“Your job is as a team to build a tower as high as possible in a half hour, using four marshmallows, twenty pieces of dry spaghetti, a yard of string, and some tape.”
That is an actual quote from our off-site staff meeting on Friday, November 10th, 2023 at the lovely Normandy Farms in Blue Bell, PA.
I’ve experienced some interesting team-building activities over the years, but this was definitely one of the funnier ones. It felt like an episode of MacGyver. I was lucky to work with Velma Martinez; the other teams were Lanette Bigley and Marcia Ludlow, Jane Mease and Debbie Brown, Cathie Firlein and Kathy Pompe, and Crystal McGettigan and Phyllis Ludwig. Phyllis and Crystal (shown) won, though there was some question as to how many pieces of spaghetti they actually used.
Our annual off-site meeting was a great time to discuss the company: where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going. In addition to the spaghetti structure, in the morning we worked through our Predictive Index results, which were uncanny in their accuracy. (I was the only one to land smack-dab in the middle of the “Teamwork & Employee Experience” category, which fits right in with the fact that at 2 PM each day I walk around and get everyone coffee, tea, or hot chocolate.)
The afternoon was equally interesting. After a wonderful lunch, we welcomed Sandra Todt and Jean Weider from Harleysville Bank, who offered a presentation on preventing fraud both personally and professionally—apt, given the rise in attempted scams throughout the world. From there, we discussed our current mix of clients (evenly split between for-profit and non-profit organizations) and how we can best serve them.
Across the board, it was a wonderfully inspiring day. Even if Phyllis and Crystal maybe used a few too many spaghetti strands and I’m still the office beverage service…
