Relypsa Leaders Set the Tone for Hilarious but Productive Redwood City Workshop

It speaks volumes when company leaders are part of team building workshops.

It’s not every leader who can interact in a workshop setting where hierarchy is checked at the door! The message being sent: this stuff is important so let’s do this!

A recent workshop for a group from Relypsa included several layers of the company, right up to a cluster of VP’s who arrived for the challenges. Meeting in Redwood City at the Sofitel Hotel San Francisco this Fall, they had booked a Bike-A-Thon workshop and arrived ready to go…

Demonstrating the power of positive energy.

Well they were almost ready to go! We had a late start so there was very little time for icebreakers. And with a group like this, whose members may not know each other well because they come from varying ranks in the company, icebreakers are pretty useful!

No worries, though: the little cluster of VP’s made everyone feel right at home with their wonderfully powerful positive energy.

That kind of energy is highly contagious, and it soon spread to the other groups in the room (even one which didn’t seem to be feeling the whole workshop thing at first…).

From reluctant doubters to creative singing geniuses- team building works!

Those VP’s again…they turned out to really lead the way in creativity, too. In our “Commercials” activity, the group is divided into teams. Each team must write an original TV commercial for a product, then perform their commercial for the others.

If you were to measure energy levels, the VP group certainly went off the charts. Their commercial involved dancing and singing and even jumping around the room.

Of course it looks and sounds like fun and games, but all this is actually the result of some very good communication, collaboration and other important skills.

Hands-on activities that work for the whole Relypsa group.

Once the “reluctant” group felt the energy, they got into their commercial as well and actually produced a nice piece. Their collaborative creativity had the rest of their colleagues laughing and applauding them.

You could feel the teamwork growing- the high-energy activities and the very high-energy group was able to overcome a tiny bit of negativity in the beginning, with a little help from their leaders.

There were new Relypsa employees present, who didn’t know anyone…the team building even worked for them as they were made to feel that they were part of the group, and their input mattered during the creative problem-solving activities.

In the end, the Relypsa group left with newly formed bonds, some grounded practice with communication skills, and a whole new regard for their Vice Presidents…just some of the important ingredients called for in teamwork.

Relypsa Leaders Set the Tone for Hilarious but Productive Redwood City Workshop