Around this time last year, I grappled with a dilemma: In today’s globalized work environment, with my team dispersed across various countries, how could I foster a sense of belonging and connectivity amid a challenging economic climate?
In a conversation with a colleague situated on the opposite side of the world, we uncovered a shared concern about enhancing team connectivity. Her ingenious idea to tackle this very challenge became a well of inspiration for me. Her concept resonated so deeply that I honestly couldn’t resist adopting it as my own. It just goes to show that a problem shared is a problem halved.
Thus, the inception of the Activity and Connectivity Challenge, where the primary purpose was to ensure that the team created meaningful connections, facilitated by opportunities for individuals to navigate challenges together. My hope was that I could cultivate a culture of collaboration and mutual support that would fuel continued high-performance aimed at delivering exceptional client service.
We are now a group of good friends who knows, cares about, and understands one another.
The Challenge was built around the idea that each team member would pair up with a colleague to complete a monthly challenge, and that each month the parings and challenges would be different. The challenges ranged from fitness, swapping and cooking traditional recipes, learning a few words in a coworker’s native language, learning a new skill, and participating in an activity outdoors. Rotating team members ensured everyone collaborated with each team member over time.
Brian Ngubane in our Johannesburg office shared: “the Activity and Connectivity Challenge helped and pushed me to be a better version of myself. It provided me with an opportunity to explore and learn new things with the different monthly activities. I also got a chance to build relationships with my fellow colleagues from different regions.”
From my perspective, two key elements had to be in place to ensure the success of the Challenge.
First, to encourage connectivity, the majority of the challenges were structured in a way that required a joint effort from both team members to score points. Alternatively, one team member could assist the other in earning points. For example, if a team member wasn’t feeling well, their partner could undertake the additional 30 minutes of exercise, allowing them to still accumulate points.
made work feel like a place where we can have a great time
Yasemin Birecikli Bakan, who is based in our Istanbul office, explained how she forged genuine connections through the shared experiences: “I had the chance to make some good and real friends that I am in touch with on a regular basis. I feel that I became familiar with their cultures, personal lives, and even families. We are no longer colleagues occasionally connecting via Zoom based on the needs of work; we are now a group of good friends who knows, cares about, and understands one another.”
Contrary to the saying that familiarity breeds contempt, I believe that gaining an understanding of a colleague enables teams to leverage individual strengths, experiences, and knowledge, ultimately leading to the delivery of a more efficient and superior service.
Second, I needed to ignite a spark of healthy competition. This was easy. To capture the team’s attention and fuel their enthusiasm, all I needed to say was, “It’s a competition.” Marc Charpentier from our Casablanca office agreed that the allure of competition motivated participants to actively engage in each monthly challenge: “The competition was fierce, and it really brought out the team’s competitive spirit. It was so much fun cheering one another on and pushing ourselves to new limits. These challenges have not only brought us closer together but also made work feel like a place where we can have a great time.”
I have smiled every time a message pops up asking, ‘How was your run today?’ or ‘How is the cooking challenge coming along?’
As the success of the Activity and Connectivity Challenge became evident, Casablanca-based Keltoum Chabbi seized the opportunity to scale it up with Rowan Horwitz from our Johannesburg office. Keltoum voiced that she “Immediately thought of Rowan as a great partner to do this with, as we were both fully committed to the Africa challenge and loved chatting daily about our exercise sessions. As expected, he responded with a super enthusiastic ‘yes,’ and so the the Challenge soon transcended its initial geographical scope and was extended to a larger region: the Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EEMA) legal team. Since then, we have been organizing the EEMA challenge, cheering colleagues on to cook recipes, exercise daily, and spend some fun time outdoors. It’s not always easy to keep a group of 22 colleagues motivated, but we are pretty fierce.”
Rowan admitted: “I have absolutely loved connecting with people I would not normally engage with, and I have smiled every time a message pops up asking, ‘How was your run today?’ or ‘How is the cooking challenge coming along?’”
I am delighted to see that a simple idea had such a positive impact on team dynamics. There is no doubt that the Activity and Connectivity Challenge succeeded in achieving the primary goal of bolstering cohesion within the team, despite being spread across multiple countries. But the success of the Challenge is particularly gratifying because I believe my aspiration to maintain sustained high-performance with a focus on delivering exceptional client service came to fruition, too. The challenge encouraged team members to explore new activities and acquire fresh skills, as well as provided opportunities for personal development and relationship building. The competitive element of the Challenge infused a sense of fun and excitement, which helped to keep team members engaged and motivated.
In the spirit of the Challenge, my team helped write this article as our final challenge for 2023. My heartfelt thanks goes out to them for embracing the Activity and Connectivity Challenge and for their help with this article.
Now, what are we going to do this year …
