Innovation in employee engagement activities- Part 1

We all love Surprises isn't it? I always believe in doing unique acts/games/activities when it comes to employee engagement. Reason- I love the element of surprise in everything that I do in my life be it gifting , cooking ,parenting (my 4 yr son expects a surprise everyday when I come home, I surprise him most of days) or even my profession. And i have found that its takes lot of efforts and thinking in getting the right element of surprise. Also I personally dislike to adapt games from international books as they lack our Indian touch :)

I am sharing few of such activities that I had done in my previous organisations where the budget and time schedule were tight. I  would spend lot of time researching on creating a relevant and innovative game/event every time

We played Juaa (Gambling ) to celebrate Diwali Day

Gambling is played as a part of tradition in Diwali in some Hindu communities. So during one of Diwali celebration I thought why not play Juaa or gamble. My staff were puzzled when I announced the event.

What you need: I had two teams of around 15 staffs each. You can have more teams and higher numbers in each team.

1. Fake notes, I had printed Rs. 2 lac for each team out of rough paper ranging from 5000 to 50000 to be used for betting
2. Two sets of a simple story of 10 lines typed in a 10 rows and torn into 10 small strips with a line of story on each strip. Ensure that they are arranged randomly. 
3. Around 10 chits of few well known bollywood songs.

You can add few more acts. I had only an hour.

I created two team by random selection and distributed the money to the leaders of the team.Teams have to bet money before each game, no limit and whoever wins the act wins the betting and the money. Winner is who has  more money at the end of the game.

Game 1: Arrange the random story faster than the other team.

Game 2: An arm wrestling competition. To my surprise both the teams recommended female colleagues and it was the most happening event.

Game 3: Do dumb charades for 3 or more songs and whichever team does it in the least time in totality wins

We ended  the day with unlimited pani puris and sev puris:)

Will tell you about Virtual janmashtami/Dahi handi celebration tomorrow :)