Stay Connected with a Quarantine Scavenger Hunt!

Hi! I’m Elizabeth, a cofounder at Fractal Technology Labs in Santa Monica, California. As a protector of our teams + culture, I’ve spent most of the last week making sure our people have what they need to feel successful in their jobs from their homes and still feel a sense of community at Fractal. Just because we have to distance ourselves, doesn’t mean we have to isolate ourselves. Technology makes sure of that ??.

If you’re feeling lost for ways to keep connected with your colleagues, try hosting a scavenger hunt!

Below is a breakdown of the challenge, how I set it up + a template for you.

High Level:

Instructions are easy. All you need are company communication channels (Discord, Slack, etc.), shared folders (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.) and the creative liberty to not give a damn and just have fun. Be sure to invite everyone! We opted for 3 days to complete the challenge, giving them enough time to stay focused on deep work, but also encourages them to stay active with community, even outside of work.

Prerequisites:

1. Setup a daily “Plank Challenge” on your company calendar and invite everyone to it. This “meeting” only needs to be like 3 minutes M-F.
2. Create a channel in your company communication tool (e.g. #quarantined or #remotelife)
3. If your company is large enough, perhaps create multiple challenges, separated by departments or teams. We’re 21 people so just kept it to one challenge. Find someone to help organize / run this within each team if you break it into more than one.
4. See if you can get a small budget for a prize. The prize I’ve opted for is the winner gets a gift certificate to their favorite local shop that’s hurting from the Coronavirus.

To begin:

1. Start with a spreadsheet (Google Sheets is easy so everyone can collaborate on the same doc, but Excel will work just fine)
2. The first tab is the instructions
3. Each employee / contractor / team member gets a tab with the same checklist items and specifics. I’m obsessed with the Checkbox feature in Google Sheets. Let this be your excuse to fall in love with it too. (It’s under “Insert” on the toolbar menu!!)
4. Create a folder in your shared Drive or tool called “Quarantine Scavenger Hunt”. The spreadsheet will live here, and one of the instructions is for each person to create a folder with their name on it for them to dump their photos.

Instructions to put on the first tab, for every person to follow:

1. Create a folder with your name on it in the “Quarantine Scavenger Hunt” folder in the Shared Google Drive (put a link to the folder here for easy access)
2. Find your tab on the bottom of this sheet
3. You have 3 days to complete your list
4. Upload all photos to your folder in the Drive
5. Drop all other items into Discord
6. Check your boxes as you go
7. GO GET ‘EM
8. Winner gets a gift card to their favorite local shop they want to support that’s being affected by Coronavirus.

The Checklist:

Here are the tasks I came up with. Go nuts! These are just some ideas for you.

• Join the most amount of “daily plank challenges”. This is inclusive of days prior to the hunt.
• Photo of the most beverage glasses / mugs / cans on a desk
• Screenshot of yourself in a costume on Zoom
• Photo of you on a walk outside
• Share a recipe in the Discord #quarantined channel of something you’ve been cooking at home
• Share “at-home-distraction” story: did the cat knock over the fridge? the kids color on the walls?
• Share a quarantine music playlist (minimum 1 hour)
• Screenshot of you chatting with *every* other person in the challenge / on your team via Zoom
• Story / description of you doing a remote hangout with your friends or family (when, who attended, what did you do)
• An original Haiku of your quarantine experience (remember: 5–7–5)

Now go!

I’ve created a template to help you get started. 

All you have to do now is add your employees’ names to the sheet, share it and get going!

Have fun, and stay healthy ??