June 9, 2021
The 2018 Olympic Games are here! This international sporting event was founded in the name of unity and friendly competition among the nations of the world. Here at TeamBonding, we are firm believers that friendly competition is the thing good teams are made of! If you’re making the most of the Olympic buzz by having your own Office Olympics, we’re here to help you out! Not sure how to get started? Consider purchasing a DYI program from our store!
Once you’ve got a game plan in place, we’ve got some tips and tricks for making sure your Office Olympics goes off without a hitch!
1. Location, Location, Location
Location is key! Make sure you find a good space to hold your Office Olympics. While it’s absolutely possible to run this kind of event in your office, it’s important to make sure there’s no electronics or other fragile, important equipment in the room you choose. Consider clearing the furniture out of a conference room for an afternoon. If you have access to outdoor space like a nearby park or lawn, you can also host outside!
2. Be mindful of the weather!
In our hometown of Boston, the weather can change at the drop of a hat. If you’re choosing to hold your Office Olympics outside, try to check the weather ahead of time, and make sure you have a backup location in case it starts to rain. Also make sure that if it is bright and sunny out, that everyone’s applying sunscreen! A sunburn is not one of the things you want people to take away from a fun team day.
3. Play some tunes
Everything is more fun with music! Find some energetic music to liven up your event and get your team moving. No need to worry about a complicated A/V system, you can even run music from a laptop. However, if your event is taking place outside, it might be in your best interests to find some speakers to plug a phone or mp3 player into.
4. Dress Down
If your workplace observes strict office attire, consider giving your employees permission to dress down for the day. Even if your Office Olympics only takes the afternoon, it will help make the day fun and special for everyone involved. Let everyone who’s participating know they can dress for comfort, so you won’t have to worry about anyone getting hurt trying to run in high heels!
5. Make Some Medals
DYI Olympic medals are easy to make! All you need are some recycled bottle caps or jar lids, glitter, and glue. Just coat the lids with a liberal amount of glue, and dip them in gold, silver or bronze glitter. Find the full tutorial for these prizes here. You can also buy medals from your local party store, or give away some other kind of prize to the winners. If you’re going the monetary route, we recommend $5, $10, and $20 dollar gift cards as prizes to the winners.
6. Have Fun!
This might seem obvious, but it’s important to remember the motivation behind an Office Olympics. While the competition can be motivating and exciting, don’t let competitiveness take over to the point where people aren’t having fun anymore. Keeping the prizes relatively low-stakes can help with this. Higher ticket prizes, while nice for the winner, can cause a lot of resentment among colleagues. Make sure everyone is having fun by encouraging friendly support when possible.
