The Happy Feet Challenge

In their May 2016 edition, Scientific American published an intriguing article entitled Why dancing leads to Bonding.

“There is perhaps nothing more universal than the drive to move our bodies in sync with music. Studies show that dancing at parties and in groups encourages social bonding, whether it is a traditional stomp, a tango or even the hokeypokey. Many researchers have argued that people experience a blurring of the self into their groups thanks to the synchronization that occurs while dancing. Yet it is also possible that the exertion inherent to dancing releases hormones—like any other form of physical exercise—and these molecules are behind the bonding effect. A new study suggests both views may be correct”

And yet, the reality is that – the minute we suggest any form of dancing in a corporate team event, we can visibly see people shrinking in their chairs, nervous giggles all around, and a few people immediately get urgent phone calls to attend to!

FocusU now brings to you The Happy Feet Challenge!

One of our very powerful interventions, the workshop has seen the very same participants who plead with the facilitators to let them sit out, slowly being drawn in step by step, in the most comfortable and unobtrusive way to a state where they end up “wanting to dance” even more!

Avail Program Through

• When run in the physical mode, participants learn not to judge themselves, to stop seeking approval, and to dance without caring about judgments. We call that a state of “dance like no one is watching.” The joy and freedom of expressing their being will be more powerful than not expressing themselves and worrying about being judged. The real magic though is in what happens to a group of people who go through the experience together. When inhibitions drop, when people learn to “mirror” and “shadow” each other and something subtle and wonderful happens. Team members begin to feel comfortable with each other like never before. Just like Mumble in Happy Feet, they find a breakthrough with others in just being themselves.

• While run in the virtual mode, the modus operandi is no different. The virtual environment infact helps a lot of shy participants drop their inhibitions, since they are in their own private space. When you are just a small rectangle inside a laptop screen and there are 25 other rectangles that are also in action – people become less conscious and lose themselves in the process, thus having fun!

A few key parameters:

1 hour

Time Limit

Physical or Virtual

Where this can be run

20 to 500

Group sizes

Debrief can be customised

Customisation

Is this workshop right for my team?
As a leader, if you want to challenge your team members to move beyond their comfort zones, break out of their shells and connect with each other in a much deeper way, this is one challenge you should invite your team to!

The activity can be debriefed around a few themes:

• Challenging our own perceived limitations
• The importance of the mindset we bring to any task
• Taking risks versus playing safe
• Thinking out of the box

"Within just 2 minutes of our interaction with the FocusU team, we got convinced that our decision to go for new trainers will not be wrong decision. They explained the activities so passionately that in that half hour of discussion with them we were already day dreaming of our offsite day. Then the D day came and we met our 3 awesome Facilitators. They swayed us away from our daily work pressure with their warm and infectious smile and extraordinary energies. We did celluloid challenge and oh my god it was super super fun. For that 90 minutes we all were living our hidden childhood dream to be an actor or actress. What’s commendable is they imbibed our company values in those activities so everyone is having fun but not forgetting the values that we inherit. It was out first time with FocusU but I am assured this is just the beginning. Now people in the team look forward to activities because of the fun we had because of the Facilitators from FocusU. Hats off to the team for doing such a wonderful job and inspiring many others including me to take up the task of making others happy by doing great work. Once again a big thanks to all of you."

Vidita Chachra

Deputy Manager – IPC Region 1, Insurance, XL Catlin