Fun with whiteboards

A creative challenge: Mix 80s songs and deserts.

I got an email from Julie Dunbar at ABC-CLIO who wrote:

I’ve been inspired by your ideas for the past few months about bringing happiness into the workplace. Last week I discovered something that really brought joy into my office and I wanted to share it with you.

On the office whiteboard we wrote a theme–Day 1 was Literature and Food; Day 2 was Movies and Food; and Day 3 (Valentine’s Day) was 1980s Love Songs and Desserts (we like food).

Underneath the theme we wrote a few examples. Day 1: (Literature and Food) Tequila Mockingbird, Mansfield Pork, The Loin the Witch and the Wardrobe. Day 2: (Movies and Food) Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kidney Bean, Citizen Candy Kane, Silence of the Lambchops. Day 3: (80s songs and desserts) I Just Called to Say I Love Tiramisu, When Dove Bars Cry, and Why Can’t Pie be You.

By the end of each day, the white board was filled! By day 3, when I walked into the office, coworkers were already standing around the whiteboard and asked me, “Can we start?” One of them thanked me for bringing creativity in the office place!

Here are the full whiteboards for the other two themes:

But it doesn’t stop there. ABC-CLIO are spread over 2 offices and some people work from home. As Julie wrote in a follow-up email:

We all work together every day via phone and email, but we don’t actually know or have fun with one another. I thought it would be fun if we challenged the other colleagues outside of our Colorado office to this game – might help with building connection.

So we did this week and it was a success. The California office has already told me they will be counter-challenging us soon!

Here’s the email challenge:

This is a simple little thing you can do to introduce some fun in a workplace or between different locations of the same workplace. Could it work in your organization?

Also, what would be your contributions in the categories above? I have “Girls Just Wanna Have Flan” and “Field of Cream Puffs” :o)