A couple of months ago, I sat down with my manager, our financial controller and our Group CEO for an annual budget meeting. Like many things this year, this was my first experience and not really being the number crunching type, let’s just say my enthusiasm to attend this meeting after a day at work was not at its highest.
Of course there was some talk of numbers, we were even given statistical charts (I may have phased out a bit when things got complex, sorry Johanna). Having said this I couldn’t have been more wrong about the primary purpose of this meeting. Instead of being a dull account of the year’s numbers in terms of our different sections, it turned into a driven discussion of the areas that are working and also what needs to improve. To cut a long story short, an hour or so later, I came out of that meeting more motivated than ever (and also a bit hungry). I knew our targets, now it was time to get down to business.
One area we wanted to focus on was our team building activities. I spent a while planning out how to go about promotions and before we knew it we got down to implementing this marketing plan. For a few weeks, I waited for the magic to happen. And waited… And waited. I’d almost given up all hope that we were actually going to manage to reach out to anyone. I mean we’d had events in the past and most groups had thoroughly enjoyed themselves, what was I doing wrong?
And that’s when out of the blue we got our first request for an activity. As with all quotes we discussed things with the company to see what activities would best suit their wants and also their budget and together we came up with a plan for a fun day out. A week went by and our first activity was booked. As I said previously, things have a way of falling into place and they really did as we ended up booking quite a few activities after that. Most were set for the month of December. Being the end of the year, this period tends to be quite popular in order to start the new year on a high.
So as you can see December was indeed a busy month but also a fulfilling one. We were very lucky with the weather during most events and I can safely say that each group were thoroughly satisfied with how things went. I always enjoy holding these events as I tend to see the group come together as the day’s activities unfold and it really shows just how essential these activities are.
From archery, to pyramid building, to a virtual adventure ‘around the world’, to mini games including bocci, lifesize jenga, aqueduct challenge, catapulting angry birds etc etc… each group found the ideal activity for their employees and had a whale of time. The cherry on the cake was getting to sit down and watch them chat and chuckle over their three course lunch. What a perfect day out of the office.
