NCAA March Madness & The Workplace
The NCAA Men’s and Women’s annual basketball tournaments, also known as March Madness, is the major annual event of college basketball and is one of the most watched sporting events of the entire year.
It runs between March 14th – April 3rd this year.
Chances are you could be reading this while watching one of the games right now!
What does March Madness mean for an organization?
There are several ways businesses and organizations can leverage March Madness to increase productivity AND increase office morale.
· Great excuse for an office party: Why not bring in some TV screens and gather the remote and hybrid troops in the office or local sports bar for an informal TV-watch party? I have done this in the past and I never saw my staff so happy. It’s good to see the staff cheering, laughing, and having a good time. These are stressful times!
· Encourages time management: By sectioning off a late afternoon Thursday or Friday for some fun, it would encourage staff to do a little prioritizing earlier in the week to free up time for the party. People may hustle and be more productive for the week. They may not. See who responds and who doesn’t.
· Intensity: March Madness tends to bring out the competitive spirit in the people whether it is because many have favorite college teams or maybe they like to wager some on the games.
Intensity can be very good for a firm’s culture. Invigorating. Maybe the top three winners get the next Friday off or maybe an Amazon gift card?
· Teamwork: Gather the troops. Create some comradery. Organize some of the staff as individual teams to place small wagers on the winners and the losers of the tournament. This can be a lot of fun. Filling out the “bracket” is very popular and something our office does before the tournament starts. A bracket can be filled out at any time during the tournament. Once again, another opportunity for a team prize too!
Organizational leaders and workers alike are struggling right now to find that happy balance between office productivity and worker satisfaction. No one has the magic bullet, so why not give it a try? It may be a small step, but an important one.
These are just a few of the many ideas that one could use March Madness to promote teamwork and fun in an organization.
Let’s go Texas A&M!
