Every year, IPI makes it a point to organize a company-wide staff training event to gather employees from across the state to develop skills and teamwork abilities. This year, nearly 60 IPI employees from around the organization congregated in the Des Moines Showroom for the annual event.
Upon entry to the showroom, employees were greeted with a nametag, a Ziploc bag full of paper tiles, and a small, colorful bead. This bead, chosen from a container at random, would dictate the seating arrangement and teams for the events to follow. From survey responses in the past, it was clear that attendees wanted the opportunity to mingle and become familiar with other IPI employees that they may not normally have the chance to interact with. Based on this feedback, an emphasis of this year's training event was on communication.
To break the ice and tie into the idea of communication, each employee was given an answer sheet and random item listed on their nametag for the pair-up game. In the game, each attendee would have to find the employee who had the item on their nametag that made up the famous pair. For example, the attendee who had Romeo on their nametag would have to find their Juliet. Once they found their pair, the goal would be to work as a team to intermingle and find as many pairs as possible in the time allotted.
After the game, employees took their seats to learn more about communication from our guest speakers from Guidehouse, a management consulting firm. In their segment, they shared methods for more effective workplace communication, including an explanation of the five dynamics of effective implementation for giving feedback. Employees were then given the opportunity to discuss the methods with their table groups and have mock conversations to grasp the process.
Arriving at the second team activity of the day, attendees would finally be able to open up their Ziploc bags they received in the morning. Each bag contained a Scrabble tile for each letter of the attendee's first and last name, and as a group, each team would have to work together to form as many words and accrue as many points as possible with the letters available. As an added bonus, Director Bob Fairfax could be found visiting each table and supplying teams with extra letters from his name. The Scrabble game proved to be a highlight of the day, as the competition was fierce and multiple groups were neck and neck gunning for the first place prize. In the end, the table with the most points amassed a whopping 578 points!
After a delicious barbeque lunch provided by Great Caterers of Iowa, the teams were presented with their final challenge of the day: The Egg Drop. Besides communication, the feedback from last year's survey showed that what employees wanted to learn about most was quality. To explore the value of quality and creative problem solving, each team was given an egg and a bag full of items to protect the egg from a staggering 8 foot drop. The activity was a perfect demonstration of creative problem solving, as every group came up with a unique "package" to protect their egg, with each design proving to be successful for different reasons. This unexpected success and resiliency of each team's package led to a few rule changes, eventually leading to Newton Canteen staff member Todd Givens throwing each team's egg as hard as he could to determine a winner. In the end, one winner was finally decided, however every group that took part not only got to practice the process of creating quality, but got to have a lot of fun as well.
The training event ended with closing words from IPI's Director Bob Fairfax. The reoccurring statement of the director's speech was comprised of three simple words: "We are good." Though IPI employees undertake a plethora of tasks each day and work with many different people, he inspired confidence in everyone that all staff at IPI put forth their best effort and produce amazing results to be proud of. Though the idea that "We are good" is a simple one, it speaks volumes to the dedication and quality of work that every employee at IPI puts forth each day towards creating the best consumer experience possible, as well as the opportunity for Iowa's incarcerated individuals to truly build a better future.