Olympic Fever at the Office February 22nd, 2010

The 2010 Winter Olympics is now in progress, and much of the world is captivated with Olympic Fever. Aside from extended daily water cooler talk, how do you plan to celebrate the Games with your office-mates?

Here are few ideas to light the Olympic flame at your workplace:

Host a Canada party: To celebrate the host county of this year’s Olympics, organize with your staff members a potluck party that celebrates all things Canadian. This may include cliché products like maple syrup, meat pie, donuts, and good quality beer. But it can go further than that too. Check out a couple of great websites for recipe ideas.

In addition to Canadian food, consider having your staff dress is Canada’s national colours – red and white — and organize a round of trivia all about Canadian history, geography and celebrities. Top it all off with music from Canada’s biggest musical superstars. For a quintessential – and surprisingly accomplished — list, do your research and download from iTunes. Burn a CD for all staff members to enjoy at their desks.

Plan a winter sports day: For those who work in cooler climates, the 2010 Olympics is the perfect opportunity to plan a “snow day”. Organize outings to the local ski hill, ice rink or curling club and let staff pick which way they’d like to spend their day. Or try something really different – take the whole team out on a day-long adventure of biathlon training, tobogganing (the tamer version of luging) or an intro to snowboarding.

For those who are in sunnier parts of the country, consider having snow made on-site or trucked in, and staging your own Olympic Games in your office courtyard. You’d be surprised how easy it is to find a company that provides snow services, and they can help you set up everything from a snowman making competition to ice sculpting, to igloo designing.

The sky is the limit with a winter sports day – I even found a company that rents simulated snowboard machines! The idea is to have fun and try something new. Make it a no-Blackberry event to ensure everyone participates and has a good time.

Conduct a cultural celebration: The Olympics are about the world coming together, and you can celebrate this by encouraging your office to celebrate cultures from around the world. You can organize staff groups into “countries” – decorating their cubicles, dressing in national colours and providing recipes from various countries who are involved with the Olympics. Or you can ask staff to share their personal cultural heritage and do a grown-up show and tell of personal memorabilia, food and culture from their own backgrounds. You’d be surprised how much diversity you have in the office that you weren’t even aware of!

Wrap up the event with a contest for best-decorated cubicle and best-dressed ambassador.

The basics: A few other Olympic ideas are an office pool, with bets collected going to a sports-minded charity; a daily recap of last night’s medals during the lunch hour (f your lunchroom has a TV); or the creation of a central tally board, where everyone can report on medal standings from the Games.

No matter what Olympic celebration you plan for your office, make sure your executives take full part in the activities to ensure their success and acceptance by your team. And share your Olympic celebration stories and photos here!

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Submitted by Heather McCulligh
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Tags: HR and the olympics, olympics at the office, winter olympic celebrations