In this informal conversation, Mike Michalowicz and a colleague discuss how company retreats serve as a crucial moment for hybrid and remote teams to reconnect, emphasizing the need for a balance between work and play. They share vivid anecdotes from a series of playful, competitive games they dubbed the "Dumb Olympics," including an Oreo‑on‑the‑forehead challenge and a whipped‑cream‑and‑bubble‑gum contest. The dialogue highlights the contrasting personalities of participants—particularly Lisa, described as fiercely competitive—and how these dynamics create memorable, bonding experiences that reinforce team cohesion while providing light‑hearted relief from work pressures.
Chapters
The good thing about our retreats is though, like, as you said, the retreat gives companies who are doing a hybrid or a remote location thing an opportunity to get themselves back together again. But it also, within the retreat themselves, there's this balance of work and play, which, okay, so there's our play with the Blaze and the game with Liz and her not getting the answer right. I laughed so hard that night. I found out what kind of person Lisa was. Our old colleague Lisa was at that one and she's the most competitive thing in the world. And she was teamed up with me, the least competitive thing in the world. I had tears pouring down my face. Was this the— was this the dump? Was screaming in my face like a Marine drilled sergeant. That's Lisa.
And so supportive too. We did the— I called it the Dumb Olympics. Yes. You came up with these things. And so one was put an Oreo cookie on your forehead and get into your mouth. Yeah, yeah. And Lisa, like, I am owning this.
Yeah. And she did it. She won everything. I think she took it all.
There was another one, like, with whipped cream.
Yeah, getting the piece of bubble gum in the bottom of a pile of whipped cream and chewing it and getting a bubble blown first.
That's right, right, right, right. That was the race. I remember, like, an hour or two later, I'm like, I was like, what's that smell? It's like bad sour milk. My stink beard. And I thought I washed it out because, you know, everyone wash your face. I didn't use soap. Oh my God, it was rotten. Rotten. So much fun. It is.
