Working in an office all day can make it easy to feel disconnected, from coworkers as well as the world at large. A team from J.P. Morgan Asset Management took steps to combat that isolation through Magnovo’s Mission: Military Care™ charity team building workshop.
Working Toward a Common Goal in New York City
We met with about 70 folks on a warm summer day, on-site at the J.P. Morgan Asset Management offices in New York, NY. One of the goals of the event was to overcome communication constraints among international team members. It can be very easy for the silo effect to take root when people aren’t working in the same time zone or even the same office. The Mission: Military Care™ program is designed to cultivate key skills like communication while motivating folks through a social mission dedicated to America’s servicemen and women.
Teamwork Through Communication
It took a little bit of effort for the folks from J.P. Morgan to warm up. This was a group that didn’t get together in person very often. The program coordinators had already pre-arranged for teams when we arrived, and so we got started without delay. A few ice breakers eased participants into the workshop nicely.
Participants divided into teams, and each team was responsible for winning care package items through games, challenges, and obstacles. These activities strengthened communication skills and encouraged big-picture thinking in a way that increased understanding of how valuable individuals are to team efforts.
Everyone enjoyed our most popular activities, like Flip the Cup, Blind Ball Drop, and Team Writing. Participants prepared and packed dozens of care packages. It was an amazing thing to see how a group of employees evolved into a unified team over the course of an afternoon.
Care Packages for the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs – New York City
We arranged for Muriel Kaparis, a representative of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, to be on-site to receive the donated care packages. She spoke movingly of the veterans she’s worked with, and how much they appreciated these care packages while deployed. Her remarks had a visible impact on many of the workshop participants that day.
The debriefing session we held afterward with the J.P. Morgan Asset Management Team focused on how to maintain and build upon the good communication framework developed through the workshop after returning to the office. Participants were enthusiastic about making positive change, and keeping it going.