Powerpoint karaoke
During a particularly challenging season of my tenure at salesforce, there was a funfare event the IT team scheduled for itself. I was introduced to Powerpoint karaoke at the first IT game show program. Shouts out to Grace Chau and Sal Caruso for bringing this program into reality for the team. I remember being so busy and pressured at the time that this event wasn’t on my radar and certainly not on my agenda. Only because it started in a room 30 feet from my desk did I have any awareness. I heard laughter. Like, a lot of laughs. So, I stepped away from my desk to visit the Oahu conference room in the legendary Landmark building which was offering beverages, snacks, and some entertainment I’d never before encountered.
Within minutes, I was folded over with laughter at the improvisational balderdash my colleagues could generate with all the disciplined cadence of a keynote presenter yet, absurdly abstracted from the content of the visual aid behind them. After a half-hour respite laughing with co-workers, I returned to my responsibilities with a lighter mood and creatively revived.
Later in the program, I was honored to host a version of the Match Game for a few of the following events. “The greatest difference between Marc Benioff and Parker Harris is blank”, and such silliness. In this kind of play at the workplace, there’s a novel security that is available for some people to lower inhibition. For others, surely, these situations may increase stress. Yet, the diversity of experiences available to the team for developing threads of familiarity into strands of trust that lead to cables of innovation must be maintained for thriving, optimized delivery squads to be realized.
There’s also a sharing of the organizational language and lore presenting opportunities for institutional learning and individual development in an offbeat environment which produces magical results for the participants.
Banding together with colleagues for creative and comic expression is a demonstration of trust between company leadership and the staff. There’s no more cohesive activity than laughing with teammates. If you know of a team that needs a recharge, then devote one afternoon each quarter to join together for doing good in the community then retreat for an hour or two of creative play like Powerpoint karaoke,
