Riding the hobby horse

It’s everyone’s dream, right? Turning your hobby into a job! We thought of this when we read an article on WorkJuice about discussing hobbies during a job interview. Is it smart to answer when your future boss asks about your free time? We bet there will still be quite a bit of beating around the bush. Once you are hired, you don’t have to do that anymore! Online Energizers pleads for openness – because we like our work. And we love improving yours!

A good team knows each other through and through, is genuinely interested in each other, and therefore also likes to know what occupies people outside working hours. Maybe the secretary is a softball star, the manager tinkers with Lego and the cleaner turns out to be a passionate gardener. As long as you don’t know their hobbies, you can never go and watch them excel, or even participate in their hobby yourself.

That’s why we’re going to find out what our hobbies are, during this inclusive Online Energizer. Let’s lay down a game of ‘dialogue cards’!

Steps:

• • Gather as large a team as possible into a digital meeting. Including people you might not normally talk to in such a formal digital setting. This Energizer is all about unity, equality, and brotherhood, to put it in French. (Chances are that one or more of your colleagues has living history, also called re-enactment, as a hobby!)
  • You can play the game all together, or in break-out rooms. If you want to go in depth, go for the second option. This get your colleagues to speed-date. The most fun is to assign them to each other randomly. The video software Zoom lends a helping hand: during a meeting, click on the “Breakout Room” button in the control bar. Select automatically and then click on create rooms at the bottom of the pop-up window. The breakout rooms are now started and all participants are randomly assigned to the number of rooms selected by the moderator. (By the way, chances are that one or more of your colleagues has been speed dating before! Does this count as a hobby though?)
  • Whichever way you play this Online Energizer, the bottom line is to get a happy conversation going. That’s why we’ve collected a few icebreakers.
  • One such question opens the circle of conversation. For example: What were you doing last Saturday at 11:11. (Fat chance some colleagues were already on the sports field at that ‘early hour’!)
  • Next. What’s the best advice you ever received for your hobby – and whom did it came from? (Fat chance a colleague likes to come up with quiz questions!)
  • What country would you love to visit, and why? (Chances are there’s a colleague who loves to travel, and has a great story to tell about it!)
  • What is your favorite room in your house? (Chances are there is a colleague who owns a (wo)man cave and spends a lot of free time there!)
  • What’s your favorite board game? (Chances are, after this Energizer, some colleagues will want to start a chess club)
  • Do you prefer reading for work or for pleasure? (Or we’ll start a book club!)
  • One hobby that almost everyone shares is…. Music – of course! If you want to experience a musical session about your favorite songs – and believe us, music is the ideal team builder – take a look at the Online Energizer of Nicolaas Duin, our living jukebox.
  • Does anyone have karaoke as a hobby? Challenge that person to sing along with one of the following songs about poker, doodling and pinball.

Songs: