Team Building and Pumpkin Carving
by
Can carving a pumpkin be considered a team-building exercise? This is a question I would have never expected to answer on a Friday afternoon.
It all began when I innocently mentioned to a coworker that my family never carved Jack O'Lanterns for Halloween. Angela was very disturbed at hearing this. Apparently, every red-blooded American child is expected to wield a knife and gut a pumpkin each October, and my childhood was therefore depressing and bleak. Angela then insisted that we were going to carve a pumpkin during our afternoon break. Little did I know that when Angela says we are carving a pumpkin this afternoon, she means we are carving a pumpkin this afternoon. With the raw materials procured over lunch, we informed our boss of the plan and told our coworkers that, if needed, we could be reached in the break room between 3 and 3:15 p.m.
The actual carving wasn't too difficult. Of course, working with an experienced carver helps. There was a brief moment when I stopped mid-cut while we considered what would happen to the discarded pumpkin flesh over the weekend. Would the cleaning crew take out the trash tonight, or would we return Monday morning to the sickly smell of rotting pumpkin? After some deliberation, we agreed that if they didn't clean tonight, the pumpkin smell was preferable to the toxic fumes from the freshly-waxed lobby floor, and pressed on. As the curious wandered by the break room to gawk and give advice, we stated that this was a team-building exercise to build trust between the members of the marketing department. Angela had to trust that I wouldn't cut her fingers off, and I had to trust Angela to hold Mr. Pumpkin steady during his delicate surgical procedure.
So, does pumpkin carving make for a stronger team? In my experience, yes. Today, my colleague and I completed our daily job duties and created a new objet d'art for the conference room. I also learned how to safely handle a deadly weapon in the workplace. And, Angela says that if I die this weekend, she'll feel better knowing that at least I got to carve a pumpkin once in my life. You can't build that type of camaraderie with a two-day business retreat.
