BioMarin Builds Resilience & Teamwork While Giving Back to Our Military

We always ask what goals our clients have for the workshops they choose. BioMarin had some unique goals: resilience, teamwork, and to leave feeling like they did something good.

It’s great to see commitment to teamwork in the real world. When we met up with a group from BioMarin in Sausalito, California this past Summer, we got to see a great example of how teamwork really plays out.

Their Manager Helped Warm up the Group

BioMarinFirst, the manger of the group we worked with that day did a little PowerPoint presentation at the beginning of the event.

After the intro, where we talked about the military and related it to what they are working on at BioMarin, it was time for the ice breakers. We did:

  1. Super Fan
  2. Go around room and share unique quality
  3. Have you ever…?
  4. Hold hands and jump
  5. Mirror #’s
  6. String example

As you can see, those engineers needed quite a bit of warming up! But once those ice breakers kicked in and got everyone down on the same level and relaxed enough to start communicating well and working together, their teamwork skills were superb.

Stuffing Bags is Serious (and Noisy) Business!

We had to be a little quiet because we were sharing the space with another event, which was located on the other side of a wall. We kept relatively quiet for the neighbors. The music was off and the group kept quiet during the part of the workshop where they were writing their thank you cards. But the other activities are hands-on and interactive so compromises were made and we had to make some noise!!!

 

Next, we did “Commercials”, a highly collaborative activity that puts teamwork skills to the test. Surprisingly, they did incredibly well creating and performing their TV commercials for fictional products. Yes, engineers can be creative, too!

The Bags Were Jam-Packed

Then, we put together the bags which would hold goodies for overseas military personnel. They really jam-packed those bags! The service men and women would receive a great mix of food, toiletries, balls and all sorts of good stuff. They were packed right to capacity.

The bags would go to the American Legion Twin Cities Post in Larkspur, and from there to military troops stationed overseas. Success was certainly “in the bag”, since everyone displayed great teamwork abilities, and they all left feeling they’d done something good for others in the world.