By Katie Flynn

Picture the scene. You’ve started a new job, in a new field, with new colleagues – you’re just beginning to settle in, and then you hear those three dreaded words… “team building exercise”.

What do you do?

In my case, I made the decision to lose Sports Day. Well, actually, it wasn’t really a decision, more just something that happened.

I blame the challenging sports that were selected (bean bag tossing is harder than it looks). With that said, I must acknowledge that the competition was fierce, and even with our expert sporting skills, my team unfortunately lost by just one point. Despite this incredible humiliation, it was a lovely day, and the Social Committee did an amazing job of organizing the whole event.

Seeing The Bespoke Group team (almost) altogether for the first time since I joined the company was a wonderful experience, and it was great to meet some faces that I hadn’t met in person yet.

Sports Day made me realise a few different things:

1. I should start running more often.
2. English weather really is as bad as its stereotype.
3. Cheesy as it sounds, the value of teamwork and team building cannot be understated.

To use cricket as an example, despite most of the team being novices at the sport, when everyone combined their efforts, and came together as a team, there was a clear improvement from both sides. Sure, there’s only one person batting at a time, but the support from the team makes a huge difference. Even knowing whether you should commit to running for another round is easier when everyone is screaming at you to go – it’s more encouraging than it sounds.

The same principle goes for completing work (although hopefully without the yelling). Even if a task only requires one person, it’s always encouraging to have supporters at your side, whether to give advice or to share the workload.

Beyond the workplace, it is important to cultivate an environment where people are willing to support each other – I’m glad that this is something that we prioritise here at The Bespoke Group.

The environment that people exist in inevitably impacts mental health, and this has a knock-on effect into every part of life. I could go into detail about how ‘good’ mental health can boost productivity, or make it easier to manage stressful deadlines, but I don’t want to stray too far from the point that I’m trying to make: by having a stronger team, we all create a better working environment, which then feeds into our work, and also our life. We feel better; our work is better.

It was clear when playing cricket that we’re stronger when we work together. It’s much easier to be effective fielders when you have people to pass the ball to, and it’s much easier to successfully carry out work when there’s a strong team by your side.

Thank you to Julia, Rachel, Nikki, and Jacob for planning Sports Day. I thoroughly enjoyed a morning of running around, eating sandwiches, and getting to know everyone better. I can’t wait for the next social!