SQLBits isn’t the only thing your businesses can benefit from, Dungeons and Dragons is an awesome team-building tool.
Dungeons and Dragons could be just the team-building tool employers need as they face the serious challenge of maintaining employee engagement and well-being in the new world of remote working, as by working from home you can miss that face-to-face colleagues interaction and catch-ups!
Before we get into the why, let us tell you what!
What is SQLBits? What is Dungeons and Dragons?
To anyone who has never attended SQLBits before…
We get that transforming your business through data technology adoption can be difficult. If you want to build a great data platform, your team needs the skills to develop and maintain it… and that’s where we are here to help! SQLBits help ensure your data is managed, governed, and secured by developing your most important resource: your people, with training over 5 days giving you the chance to meet the people who design and build the products you use and depend on every day!
For those who have never played D&D…
The game, Dungeons and Dragons, requires an interactive storyteller, who takes a group of players through a series of quests, in which the actions contribute to the narrative. The results of the choices they make – for instance, whether to fight or flight – are decided by the roll of various dice!
So, you’re probably thinking… How do these two things relate?
SQLBits and D&D both allow colleagues to interact in different ways, removing the barriers that are built up at work in a professional environment. Which is crucial to team-building and maintaining an employee and employer relationship!
Why is D&D good for businesses?
As many people may know, Dungeons and dragons rely on players to immerse themselves in their characters and experience. During D&D every player is contributing to the story in some way – promoting a dynamic that creates friendship and familiarity between colleagues. By encouraging employees to drop their guard and go all-in, put themselves out there, and do something they might not otherwise try, promotes trying new things, being part of an unjudgmental team, as well as being more comfortable with employees in a work environment.
D&D involves being given tasks to work together and solve as a team, meaning players have the opportunity to readdress their resources and evaluate why their plan didn’t work. In essence, it takes the stigma out of failure in the office, while allowing those who don’t typically contribute to problem-solving and challenges to relax and help take charge of a situation, which can then be reflected in the workplace.
We chose to be inspired by Dungeons and Dragons at SQLBits as we can create a safe space for people to explore and test out different ideas, techniques and ideas, without judgement – something we believe is extremely important in the workplace, at conferences and, of course, during D&D!
Let’s sum it up.. (grab your wizard’s hat and start playing!)
Companies that try Dungeons and Dragons as a team-building tool could benefit from a more collaborative, creative, and content workforce. If you’re a business leader seeking employee engagement improvements, why not grab your dungeon master’s hat, gather your party and roll some dice? On this quest, people have nothing to lose, as there is no blaming one person during this team game!
Allow employees to gain insights into their own personalities, as well as sharing interests and ideas informally with colleagues. For example, if you find out that you (or a colleague) is somewhat impulsive, how might this affect how you’d solve problems in the real world?
So what do you think? A world-class training conference and D&D all at once, it’s a place to bring your team and level-up TOGETHER!
For more insights please check out Raconteur’s blog on employee engagement with D&D
If you have read this for helping increase employee moral in the office, you could also check out our other blog ‘Leaders Helping Employees with Their Mental Health’