Allianz Life Gives TONS of Donations Every Year...Literally!

Minneapolis-based life insurance company Allianz Life definitely has the right idea with it comes to fulfilling a mission of social corporate responsibility.

Their employee giving program is something to behold, and we were proud to become a part of it this past February.

Allianz Life gives back through our Bike-A-Thon™ workshop.

Although this company makes a regular practice of getting employees involved in giving back, we were glad to help this winter, with our most popular charity team building workshop.

Building bicycles for local kids has always triggered something special in the corporate groups we’ve worked with over the years.  There’s just something magical and exciting about putting together bicycles that you know are going to be enjoyed by kids right in your own neighborhood.

So even though employees of Allianz Life are constantly involved in programs where they’re giving back, they too felt the magic of Bike-A-Thon™!  The energy was incredibly positive from the ice breakers at the start of the workshop right on through to the final donation ceremony.

Bicycles were donated to Toys for Tots

We usually have a lot of arrangements to make for a charity team building workshop.  There’s the receiving charity to line up, and they usually send a representative for the final donation ceremony, and of course making sure donations fall into the right hands- it’s part of what we do for our charity workshop clients.

But Allianz Life has an ongoing gig with Toys for Tots.  They donate toys all year …to the tune of 3,600 toys donated last year alone!  We’re proud to be part of that impressive donation, and grateful that the bicycles will make their way to local kids in Minneapolis who will enjoy them for years to come.

Tons of donations in 2015 from a company that cares.

That’s an impressive number of toys donated, but Allianz Life’s giving doesn’t stop there.  They also donated over 20,000 pounds of clothes PLUS over 20,000 pounds of food to Second Harvest Heartland, who distributes them throughout the Twin Cities.

What’s even more impressive is that they don’t simply write a check when it comes to giving back.  Allianz Life’s giving program is called the Employee Giving Program, meaning they get everyone involved!

Our hands-on charity team building workshop fit right in with their giving initiatives, so we were a perfect match for their giving goals.  We were honored to be a a part of their giving program, and happy to help them help local kids too.

If you’d like to schedule a Bike-A-Thon™ workshop as part of your employee giving program, just call us- we’re here to get you started!

Allianz Life Gives TONS of Donations Every Year...Literally!

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