With a pause in the sunny weather and the forecast looking grim for the next few weeks, we wanted to create a team challenge that would bring everyone back together, encourage some banter and promote wellbeing, while still working remotely. We decided on a step challenge!

10 staff members divided into 2 teams – names drawn out of a hat on a conference call for a bit of drama, the Sole Sisters and the Hot Steppers were formed! The rules – 1 week to do as many steps as possible, with the losing team being subject to a forfeit…chosen by the winning team.

The competitive bunch that we are, no-one wanted to be the losers – with each team having their own WhatsApp group, tactics were discussed and we cheered each other on with our efforts.

A centralised group was created for some friendly rivalry and we had updates every 2 days on the main group with step totals to keep motivation high and help the teams know if they were in the lead or had some catching up to do.

Although it rained most of the week, dogs were walked several times a day, outdoor runs were completed, children were walked at every opportunity and nipping to the shops was another excuse for steps rather than driving down.

Outcome:

After a hard slog the results were:
The Hot Steppers (Paul, Theresa, Cat, Joe and Laura) – 428,356 steps

The Sole Sisters (Michelle, Jenny, Faye, Katie and Collette) – triumphant with 530,999 steps

The ladies have it! An average of over 15,000 steps each per day with some people achieving over 25,000 on some days, resulting in some aching legs and hips!

The forfeit has been decided for the Hot Steppers. We thought we would like to involve people’s families and so we’re asking team member’s children to gunge them! The dreaded gunge will take place live on a team call for a bit of fun…photos to follow!

Benefits:

It was decided by the group that the challenge was enjoyed by all and certainly pushed them to move and be outdoor more when they would have stayed in. Having desk based roles, sedentary lifestyles is an issue for office/home workers and can contribute to poor physical health as well as mental health problems so this forced us to get moving more. One tip which was useful was setting an alarm every hour and walking around for 2 minutes, this meant regular screen breaks as well as movement breaks.

Other team members reported improvements in physical fitness with several completing virtual exercise classes during the challenge which they will keep doing as part of their routine now. Some said their walking speed had significantly increased since the challenge, getting round the dog walking route much more quickly. Everyone said their children and dogs had certainly appreciated the extra play time.

Finally, we all agreed this had been a positive week on our carbon footprint, we hardly used out cars and all walked as much as possible, highlighting changes we could commit to in the future to help the environment.

Most of all it’s been a great team builder for us – some good bonding and fun banter overall. It has given us a common goal to work towards and something to talk about aside from work and Covid-19 and we feel much more united than we did just before the challenge.
We’re already talking about what our next challenge will be. If you have any suggestions or things you’ve done with your own teams then please do send them our way!

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