Music Health’s Amazing Race!
So what is Music Health’s Amazing Race all about?
Like many other companies these days, Music Health is a hybrid operation built on the foundations of being a distributed team. We work from home as the default and while some teams come together on a weekly basis to do group work and share ideas, others would never see each other at all in person if it weren’t for our quarterly offsites.
Each quarter, we collaborate as a global team to take a retrospective look at the quarter gone by, evaluate our team health with Squadify and then make decisions about where we need to focus for the following two quarters. It’s the most important part of our regular operating cadence that gives us permission to stop and think about what we are doing and to question whether our efforts could be best spent elsewhere.
Twice a year (every 2nd quarter), we fly everyone into Sydney to do the planning in-person and build personal relationships with each other. We’re still a lean startup so we book cheap flights, host people from out of town in our homes (or cheap hotels) and do our best to have fun on a budget. Team building is typically a significant expense for any company at an offsite, but we’ve come up with an innovative solution to make it fun, effective and incredibly affordable while forcing the team’s to develop their communication skills and trust in each other…Music Health’s very own Amazing Race!
Much like the Amazing Race you would have seen on TV, the contestants have to complete the tasks given to them at each checkpoint before they can continue their journey to the next destination which is informed by solving the previous task. Two staff members are chosen to create the race each cycle and they act as coaches for each team taking photos to document the journey and to ensure that no one gets too far away from the intended course.
The teams are challenged to collaboratively solve each task as quickly as possible, then physically move from one place to the next without leaving a team member behind. It’s quite a lot of running with the teams covering approximately 10km for the latest one!! As aids, you can use Google Maps, a bicycle, public transport, Ubers, taxis…actually anything you can think of. In fact there are no rules to limit your creativity whatsoever - only the expectation of fair play.
Music Health has organised two Amazing Races to date - here’s how the latest one went:
During the past couple of months, Ada and Patrick have spent a lot of time designing the perfect race. Planning included forming teams, coming up with tasks (that included riddles, puzzles etc), choosing destinations and selecting prizes. During the race itself, Ada and Pat coached each team running the whole distance with them all the way to the finish line.
The teams were divided as follows:
Team Vera (white shirts) - Ada’s Team
Amy
Stephen
Liam
Team Music Health (black shirts) - Pat’s team
Tom
Nicc
Matt
To the race day...
25 degrees and no clouds in the sky! You could not have planned for a better day to race against your team mates! Unless you’re about to sprint 10 km around the city with one thing on your mind: beat the other team!
The race started at the Australian Institute of Music (AIM) in The Rocks which has been our meeting place for much of the year. The teams were divided and clues were given separately.
The first riddle:
“My logo indicates a sign of a heartbeat, My Street could have been named after a famous Beatles singer, Son of Harri... Go find me and take a team photo in front of the store to start your race . . .”
You guessed it, the first destination was the Bupa store on George Street. After taking some sweet time trying to solve the riddle, both teams eventually started to sprint towards the destination.
The race included destinations that are somehow relevant to Music Health’s business (e.g. Bupa (one of our first customers), The Guitar Lounge (a musical reference) and KPMG (who published a great report proving that investing in Vera actually saves our customers money operationally). Through Barangaroo Reserve, the teams had to sprint to Circular Quay and figure out the right Wharf to jump on a ferry that would carry them towards Manly. Whilst team Music Health was already sitting at the ferry relaxing, team Vera were scrambling to beat the gate closing and were the last people to get on the ferry (it really came down to the wire).
On the ferry, the teams were given music-related crosswords to solve against a stopwatch. Liam from team Vera was invincible thanks to his musical knowledge. With the help of his teammates, he smashed the crossword in no time. As a bonus reward, team Vera were granted 30 seconds off from their finish time at the end which would come in handy…
In Manly, the teams did a loop from the Wharf to Manly Beach, then to Shelly Beach where teams were challenged with both a physical run up too many stairs and a mathematical equation. The final destination in Manly was the International College of Management, Sydney (ICMS) where the teams had to take their best Harry Potter-themed photos to honour the Hogwarts of the Northern Beaches (the building has an uncanny likeness). The race back to the city was a full exercise itself as it was by only a matter of seconds that Liam (Team Vera) would make it to the fast ferry. Luckily for Liam, his team mates were able to convince the ferryman to delay the ferry for a few minutes so that their whole team could make it aboard (this proved very crucial).
The last riddle was as follows:
“Go celebrate at the first and last stop ashore for sailors and the troops of the Australian Armed Forces who were to experience the ‘fortune of the war’ when they departed Sydney Cove to defend their country.”
Destination: Fortune Of War Pub -The Rocks
On the ferry, it was the final chance for each group to plot against the other team. Team Vera had 30 seconds up their sleeve from the bonus round so they knew all they had to do was get to the destination within 30 seconds of the other team to win. However, the whole team needs to be at the final destination before any clocks are stopped. Team Music Health had been foxing on the ferry saying that there was no point in running since they would lose anyway but starting sprinting as soon as the ferry docked in one last effort to sweep the line honours. Despite Nicc arriving at the Fortune of War first, Team Vera’s whole team was at the destination together before Team Music Health to claim the victory. They didn’t even need to use their 30 second bonus…!
At the “awards ceremony”, each competitor could individually choose a prize of their choice…with a slight twist…
The individuals prizes were divided as follows:
The first person to arrive at the first destination - Steve
The first person to arrive at the last destination - Nicc
Bonus round winner - Liam
Solved KPMG riddle fastest - Amy
Got to the Ferry fastest - Matt
Happiest racer - Tom
The prizes varied from $25 and $50 gift cards to a jar of Vegemite (yuk). To make things more interesting, Pat and Ada added a cheeky twist to the prizes. After receiving their prize, each player was given the option to challenge another to a game of Rock Paper Scissors to steal their prize. As a result Tom ended up with the Vegemite - poor Tom.
The Amazing Race was a great success that brought the team closer and helped us learn more about each other’s ways of working! It not only strengthens our personal relationships with each other but also our communication skills and trust in each other.
The planning for the next Amazing Race has already begun and as the team grows, there’s a possibility that we may need to shift the location to another city…
We hope this inspires others to organise an Amazing Race for their teams - it’s a blast!
- Music Health Team
