Silly, self-deprecating ways to motivate a team for fun?
July 19, 2021 8:58 AM Subscribe
I’m casually organizing a low-key workout group for my company’s annual “wellness challenge”. How can I be a playful motivator for our team?
Most of us are not athletes and are mostly trying to get moving more. Last year, my coworker motivated the group by sharing photos of himself growing out a mullet when we hit various milestones. It was silly fun. They’re playfully asking me how I’m going top that this year and… I’m stuck! How does a person come up with something silly and self-deprecating and vulnerable, that would be fun and engaging? I feel lost. This is pushing the edges of my social skills.
Most of us are not athletes and are mostly trying to get moving more. Last year, my coworker motivated the group by sharing photos of himself growing out a mullet when we hit various milestones. It was silly fun. They’re playfully asking me how I’m going top that this year and… I’m stuck! How does a person come up with something silly and self-deprecating and vulnerable, that would be fun and engaging? I feel lost. This is pushing the edges of my social skills.
Hit a milestone and the group gets to control your zoom background for the day. Or choose your t-shirt. Or make you wear a silly hat or bunny pajamas all day, even to the grocery store, and you can supply pictures of this as proof. Etc. There can be tiers of increasingly ridiculous items for advancing levels of achievement.
posted by phunniemee at 9:22 AM on July 19, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by phunniemee at 9:22 AM on July 19, 2021 [1 favorite]
How many milestones are we talking about here? It would not be too hard to arrange a fun visitor for a few Zoom meetings (friends will be more than happy to show off their kittens, dogs, and chickens or gerbils) but if it's a lot of milestones you're going to run out of friends or volunteers with animals and resort to renting a Zoom lama.
posted by DarlingBri at 9:28 AM on July 19, 2021
posted by DarlingBri at 9:28 AM on July 19, 2021
I'm not very silly, but I like games. Maybe you pose a question and different clues get released at each milestone? The question could be either silly/personal or something interesting about the company? Or maybe you create a scavenger hunt based around what people may see while they are out moving? Each milestone could either prompt a new scavenger hunt or a new item for an ongoing hunt?
posted by ASlackerPestersMums at 9:32 AM on July 19, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by ASlackerPestersMums at 9:32 AM on July 19, 2021 [1 favorite]
If you're not super attached to your current hairstyle and it's not already short, you could get it cut shorter with every milestone. Maybe you could add color or shave parts for big milestones.
And this is completely different and not really self-deprecating, but what if you translated the milestones into actual miles and had your group do some virtual traveling? When you hit 500 or 1000 or 5000, you can say you've reached some city that's 500 or 1000 or 5000 miles away and you photoshop pictures of your coworkers (or yourself with a silly expression or wearing a silly outfit) into photos of tourist attractions in that city and send them out. Maybe you can come up with some other place-related things, like send out a recipe for a food that's associated with the place or a joke about the place, or have the group create a playlist of place-related songs or do a group watch of a movie set in the place.
posted by Redstart at 9:45 AM on July 19, 2021
And this is completely different and not really self-deprecating, but what if you translated the milestones into actual miles and had your group do some virtual traveling? When you hit 500 or 1000 or 5000, you can say you've reached some city that's 500 or 1000 or 5000 miles away and you photoshop pictures of your coworkers (or yourself with a silly expression or wearing a silly outfit) into photos of tourist attractions in that city and send them out. Maybe you can come up with some other place-related things, like send out a recipe for a food that's associated with the place or a joke about the place, or have the group create a playlist of place-related songs or do a group watch of a movie set in the place.
posted by Redstart at 9:45 AM on July 19, 2021
Do a virtual relay! Figure out somewhere you want to "go". Figure out how many hours of walking Google Maps thinks it will take to get there. Declare that that many hours of exercise (any exercise counts - this part is important! It all counts!) is needed. Make a map to track the "distance traveled". Over in IRL we've walked across most of the Pacific. We started in California and we're visiting someone in Japan.
posted by aniola at 9:55 AM on July 19, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by aniola at 9:55 AM on July 19, 2021 [4 favorites]
Take a picture of you with yet another T-shirt on after each milestone. It looks like it can get pretty silly pretty fast.
It may also be worth it to look at some similar types of Guinness world records for inspiration.
posted by chiefthe at 10:52 AM on July 19, 2021
It may also be worth it to look at some similar types of Guinness world records for inspiration.
posted by chiefthe at 10:52 AM on July 19, 2021
I don't think you should worry about mimicking your colleague's approach; if this is the edge of your social skills, and you're in a work environment, then I'm not sure I'd go for self-deprecating and vulnerable, which can end up putting pressure on others to do the same. Someone else will organize this next year, and you don't want to unintentionally set such a high bar that they won't want to volunteer because they don't want to share.
I like the game idea. Lean into silly and fun, I think. I think a silly or fun group activity could be fun, and make it about the group and not the individual organizer.
One thing you could do: ask folks for their favorite upbeat middle school song. At each milestone, you have a little dance party (in person? via Zoom? Cameras can be off virtually, which might be good) to that song. So you're moving, which is in the spirit of the group's goals, and you're being silly and vulnerable, but without sharing too much more than bad pop songs and a bit of dancing.
posted by bluedaisy at 1:20 PM on July 19, 2021 [1 favorite]
I like the game idea. Lean into silly and fun, I think. I think a silly or fun group activity could be fun, and make it about the group and not the individual organizer.
One thing you could do: ask folks for their favorite upbeat middle school song. At each milestone, you have a little dance party (in person? via Zoom? Cameras can be off virtually, which might be good) to that song. So you're moving, which is in the spirit of the group's goals, and you're being silly and vulnerable, but without sharing too much more than bad pop songs and a bit of dancing.
posted by bluedaisy at 1:20 PM on July 19, 2021 [1 favorite]
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posted by signal at 9:08 AM on July 19, 2021