The Hunt for Cohesion
The 2023 ONE SHRM Georgia State Conference and Expo was an experience like no other. Over 380 attendees pursued the three elements of a Cohesion Culture™: Belonging, Value, and Mutual Commitment.
Attendees received a crash course on Infusing Cohesion to Attract and Retain Top Talent by Cohesion Culture™ Crew: Troy Hall, Ph.D. I-CUDE, Retention Expert, Karmen Zabron, HR Gamification Strategist, and myself, Ben-Jamin Toy , Team Builder.
The participants utilized interactive directives facilitated through gaming tablets to complete tasks. They took part in lighthearted activities, encountering what some considered their inaugural "Un-Scavenger Hunt".
The Un-Hunt (non-traditional, non-sequential scavenger hunt) allowed over 30 teams (100+ participants) to explore the resort grounds, or stay in the ballroom and complete tasks and challenges that introduced the strategic framework of Cohesion: Belonging (Inclusion), Value (Meaningful Work), and Commitment (Collaboration), as well as name that tune trivia, brain teasers, and even lead changes requiring teams to alter who was making decisions. This video is a short collection of what was experienced:
Our team building activities and workshops are unique and hands-on. No more eye rolls when team building is mentioned. No death by PowerPoint or trust falls. We combined educational elements with skill development, leadership enhancement, and a healthy dose of camaraderie.
The participants loved delving into the experiential nature of our activities. We would lead the group through discussions of difficult topics, and then provide them with great ideas and ways to actually utilize the ideas back in their organizations.
The gap between "Ha ha" and "Aha" is small!
Attendees would participate in an activity where they would be laughing. Then we would hit them with the debrief where the laughs turned into "Ahas". Click here to read more about The Power of Play in our previous blog post.
Experience today, implement tomorrow.
The activities were eye opening for our participants to see how simple activities could convey such deep and challenging concepts. They learned that adding some play to daily tasks can provide levity.
Karmen Zabron had the opportunity to share with the packed room her knowledge on gamifying the workplace:
"Tweak your thinking just a bit. Approach the type of work you do as if it is a game. What you do is the objective of the game. The employees are the players. Now you’re ready to align the types of behavior, used in a game, with the tasks at hand."
Then on day 2, the Cohesion Culture™ Crew facilitated two sessions titled: The Culture Cheat Code: How to Infuse Cohesion to Attract and Retain Your Top Talent. Those experiential sessions had attendees laughing, engaging, and most importantly, learning. They left with concepts, activities, and Culture Cheat Codes they could implement immediately.
If you have any questions, or want to learn how we can help you infuse cohesion into your organization, email us at
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