Building better connections through PLAY.

Company culture is more than just a buzzword: It's your company's DNA and who you are as an organization. It permeates every facet of your business and impacts every single aspect of your company's day-to-day, workplace, and bottom line.

Topics: Company Culture, Leadership, Core Values, Business Tips, Learnings

The perfect opportunity to engage your employees and improve company culture is when it gets warm outside. Why? Because it gives you the opportunity to relive the nostalgia of your school days, when you had one day dedicated to fun and good-natured competition.

It's time to have a field day!

Topics: Team Building, Ideas, Company Culture, Sports, company events, Games, Activities, nostalgia, field day

Many of our clients are looking for more than just another repetitive happy hour. They want their company events to truly improve company culture, to drive connections, and improve working relationships in the office. 

One key area for those improvements is with regard to employee recognition. If you're looking for help infusing recognition into your company events, you'll want to start with these simple questions.

Topics: Company Culture, company events, Employee Recognition

Think about a time when you really nailed it. That feeling when you reached a milestone. That moment when you hit your goal. It feels good, right? It feels even better when someone else notices. So, how do you amplify the positive feeling so your employees feel recognized?

Topics: Company Culture, Employee Recognition

Your company event strategy can have a huge impact on the culture of your organization. So, rather than planning events last minute, it's important to consider what you really want to gain from the events, and how you want your company to grow.

We have some key tips on how to use events to create greater recognition, connection, balance, inclusivity, and fun.  

Topics: Company Culture, company events, company party, office events

Remember how winter felt when you were a kid? The exciting feeling of the first "snow day" of the year. The warm, sweet, creamy first sip of hot cocoa after a snowball fight. The carefree delight of ice skating with your friends. 

Those were the good old days. Why did things seem so good, so simple back then? 

Topics: company events, company party, nostalgia

It’s that time of year again. There’s a chill in the air. Puffy jackets, hats and scarves are on. Your morning coffee is dressed up in a holiday cup. And your company holiday party is just around the corner.

Topics: Holiday traditions, Holiday, Tips, Fun, Activities, company holiday party

Welcome to Leaders In Play! We interview people who take having FUN at work very seriously. We know, it seems like a crazy concept, but incorporating Play At Work has been proven to improve employee engagement, creativity, recruitment, retention, and provide countless other benefits that help create healthy company culture. Read on to learn more about our featured leader and their definition of Play, both in and out of the workplace.

Topics: Play, Play at Work, Soccer, Interview, Leaders In Play, Fun, women in business

Sports, at the end of the day, should be fun--even in the professional ranks. After all, they do play “games” every night, don’t they? The difference is their games often come within a high pressure environment where winning is the primary goal. There’s not one blueprint for how to win.

Topics: Office Culture, Play, Team, World Series, Team Building, Creativity, Play at Work, Reflections, Ideas, Employee Engagement, Work Culture, Culture, Company Culture, Goals, Sports, Baseball, Learnings

It's basically November, which means one thing:

It is OFFICIALLY company holiday party crunch time.

If you're still looking for the right venue, location, or partner for this year's company Christmas party, it's all good. The clock is ticking, but there are still tons of great places out there. We're here to help.

Topics: Holiday Party, company events, company holiday party, bowling, christmas party

Okay, so it’s late October, and you’re getting down to brass tacks on your company holiday party. You want it to feel special. You want your employees to be excited about it. You want to celebrate a great year with a night that is memorable and fun to keep them feeling engaged and valued.

Topics: Play, Holiday Party, company events, Games, Fun, Activities, Venues, company holiday party, company party, bowling

Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines. Because as we roll into October, it's time to start hardcore planning.

Topics: Holiday, Holiday Party, company events, company holiday party, company party

Congratulations to Barbara Rentler, CEO of Ross Stores on making the recently released Forbes list of America’s Most Innovative Leaders. Barbara joins 99 men to round out the 100-person list. Wait a minute. Are you kidding me? You mean to tell me that of all the most innovative leaders in the country, Forbes could only find one woman to meet their criteria?

Topics: diversity and inclusion, women in business, forbes

A venue sets the stage for what kind of party you’re going to have and the variables when choosing one can make anyone’s head spin. Before you decide on the place, it’s helpful to know roughly how many people will be attending, what activities will be planned, and, of course, what budget you have to work with. Even with this information, though, wading through the options and finding a venue that checks every box on your criteria can be quite the challenge.

Topics: Play, Event Planning, Corporate Event Planning, Holiday, Holiday Party, Ideas, Tips, company events, Games, Fun, Venues

Feeling excluded really stinks. That’s why it’s so often part of the story arc for high school cult-classic movies, and—on the positive side—one of the first lessons you learn as a kid. Exclude nobody and include everybody, always.

Topics: Team, Values, Reflections, Culture, Company Culture, Tips, diversity and inclusion, Learnings