4 people losing their jobs, 1 boss who isn’t: how we took on this awkward team event with LEGO® Serious Play®
Nov. 14, 2023
“Thank you for babysitting your brothers and can you please help me load all this LEGO into the car? I need to go to work.”
This is how the day started. Thankfully our children are used to the unconventional nature of our day jobs. They’ve had to watch as boxes of LEGO arrive at our house, destined for offices instead of their toy boxes. So when we set off for a 9 to 5 in a minivan packed with tubs of LEGO, it was just another normal day.
My name is Nick Frühling and I have the privilege of leading the product design and research team here at Staffbase North America.
But that privilege ends this week as the Canadian team is slowly closing down and the product is moving over to refocus everything in the European headquarters. Our design team has had six months to prepare for this transition, and we’ve been supported to continue our growth in that time, but it presents constant challenges. How do you do team building with a team that’s being taken apart?
Before the announcement, we had been working with our global director on a transatlantic trip from his home base in Berlin. We had met earlier and been in countless Zoom meetings together, but we had never sat down as a regional team and really connected. It was decided that the trip would go on despite the circumstances, but it was another curveball. How do you meaningfully connect with a team on their way out the door?
Presented with this uncomfortable scenario, it really would have been easiest to call it all off. But with a combination of some unyielding optimism and the fact that we had nothing to lose, I was determined to make the most of it.
We’ve been working as a high-performing team for years. We’ve taken on complicated projects, tackled fascinating design challenges, shipped vital features our customers depend on, and celebrated so many successes. We’ve also lived life together through everything from family deaths to babies being born, moving houses to pandemic shutdowns, lost dogs to dream weddings, and everything in between. We still had time together and support from Staffbase. We had to go for it.
Turning layoffs into lemonade
While we planned some fun team events too (with a healthy amount of Vancouver sightseeing for our visiting tourist), we set aside this one day for a workshop. My main requirement was that everyone should benefit from it, no matter their stage of career development or employment status with the company. We had designers on both the craft and leadership paths represented, and levels all the way up to global senior director, too. While we still could, I also wanted to draw from our unique experiences with each other and make use of the perspectives we’ve gained from working so closely.
So I had an idea. In addition to my role as director, I’m also a trained facilitator in the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® method and materials. Uniting these two is something I’ve always wanted to do, and it felt like a perfect time to bring it to the team. But to fully engage in a workshop with the team, I knew I wanted to also take part as a participant. This meant bringing in an external facilitator.
Thankfully, I’m married to one.
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