After several months of brainstorming, planning and developing content, we finally rolled out ‘The GG Game’ today. A card swap game that the marketing team has been working on with the aim of increasing employee engagement, happiness, and interaction between each other. From its name, GG stands for “Get me” and “Give you”, you play with a colleague and swap cards. If you get a green card, you are lucky and your colleague will have to get you something, and if you are not, then you will have to give him something.
What to give and what to get?
That’s something the team brainstormed over and over. We wanted to mix a list of items that would get people excited such as chocolate and ice cream, but also wanted to toss in some tasks to encourage employees to be more engaged, such as coming up with an idea and submitting it to our ideation website (Wasl challenge), or writing a new blog and submitting it to our corporate blog, or simply being obliged to take the stairs the next day to one’s office instead of the elevator.
When I received my set of cards today, I opted to play it with my colleague Kalthoom. We were excited as we held our cards facing each other, not sure what was in store for us. She started and picked a red card with a chewing gum and the number 3 attached to it; which means that she has to get me 3 chewing gums. Not bad! I like chewing gums! And I also lucked out when it was my turn to pick from her cards. I picked a green card with a task stating “Email me a motivational quote every morning next week”. I will make sure to hold her on to this task, but I also asked her to copy the entire team so that we all get motivated.
The list of items and tasks is long which adds to the beauty of the game. Each time someone plays it, he/she will get a surprise, which hopefully will get them motivated to play it over and over again.
We have tried our best to keep the game as simple as possible, cutting down the 4 colors concept we initially thought of into two colors cards (Red and Green) of giving and getting. We were also worried that people will not understand the mechanics of the game and thus created an instruction leaflet to accompany the set of cards we distributed.
It was a fun journey coming up with the idea and developing it. I worked closely with Leontia D’Silva, my colleague, on every stage of it and I really appreciate her input and efforts here. I would love to thank our creative agency who helped us come up with a suitable attractive creative. I also would love to thank my ex-manager Niveen Tolba, who pointed out the complications of the previous concept and raised our attention to the need of simplifying it. And finally thanking every member of the marketing team for their input and support throughout the whole process.
It was indeed a team project. And today, seeing the feedback and the excitement of other colleagues, makes me feel like it was all worth the efforts.
- Submitted By Fadi Zaghmout, Digital Marketing and Social Media Specialist
The ‘Get me Give You’ game, abbreviated to the GG Game has been a fun and special project for me. The conception of the idea came about when my colleague, Fadi and I were discussing how we should play more games in the office. The main motive behind devising the game was to increase conversation and engagement among colleagues, not just within the department but also with colleagues from other departments.
To discover different types of tasks, you are compelled to play the game with more people, and I think that is the best part of the game! If you want to explore all the activities of the game, you have to take the initiative to pop into another department and play the game with different people. We hope that this task-based game encourages our employees to interact with each other more.
The journey of developing the game was quite exciting as well. Initially, the game had several other rules that took us ages to explain! After several rounds of creative discussions and with the insightful input from everyone from our department, the game took the shape of what it is today. Our creative juices really flowed out blissfully throughout the designing process of the game and it was truly an incredible experience to be a part of. What made it more special was the response we received from everyone after distributing the game.
It was wonderful to know that everyone was enjoying the new game. Many already played the game and found it easy to understand, thought it was super fun and told us that they were surely going to play the game again and again. Having received such incredible feedback, we felt like all the effort we put into devising the game was definitely worth it. I hope everyone continues to play the game and follows through with the dares they receive. I played the game myself, and now have to get three carrots for my colleague, Walid. While he munches on his carrots, I have to take the stairs, going up 4 floors to reach my office tomorrow morning.
I believe it is extremely important to have the right balance between work and play… so, the next time you feel bogged down by all the workload you have, pick up your set of cards and play the GG Game!
- Submitted By Leontia D'Silva, Junior Digital Executive
