Team events are easy to plan.
Culture change is not.
That’s where most organizations get tripped up.
They host a fun offsite, run a team activity, snap a few photos, and then… nothing changes. A week later, communication issues resurface, silos re-form, and leaders quietly wonder why the event didn’t stick.
Team events don’t change culture. What you do before and after them does.
If you want a one-off team event to create lasting impact, you need intention, structure, and follow-through.
Why Purpose Beats Perks in Team Bonding
Free lunches. Company swag. Casual Fridays. Office happy hours.
None of these are bad. But let’s be honest. If perks actually built strong teams, employee engagement would be through the roof and employee turnover would be a thing of the past.
It’s not.
Perks are easy. Purpose takes intention. And when it comes to team bonding, intention is what moves the needle.
Reflect On Purpose
Some things went right this year, and some things went wrong. That feels like a constant thread when reflecting at year’s end. Often, years don’t feel like huge wins or huge losses.
Instead, continual progression is a really good thing to notice at the end of the year. It’s easy to think, If I didn’t have that one setback, things would be better. But what about all those incredible moments that truly moved me and my business forward? Every one of those could have gone the other way. Through strategy, work, and a whole lot of luck, we ended up with mostly wins.
Cohesive Leaders take time at the end of the year to check systems and reflect on both wins and losses.
The Market Doesn’t Care What You Love
In my last Leading On Purpose blog post (click here to read), I disagreed with Scott Galloway. Now I’d like to share something we agree on.
In this clip, Scott shares something most people don’t want to hear. He says that while passion is exciting, talent pays the bills.
And honestly? He’s right. The market doesn’t reward what feels good to you. It rewards what you do exceptionally well and can deliver consistently.
I’ll add another layer to this: You don’t discover talent by sitting still. You find it by trying things.
Why Virtual Team Building Isn’t Just for Remote Startups Anymore
Remember when virtual team building was something only scrappy startups did because nobody had an office yet? Cute times. Fast-forward to today with hybrid schedules, distributed teams, and employees logging in from three time zones and a dog-occupied kitchen table have become business as usual.
And with that shift comes a not-so-subtle truth: virtual team building isn’t a temporary fix anymore — it’s a core piece of healthy company culture.
In fact, the organizations that are thriving right now aren’t the ones waiting for everyone to “get back together in person.” They’re the ones investing in connection where people actually are. Online. On calls. Across states. Sometimes across continents.
We Don’t Need Crutches to Connect
I recently stumbled across this video on my For You Page and I have some thoughts:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRcXwy6jN9H/?igsh=cXd4b2RreHFjZG41
Scott Galloway makes a wildly sensational claim here that remote work is supposedly dismantling an entire generation. According to him, the office is the sacred incubator of career growth, friendship, romance, resilience, and every good thing in between. He even goes as far as tying the anti-alcohol movement into the downfall of social connection.
Strong take, BUT not exactly the full picture.
So let's talk about it.
Lessons I Bought With a Pay Cut
$96,000.
That was how much money I made in my start-up sales job right after I dropped out of college.
$10,000.
That was my entire income in my first full year of running On Purpose Adventures, plus whatever I scraped together from demolition work and random gig projects.
Can you guess which year was one of the best of my life?
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