Before my mind can comprehend what is happening, my body begins to dance — and I mean DANCE. It was not the scripted and safe two-step you expect from a middle-aged white guy with the choppy rhythm of a corny dad joke.

After an hour and a half of sugar-hyped brainstorming, we selected an odd experiential learning exercise guaranteed to cement our brand identity into attendees' minds.

“Let’s play a giant game at the conference, but not tell anyone we’re playing.”

Group leaders seek team building for one of four reasons. To connect, to discover, to develop, or to overcome. What does each category mean?

Unhealthy optimism is harder to identify, but it will kill your team culture as surely as more overtly destructive methods.

It was 2005, and my team was preparing to attend and a mid-sized conference. We purchased some space in the exhibit hall. My boss tasked me with creating a way to boost foot traffic to our booth.

Professor: This is a class about advanced database design. Queries are covered in Intro to MIS and every subsequent class in the major. How do you not know what this is? Seriously. You need to understand this.”

Mark: “Ok.”

Professor: “Don’t you want a high-paying IT job?”

Mark: “No…”

Shannon and I moved our cards around, trying dozens of pairings until we landed on Lip + Box. 

“What if we had a device that gave people a do-over when they said something uncaring or insensitive?”

“Yes, and…”

For weeks, I found myself avoiding dealing with the “what” question and focusing only on the operational infrastructure of the business. I formed an LLC, decided on the logo and brand colors, and built a website necessary to operate the business…But I still delayed in definitively answering that question, “What does WorkPlay Solutions actually do?”

“Each holiday, we send the other person a bad gift. It started off fairly tame, then got weirder and weirder every year,” recalls Alice. “One year she sent me a hospital gown. So I sent her…

With everyone gone, this left a burning question for those left behind. "Now, who is in charge?"…

"Just don't burn the place down while we are gone."

My good friend Russ Sarratt reminded me of this personality quirk of mine recently. I sometimes describe different aspects of my behavior or personality as if they are distinct entities. You see, there is “Results Driven-Mark,” “Fun-Mark,” “Dad-Mark,” “Empathy-Mark,” even “One Beer-Mark.”