Tessa de Vree
How do you organize an event for a large group of colleagues who all like different things? By not trying to please everyone with the same program.
For a telecom company, we organized a day on the coast of Kijkduin, where colleagues from all over the Netherlands came together to step away from their daily work environment for a moment. No mandatory team building activity or program where everyone runs after the same flag. Just a beach location, plenty of choice, and the freedom to decide in advance how you wanted to spend the afternoon.
Active on the water, creative at work, or would you rather be holding a cocktail shaker in your hand? You do you.
The day began long before the first participants saw the beach. From Groningen, Emmen, Zwolle, Enschede, Amsterdam, Terneuzen, Goes and Eindhoven, colleagues set off towards Kijkduin. Six touring coaches, various pick-up points and participants with their own transport: behind the scenes, a rather logistical puzzle.
Once arrived at BLOW Beach House Of course, no one had to notice anything about that. The group first gathered for a large lunch. A short stop to catch up and talk to colleagues that you might normally only meet through Teams or from the other side of the country.
After that, the work mode was permanently discontinued.
Choose one activity with a large group that everyone will be enthusiastic about? Good luck.
So we did it differently.
In advance, participants could register for the activity that suited them best. Beach yoga, shaken cocktails, painting or making pizza for those who were up for it. Feeling more action-oriented? There was powerkiting, surfing and kiteboarding.
As a result, the distribution on the day itself was largely already fixed, and after lunch everyone could immediately get on with their activities. No stress over choice on site, but doing what you wanted to do immediately.
In this way, the group spread across various activities and smaller groups formed naturally. One of them was standing on the beach with a kite, while the other was with a cocktail shaker at the bar.
Same team. Different afternoon.
And then there was the weather.
They obviously didn't receive the same briefing as we did.
So it wasn’t an ideal day at the beach, but that didn’t mean we had to panic about the program. Because there were activities both inside and outside the program, the afternoon could go on as planned. Some participants braved the weather on the beach, while others got to work indoors.
Just switch back and continue.
Because that is exactly where the difference between a good idea and a program that works in practice lies for us.
After an afternoon in which everyone had followed their own schedule, the group gathered again at the beach bar. And that’s when you realize what such an arrangement with a group does: everyone has experienced something different and therefore has enough to talk about.
Who actually managed to stay standing on their surfboard? Who unexpectedly proved to be good with a cocktail shaker? And who do we just keep the painting at home for the time being?
With a drink and a summer BBQ afterwards, the day was concluded together. No complicated final or three more mandatory program elements. Just eating, drinking and chatting with colleagues by the sea.
More than one hundred colleagues came from different parts of the Netherlands to the same place. In advance, everyone chose an activity that suited them, so that they could meet again at the end of the day.
And maybe that's exactly why this concept worked so well.
Bringing people closer together doesn’t mean that you have to make everyone do the same thing. Give people the space to choose something they really want to do, to experience something new, and then share their stories with each other.
In the end, that yields much more than a mandatory team building activity.
Different experiences. Same team.
Karen van den Berg
Team Manager
