    No live poultry
    which seemed clear, simple, and to the point--until you realize that you're dealing with bright, highly competative people who deal with complext rule systems all day, and are trained to look for security holes. The revised version,
    No live or recently live poultry
    worked a little bit better, but (perhaps because they'd seen me flinch), the team realized that hazing your manager is even more fun than hazing sales droids. It took almost a month to get their focus back on the sales department where it belonged.

    -- MarkusQ

    P.S. Important note: never haze anyone who makes your travel arrangements.

  • Maybe it's just me... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jcwren ( 166164 ) on Thursday September 09, 2004 @11:10PM (#10209292) Homepage

    ... but I've always hated garbage like that. I go to work to work. I see these people 8 hours a day. I don't want to see them before work, or after work (well, except a select few who are friends).

    The whole 'team' word is over used, and in my mind, reeks of management-itis. OK, there may be companies where teams mean something. The companies I've worked for, it's just that: work. Most people don't want to be there any longer than they have to.

    When I worked at Hayes, our boss used to try to put together things, like after work outings, as a reward. You want to reward me? Let me leave early. I have a life (as far as being a geek goes). I have projects at home, cars to tinker on, software to write, dogs to play with, rocks to climb, etc.

    We used to have company mandated meetings. It's amazing how many you can not show up to (like, say, 100%), and still not get fired. Apparently, my skills as a programmer are worth more than really pissing me off by writing me up or some other BS for not showing up.

    And don't confused this with being a "team player". You can be a team player and still not be a "team".

    I finally solved this problem a few years ago. I am an insultant. I work from home 99.44% of the time. I have my dog at my feet, my 'fridge 15 feet away, and no one cares if you wear slippers to work. Oh yea, and I save about $800 a year in gas.

    • It might be you (Score:3, Interesting)

      by jobugeek ( 466084 )
      I followed the same path. I worked for a smaller company($150M sales) and while I didn't know everyone, the IT dept was fairly close. We had a dept golf outing a couple times, or some of us had a couple after work.

      It sounds like people you worked with either weren't worth being friends with or you were too busy being anti-social.

      Now that I work from home, I admit I enjoy the lax attitude I can take at home, but I do miss sometimes the comrodary(sp?) of working with people you like.

    • Re:Maybe it's just me... (Score:4, Informative)

      by nusratt ( 751548 ) on Friday September 10, 2004 @02:11AM (#10210195) Journal
      "I am an insultant."

      I don't doubt it for a second. ;-)
  • ...are usually layoff or paycut related. That, or outsourcing, thats a morale booster nowadays.

  • Dear Mr. Nice (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Compuser ( 14899 ) on Thursday September 09, 2004 @11:26PM (#10209403)
    It is apparent that you have become a full-blown
    PHB and are out of touch. You want team tradition?
    Make it beer Thursdays, or better yet, Fridays
    free at 4 pm tradition. Even if you choose to do
    nothing good for your employees, please refrain
    from doing some lame puppet as morale booster.
    Take the money you'd spend on a puppet and give to
    employees (even if it's a cent per head). Show that
    you care about real people, otherwise start a
    tradition of posting a Dilbert cartoon on your door
    every day.

    • Re:Dear Mr. Nice (Score:3, Insightful)

      by bergeron76 ( 176351 ) *
      We do this at the company I work for. We have a "beer fridge" and the newest employee has to keep it stocked (until he's no longer 'newest') [expensed of course]. It's a great relief to be able to talk business with people at 4-5pm toward the end of the week over a few beers.

      It's an ever better feeling knowing that your employer respects your judgement enough to know that you won't abuse the privilege(s) he/she extends to you.

      • That's funny - cause it is true. The company I was happiest working for had a 'beer fridge' and they even respected the request list when filling it. I knew I was going to be happy there and I didn't even drink beer (single malt scotch yes, beer no.)
        God I miss that company.

  • Tradition seems a bit much (Score:4, Insightful)

    by quantax ( 12175 ) on Thursday September 09, 2004 @11:30PM (#10209421) Homepage
    I work at a pretty small advertising company, and while we have no traditions, we love nothing more than to kick back at 5pm once the day is over and all enjoy a couple beers on the roof (we're lucky enough to have a top office in a building in NYC) and talk about business, life, and so on. If the next day is probably going to be slow, maybe head down to the local bars for more drinks, no one has to go if they dont want to. Admitably, its a small group which helps its intimacy, but traditions seem a bit silly unless theyre started naturally, and smack of artificiality. I prefer the 'Hey, we're heading down to the bar for some drinks, wanna come?' to some official company thing arranged in advance.

  • First rule: Don't. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by cperciva ( 102828 ) on Thursday September 09, 2004 @11:39PM (#10209470) Homepage
    Second rule (for advanced readers): Don't, unless you can find something which absolutely everybody will enjoy.

    Buy everyone beer? What about the guy who doesn't drink (either by choice, or for medical reasons)?
    Take everyone to the football game? What about the guy who doesn't like football, or the guy who has to stay home to look after his kids?
    Throw a really expensive Christmas party? What about the people who don't celebrate Christmas, or who celebrate it a couple weeks later?
    Have everybody play Unreal Tournament? What about the guy who gets motion sick?

    "Team building" sounds great, but paying for 90% of people to do something together that they really enjoy doesn't help build a team; rather, it makes the other 10% of people feel even more isolated.

    Teams build themselves. People form friendships, and find activities on their own. Let this happen naturally; don't try to push it forwards prematurely.
    • OK, if your planning something realize that A) you can only please some of the people all of the time B) and sometimes, you can please everyone. Abe Lincoln said that, I think.

      If you're attending something realize that A) your boss can only please some of the people all of the time and B) sometimes, he can please everyone.

      When the boss plans something, don't bail just because you don't drink, or you don't like football. Show up, and have fun. Make fun of Football. The next day, make fun of everyones dr

      • When the boss plans something, don't bail just because ~. Show up, and have fun. ~. Its not the bosses job to make you have fun. He's going out of his way to provide the ~ atmosphere. The least you can do is try.

        Exactly! Some people just are friggin complainers! [slashdot.org] If only they would get out of their little world for a minute and realize that the boss's job it not to make you have fun at work, they'd probably avoid that ulcer.

  • Hawaiian Shirt Day.

    It always works in the movies [imdb.com].

  • You can't start Traditions (Score:5, Insightful)

    by CamMac ( 140401 ) <PvtCam.yahoo@com> on Thursday September 09, 2004 @11:40PM (#10209484)
    You can't start traditions, one day you just look around and realize that you've been doing them. But you want to raise moral?
    You control only two things that your employees want. Money and Time. Take everyone out to the bar, or to a picnic, or to the rifle range, or get everyone tickets to an NFL game. Thats the money part. The time part? Do it on company time. If your not doing it on company time, invite family, and its not compulsory.

    --Cam

    • Rifle range == best "team" activity ever. We used to take 2 hour lunches at a gun range from time to time at one of my former companies. It's a great activity for getting to know people better and getting more comfortable working with them. Of course this developed spontaneously, I'm not a fan of fake, pre-planned, "team-building exercises".
    • But you want to raise moral?
      If you guys are so all-fired excited about increasing moral [reference.com], then hold an ethics class. If you're concerned about morale [reference.com], though, some of these fun ideas may help.

  • Yet another "Don't" post (Score:3, Insightful)

    by GeorgeH ( 5469 ) on Thursday September 09, 2004 @11:47PM (#10209515) Homepage Journal
    Go rent both seasons of The Office and watch them. That series says more on this subject than I ever could.
  • Have a football pool.

    For added excitement, add Over/Unders on project completion dates.

    • when you say "football", are you referring to:
      1. Gridiron (football in the USA)
      2. Soccer (football everywhere except the USA and a few other places)
      3. Rugby ...
        1. ...Union (british commonwealth football)
        2. ...league (primarily australian football)
      4. Aussie rules (don't ask... it's hard to explain, just ask a melbournian what their religion is)

      In my experience The more obscure the topic, often the easier it is to use it as a source of bonding. If you've got people from different area's, they'll have different t

  • What you should do is -- Oh never mind. It was a stupid idea anyway.

  • Best Workplace Traditions (Score:5, Insightful)

    by cpt_rhetoric ( 740663 ) on Friday September 10, 2004 @12:05AM (#10209612)
    1. Reward your best team members with pay raises 2. Get rid of any that can't cut it
    • The problem is that most middle to lower level managers don't have the power to hand out raises or fire people.
    • Amen.

      I can't imagine anything else that would boost our team's morale more.

      Pity it doesn't happen. Typically in our shop, the ones that can't cut it get the breaks. The best team members are the ones that get stuck with even more work and responsibilities.

      Criticizing this policy makes one 'not a team player'.

      The irony is, not participating in the cover up of the incompetency/laziness of those that don't pull their weight gets one labeled as 'playing politics'.

    • Speaking as a lead developer on just such a team (There's one guy that no one can stand, because he can't cut the mustard, and he smells (literally)), I wholeheartedly agree. Management's lack of action on the documented idiocy of the guy (For instance, 5 hours after he came in the other day, he asked me about a bug.. That I had fixed 3 hours before he got in. He had never bothered to update from our CVS repository for the entire 5 hours he was there) has me looking seriously at new jobs.

      Oh yeah, one oth

  • Which sign is this? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by dacarr ( 562277 ) on Friday September 10, 2004 @12:06AM (#10209615) Homepage Journal
    Holy moses, a suit is coming to ask the geeks for advice on how to interact with geeks. This is apparently one of the signs of the return of Christ. Wit aside, buy some decent coffee for them. Like other suggestions, traditions can't be enforced. Now, not being anything IT related, my thought would be to just let your IT department do their job. The job seems to require much sitting around doing nothing interspersed with flurries of hair-wringing activity; your staff is idle most of the time, but must be there when (not if, but when) something happens that's bad. And having said that, maybe have a department meeting. Ask them what they want to see in a department, no holds barred, see what they think. If it agrees with company policy and comes off as harmless, yeah, go for it.
  • Buy 'em lunch at a decent-ish restaurant, or at least one of their choosing. Preferably someplace that will allow them to leave the office and sit down to eat. Set aside an hour or so.

    Other than that ... Try not to get in their way. A manager's job is more about coordinating the efforts of his people with the people above and to either side of them, and especially about keeping the heat off them from above (they're your people). Being loyal to your managees and avoiding micromanagement will go farther than

    • Start a management tradition...

      Pick up a copy of "The One Minute Manager."

    • I'd second the restaurant suggestion. In my company the tech team leaders have small budgets[1] that they can use for socials and our boss takes us out for lunch once every 2-3 months or so. Our team is small enough that we can usually agree on a type of cuisine to go for (typically pizza or curry) and it's nice to unwind for an hour and bitch together about the account managers and the creatives. Our Account Director also has a nice way to ensure we all attend our occasional full team meetings: he picks

  • Play (Score:2, Interesting)

    by JVert ( 578547 )
    First, cheapest method, lan party, if you have alot of non gamers see if they would like to play some classic cames, renember emulators have multiplayer support.
    Next, sponser a game, maybe golf (surprisingly fun on my first time), or wus out and do miniture golf (if your really that young), bowling, roller skating (sorry to mention that, but I dont know what language you guys work in.), batting cages, PAINTBALL! hmmm, Thats all I can think of.
    Do a vote with these options and the biggest one wins, include th
  • Pay raises!

    Noting say "Tanks for the good job" like cold hard cash!
  • The last thing you want to do is lead in a meaningless area like this. Instead, let the team decide what traditions they want to do and just follow along. Don't make traditions formal - they just happen.

    As a team leader, you are really serving in two capacities. The first capacity is as a servant. You are fulfilling a role that they can't do themselves. You have to make sure you fill that role well so that it serves them. There is a time to lay down the law, but you have to think of yourself as a referee i

  • "Live Action" Dilbert(tm) Roleplaying?... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Dr.Dubious DDQ ( 11968 ) on Friday September 10, 2004 @01:45AM (#10210099) Homepage
    promoted to manager of a young IT department[...]

    Promoted from...where? Were you once one of the IT people? If so...would YOU have really wanted what you're suggesting?

    would like to introduce a tradition and/or mascot for the upcoming season.

    Numerous posters have pointed out the foolishness of trying to "impose" a tradition. A mascot I could see, but only if it was genuinely funny and not contrived. Nor intended to be taken seriously.

    The goal of this is to add some excitement to the new team, unite the members and keep department moral high.

    I assume you mean "morale", not "moral" - I think what you're proposing would inspire more IMmorality...

    It might also be worth mentioning that I have recently added two more administrators to the team.

    Do you mean more IT people (Network/System administrators), or more managerial staff? 'cuz I know nothing would make ME happier than having more people overseeing me and telling me what to do... (If you meant that you hired more people to help with the workload, you probably ARE on the right track there.)

    Want some advice?

    1. Try asking the people actually doing the IT work what would improve morale.
    2. Buy a bunch of Dilbert books and read them. Anything that resembles any program that any of the "Pointy-Haired Boss" characters implement in those books should be recognized as Probably Not A Useful Idea. It sounds like you're dangerously close to crossing over to that category right now...
    People who have to do tech-support-type work ARE a pretty cynical and jaded bunch, in my experience (heck, I know that describes ME), and are not likely to respond positively to contrived or ephemeral attempts to manipulate their attitudes.

    (Note: If this is actually a clever plan to promote "team unity" by uniting the staff in their hatred and/or mockery of you, it just may work..."Can you believe this guy? He actually thinks he can MAKE us start a 'tradition' on purpose! And who in their right mind would think these 'Apshai, the Bug God' dolls would do anything for morale?")

  • facilitate not instigate (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Darth_Burrito ( 227272 ) on Friday September 10, 2004 @01:52AM (#10210124)
    Focus on being a facilitator, not an instigator. People hate being forced into activities with coworkers. It is very difficult to pick an activity that everyone will like, and it is very difficult to get everyone to like each other. As a manager, people may not always tell you they don't want to go out for drinks or go out on bowling night. Instead they might just sit their seething in resentment when they'd rather be home.

    What you have to do is plant a seed of an idea, and then see if something grows out of it.

    Some examples of facilitation:
    * Building a volleyball court for employee use.
    * Permitting use of office projectors for movie night.
    * Letting people run a gaming server on the company pipe
    * Foster an environment where people can leave work together to grab coffee or whatever (as opposed to an environment where everyone always tries to make it look like they are always working)

    Some no no's:
    * Forcing your sys admins to play volleyball during their lunch hour.
    * Asking everyone to spend their friday night watching Planet of the Apes at work.
    * Pressuring people into 1st person shooters after work.
    * Insisting everyone go out to get coffee every morning as a break.

    The all time worst company sponsored activity I have ever heard of was an event a big company picnic. Employees were sent into a corn maze and they raced to escape the maze. A few hours of time off was awarded to everyone with more given to those who finished fastest. The managers sat and watched the whole thing from a platform overlooking the maze. For some reason, the situation reminds me of slaves fighting against each other in a gladatorial pit for the amusement of their masters except in this case the only reward was a few hours of freedom.

    - No, I am Sparticus.
    • Great post. Another few suggestions in the same vein:

      *If you're going to do an outing, send off an email asking for suggestions. Have people cote and comment on the suggestions. This ensures people want to do it
      *Do not pressure employees into lame activities. As I type this, I'm staring at a sign up sheet for a 3 legged race they're pushing down everyone's throat. Luckily, on ly 2 managers have signed up so far
      *Do not treat employees like children. If you serve alcohol, do not make us use tickets to
  • If you currently have any department traditions or know of any, could you please take a moment to share them with me.

    We post Ask Slashdot questions asking about traditions.
  • As others here have mentioned, the extra carricular activities can be trite. Finding something an entire team has in common is a pain unless they already all get along really well. Since they all have their work as a common interest, take them to a trade show. TSNN [tsnn.com] (don't know what it stands for) is a good site to look up shows. When you find one mildly interesting and fun, pay for everyone to go and buy them lunch and/or dinner. Make a day (or two!) of it.

    From all of the "team building" "exercises" I've ev

  • Best ... Tradition ... Ever (Score:5, Funny)

    by codeButcher ( 223668 ) on Friday September 10, 2004 @04:20AM (#10210557)
    Regular and substantial pay raises. Great morale improver, and not many people who will object to it.

    Now if I only could find a team with such a tradition....

  • Although it's a bit old........ (Score:5, Interesting)

    by CharlieG ( 34950 ) on Friday September 10, 2004 @05:51AM (#10210797) Homepage
    I'd say go out and buy YOURSELF a copy of "peopleware" and read it. There are a couple of VERY important points made there

    1)You can NOT build teams - They can form, and the BEST you can do is not to interfere. Don't TRY and force teams. Now you can setup an environment that will foster team growth, but that is about it

    2)YOU, as a manager, will NEVER really be part of the team - period. You MIGHT like the team, the team might like YOU, and occasionally invite you along, but you are never REALLY part of the team. Even a team lead who does not have full management power is even slightly on the edge of a team. He/she CAN be a member, and in fact, can be the core, but that is in the same way that the hole in a doughnut is the core of the doughnut - he's not the same

    Part 2 is why MOST managers HATE teams - they don't fully control them, and aren't really part of them, so they are afraid of them, so they break them up

    One Hint from the book - if you are lucky enough for a team to form, feel lucky, and do your best to keep them happy

    I've had the joy (and I'm NOT using that sarcasticlly) of being a member of a gelled team twice in 20 years. Each time the teams lasted, oh, around 2 years before management did something stupid, and broke up the team. We almost NEVER went out after work, MOST of the gang didn't see each other outside of work, and we had very diverse interests - BUT we all KNEW what the other folks (guys and gals) on the team liked/disliked

    Another thing that I'll point out (not in the book) that I've noticed about every gelled team I've seen (not only worked on) - They were mixed gender and/or orientation AND mixed age. Best team I was ever on had folks from about 22 years old, up to about 50! (and that was for an 8 person team)
  • Monthly paintball.

    Works wonders. And your employees will get to shoot at you without killing you. Great stress reliever.

  • Food! (Score:2, Interesting)

    by irrelevant ( 66554 ) *
    A good morale booster where I work is when the company picks up the tab for [favorite meal].

    e.g. bring in a big tray of seafood/pastries/whatever and let everyone sit around and talk while it gets eaten.

    But like every one else is saying, don't force stupid activities on us and don't make us spend extra time away from our real lives.

  • keep it in context, and free, use swag (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ghostlibrary ( 450718 ) on Friday September 10, 2004 @08:26AM (#10211320) Homepage Journal
    Keep it simple and relevant. And keep it on the clock. Good morale stuff should a) intermesh with work, b) be during work time, and c) be opt-in.

    1) Pass out chinese food menus while your folks are working during the first game, everyone at work picks their order and gets free lunch. Basically, cheap catering during the big events your company is involved in.

    2) Get free swag from the teams, make available, i.e. "hey, we just got a box of free Bronco jerseys as a gift, anyone wants them, we'll have a box after the weekly staff meeting, first-come first-serve on sizes". If there aren't enough shirts for all, draw numbers from a hat for those who want one. Note that you're not 'wasting' company dollars on this, so folks won't grumble about 'why that money didn't go to raises instead'.

    Seriously, work your connections to get free swag for the staff, and use a slush fund to make things more pleasant during crunch time.

    Above all, don't give managers first access at the swag! Show you value the staff first.
  • Nothing is better than some hot food and cold beer for getting a team of people to talk to each other.

    Do it on company money - team building exercise.

    Schedule it long enough so those coming off roster can join in as well. You as boss should be completely pissed and butt of many jokes (great for team morale - sorry but true) by time everyone has cycled through.

  • Whatever you do, DON'T use the weekend. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mfarah ( 231411 ) <`miguel' `at' `farah.cl'> on Friday September 10, 2004 @09:18AM (#10211654) Homepage
    To add to all the insightful comments about NEVER doing mandated things, let me add my experience:

    In my previous job (a bank), the upper management would "reward" an entire appartment with a weekend seminar in a hotel 3 hours away from our city. When it was our turn, we were ordered to show up at the workplace at saturday 8:00AM, where a minibus would pick us up, take us to the hotel, spend the night there, and the minivan would drop us back *at workplace* (not at our homes) sunday 8:00PM. Only workers, no couples, no family. We were told we could NOT refuse. I kid you not.

    This "seminar" turned out to be one of those crappy "Let's build teamwork!" courses... all the while we were complaining about how they had KILLED our weekend for what was, essentially, work. The married ones couldn't see their families, the single ones didn't have our free time.

    To make things worse, the rooms we were assigned to had FOUR beds, which meant we all had to share the room (AND restroom) with three other guys. The two women in my department got it much easier, as they were assigned a two-bed rom (they were relieved, as they were afraid they'd actually have to share a room with two other guys).

    In the hotel's defense, the lunches they gave us was very good.

    The kicker? Right before we left, our boss took a picture of the entire department, posing in the hotel entrance. Two weeks later, the internal monthly newsletter had it page 3, along with a store telling that "The XXXX Department had a blast at the YYYY Hotel! [...] The bank has a long standing tradition of rewarding good work and [...]".

    The people at the Human Resources department weren't really jerks - they were out of touch with reality and actually believed employees viewed these "weekend seminars" as an actual prize.

  • New Tradition??? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Skipworthy ( 151946 ) on Friday September 10, 2004 @10:36AM (#10212463)

    HERE'S a GREAT one:

    Treat your IT employees as professionals, with respect and humanity, rather than like retarded step children. Who need to be 'shown the way'.

    Bonehead.

  • Gambling (Score:3, Interesting)

    by tiled_rainbows ( 686195 ) on Friday September 10, 2004 @10:49AM (#10212606) Homepage Journal
    I don't know if US law or social etiquette prohibits this (I'm from the UK), but if you're a sports-related company, why not run a book on various sporting events? I've done this for football (soccer) here, as well as David Beckham's next haircut, and political events (next leader of the Tory party, etc).
    It's fun, and it has geek value too, for the bookmaker, as you try to juggle the various odds so you won't be too out of pocket whatever the result.

    Free money, sport, and spreadsheets. What's not to like?
    • So ... unofficially "peer pressure" employees into potentially losing their money? Good call! (Yes, I do hate sports. And soccer is much better than football, but you won't find many of my fellow Americans admitting it.)

  • Are you really that blind to what we want!? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mzs ( 595629 ) on Friday September 10, 2004 @11:03AM (#10212742)
    Look I have a wife and two kids. At this point whenever one of these mandatory team/tradition deals happens I just leave and go home. I have NEVER suffered any consequences from adopting this attitude, my job is programing after-all not coffee and cookie time. Maybe if I was at all interested in climbing the ladder or whatever I would pay more attention to bull like this, but personally there is nothing more gratifying than getting home early, finding that the kids are still napping, being alone with my wife for a little bit to unwind, and then being there to play with the kids right when they wake-up. I don't care how fun the tradition is, if you think I am going to go out for bowling with the team instead of this, forget it I am going home. I would not get any work done anyway.

    I had it all before. The Hawaiian shirt day, the company picnic, the baseball games, the ping-pong, the cookie time, the beer hour, pizza night, hazing of new employees, bowling, arcades. In the beginning I put-up with it all thinking it would somehow look bad if I did not take part, but it really did not matter. I even was a vegetarian and ate raw beef as part of prospective employee hazing! Then I wisend-up.

    If you want to build morale and you cannot provide interesting projects or decent raises how about this for a suggestion. Rather than having everybody get together for for cookie and coffee time, just get a coffee-maker for the office and stock it with free coffee. Once a week put-out cookies near the new coffee-maker. That is a nice perk, if we want coffee or cookies we can go get some whenever we feel like. Remember that the majority of us were the quiet kids in the back of the room in school. We are still like that, we are quiet and don't care much for being forced to be social. We would rather spend that time doing what we enjoy more in our lives.
  • One trading company I worked for would order a few cases of beer and other drinks in every Friday afternoon. Nobody had to participate, but even the non-drinkers would usually stop work and hang out with the rest.

    It was great. It got people talking in a way that wouldn't have happened during the work day. Not only did it make people feel generally closer to their colleagues, but the cross-polination meant a lot of great ideas came up that never would have happened otherwise.

  • Holiday Tradition (Score:4, Informative)

    by tedgyz ( 515156 ) * on Friday September 10, 2004 @12:18PM (#10213535) Homepage
    When I was part of a large (~50) engineering group, we just did a few things during the holidays.

    For example, at Halloween we dressed up. We also invited the families in to trick or treat door to door. I'll admit, I was a bit scared to see my kids go to some of the more "embedded" geeks - i.e. the office reminded you of their pungent scent.

    Christmas / Hannukkah was our biggest event. We had a buffet lunch, which always sparked good conversation about food. With a diverse group from around the world, it was always interesting. Then there was the Yankee swap - a sleeper hit for us. This little gift giving game turned into a serious event. The Dilbert Calender(s) were always top prize. We also had some uber-geeky tech games, like build a paper structure to hold cafeteria trays. Most trays before collapse wins.

    Your mileage may vary.
    • There are some large companies around here that do this sort of Halloween thing; however, it's not just the kids of the employees who are invited in. They bring in special ed classes to trick-or-treat, and throw them a big party, give them 1-on-1 attention, and even send them off with a few company-store items that they can use in their classroom--all for free. The kids (and teachers and parents) love it, of course.

      The employees really enjoy it because they not only get to goof around and (optionally) dr
  • Once worked at a place where a hyperactive VP liked to hold weekly (oversized) tricycle races through the cube farm. When she trained her beady little eyes on me I told her "You're not paying me to tear around like an idiot. Please don't embarrass yourself by asking me again". Tric races kind of died down a bit after that [grin].

    I've always ditched any organized event that's scheduled outside of working hours. I have a family, friends and life outside work, thanks.

    Some of the qualities *I* think make
  • Oh, we have a tradition all right. We all make fun of the new boss that's trying to introduce team-building rah-rah events and "make the workplace fun." That's the tradition here. So maybe there is already a tradition at your company and you don't know about it.
  • On my project we do this with a globe (because we write international software), but the idea is the same...

    Get a 'Team Ball', or some other token.

    At your next big team meeting or get together, explain the 'new tradition', and hand it to someone, recognizing them for some job well done, or some other 'above and beyond' action.

    That person then has the responsibility of deciding who should get the team ball next time it moves. It might move the next day, or it might not move for a month, but people who se

  • Arf! (Score:2, Insightful)

    by SlowDancing ( 687920 ) *

    "The manager isn't part of the team; he can't be. He has to have a bigger perspective than the team has, he answers to other people, and he has to be able to discipline. The sheep dog may spend a lot of time with the sheep, but he never becomes part of the flock; his real focus is pleasing the shepherd." That's my wife speaking. (She learned this in retail, not in our house, in case you were wondering.)


  • Gulp! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Ikn ( 712788 ) * <rsmith29@nOSPAM.alumni.nd.edu> on Sunday September 12, 2004 @03:12PM (#10228856) Homepage
    Not IT, but when I worked at McDonalds, there was a spout on the pop machine for pure carbonation or whatever. Thing is, it looks just like sprite. So some vet. would challenge the new person to a speed-drinking contest, with a full cup of sprite, whoever won got to leave early. The vet would fill the cups, and the newbie obviously got a cup of carbonation. I don't know if anyone has ever drunk the stuff, but it's very, very horrible, like bleach or acid...new guy takes one gulp, spews...good times had by all. The hardest part was everyone keeping a straight face when someone was like "Hey, wanna do a drinking contest?" to the poor sap...

  • You can't force it (Score:3, Informative)

    by merlin_jim ( 302773 ) <James DOT McCrac ... ratapult DOT com> on Sunday September 12, 2004 @10:24PM (#10231785)
    You really can't.

    On the flip side my company does throw great teambuilding events.

    How do they do it?

    It's quarterly. A different business unit picks the venue. The company picks up the tab (there is a budget for this)

    The last one we had was end of summer beach party. They bought a bunch of sand and we built sand castles. From 2:00 to 4:00 on a Friday afternoon.

    We got to take a break from work for a while and have some fun. There were other entertainments too. Beach balls, food, that sort of thing.

    A lot of people just sat around and caught up.

    Opening game to the local minor league is a big picnic every year. Attendance is optional. Hot Dogs, Hamburgers, Beer, Soft Drinks, Tickets, all provided. Other times we've just played frisbee golf for the afternoon. Yes it went on the timesheet as "company meeting"...

    The point being it's kept fun and interesting because different people get to choose the activity every time. Our business units are on the order of 10 - 25 heads so everyone gets a chance to put in some feedback when deciding.

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