The AbbVie Team Breaks New Ground with Their Workshop in Mettawa, IL

This was a Rescue Buddies Charity Workshop we staged for Abbvie Pharmaceuticals in Mettawa, IL. The company was about to launch a very important new product and management wanted their sales force and other departments to be in lock step when they actually rolled it out.

AbbVieIt was our job to design a workshop that would be equal parts energizer, communication lesson, and get-acquainted party. Fortunately, our designers and facilitators proved to be up to the challenge. The workshop was fast-paced, productive, and seemed to make a real impression on everyone involved.

Teamwork Skills and Stuffed Animals for The United Way of Lake County

We thought that a Rescue Buddies Stuffed Animal Workshop was perfect for the AbbVie team. It’s designed to foster true growth in a company’s organization, even as it makes a difference in the community. The idea behind Rescue Buddies is that teams work together to gather materials and actually construct stuffed animals to benefit children’s organizations.

In this case, AbbVie decided to donate the stuff animals they produced to the United Way of Lake County. One of the great things about a charity workshop is that it helps team members put their egos aside in an attempt to achieve something bigger than they could do all alone. And better yet, it fosters a team first attitude that continues back at the office.

A Great Workshop from Start to Finish

There were 45 people from Abbvie in attendance and we held the workshop at their facility in Mettawa. We started the morning activities slowly to give them a chance to get warmed up. First, we played a few of our mini-games. These were designed to accomplish two things at once– to break the ice and get the staff communicating as a unit.

Our facilitators knew this would be an interesting workshop coming in because many of the participants had never worked together before, but they had no idea how energetic and competitive the AbbVie team would be once things got going. The AbbVie tore through the morning activities and was ready to take on the world by the time the Rescue Buddies section got started.

For an encore, they competed even harder with one another! But they competed with fun, laughter, and a great deal of community spirit. The end result was a team primed for great success on their new project.