Our recent Bike-A-Thon workshop with WilmerHale proved once again that the most effective corporate team building activities are relational.
In the world on litigation WilmerHale is a household name and is among the top international law firms in the country. The firm was created in 2004—the result of a merger between the Boston-based firm, Hale and Dorr and the Washington-based firm Wilmer Cutler and Pickering.
With 1,000 lawyers in 13 locations in the US, Asia, Europe it is now one of the most prestigious and competitive firms in the world. After only 15 years, it has already led landmark cases that helped to shape our country.
Corporate team building activities and personality profiles
We met 40 of their brightest and best at the WilmerHale headquarters in DC for a day of fun and team building challenges.
More often than not, the glue that bonds teams together is an insight into each member’s personality. DiSC personality profile training is the best tool for personality discovery and relationship building. Dominant, Influential, Steadfast, and Conscientious [DiSC] personality types all have something to contribute if you understand what motivates them.
The 40 WilmerHale participants had just completed their DiSC training and were eager to put their new insights into practical use. They divided into team and assembled 6 bikes using communications and collaboratives skills based on their teammates’ personalities.
Each team had to “compete” for tools and bike parts, and their success was based on their new understanding of each others’ strengths, weaknesses, and quirks.
One staffer from London raved: “It was so amazing and fun how you brought us together, and identified our personalities, and had fun with us without ever having met us before. It was truly amazing!”
Corporate team building activities that help communities
Equally amazing was the genuine gratitude of the charity recipient who received the bike donations.
Houston Elementary School in DC is named for Charles H. Houston—a great civil rights attorney. Donating the bikes to this school resonated with the WilmerHale managers because of their longstanding commitment to civil rights and pro bono services.
The school representative literally gushed thanksgiving for our generosity explaining that each bike would transform the lives of the kids who got them—their health, their self-esteem, their social wellbeing! He was ecstatic!
And so were we. Corporate team building activities that make a difference in a child’s life—it doesn’t get any better than that.