16 Mar March Madness at Work: A 3-Point Solution
The basketball games of March Madness can be a unique challenge in the office-place. As a chance for camaraderie and shared conversation, this event encourages even “non-sportsball” people to engage. The difficulty is that this 68-team single-elimination tournament holds 67 games over 21 days. The NCAA tournament begs with Selection Sunday, when the selection committee announces all 68 tournament teams, and ends with the Final Four and championship game three weeks later. That’s a lot of opportunity for an office to lose focus but a few careful plays can help make sure this is the sweetest season ever.
- Create a Bracket Challenge with No Buy-In
One of the greatest parts of March Madness is filling out a bracket predicting who will win and taking part in pools with co-workers but betting in the workplace can be a cause for concern. An alternative option is to create a no-buy-in pool and simply offer an award for the winner. Simply assign a point value for each correct piece of the bracket and the one with the most point in the end, wins.
- Set Up a Viewing Room
Ensuring that employees are focused on work and not trying to watch games on the office network or become distracted with smartphones the temptation is just to ban game watching at work. However, creating a space that allows employees to watch games during lunch and breaks with expectations that work must still be completed can create more buy-in and keep the game-watching within acceptable limits.
- Allow Employees to Wear Team Colors
When appropriate, relax the dress code policy so employees can wear a team jersey or shirt supporting their favorite team.. It will create an opportunity for employees to show their personality and get to know each other better. If you have a company store, consider adding company branded jerseys to help extend the fun.
Embracing the madness of March and building up your company’s team spirit in the process can be a real game-winning move for everyone.
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