In the creative marketing communications industry, maintaining a high work morale is necessary for maintaining a vibrant work environment. It is often easy to get lost in meeting client timelines to the extent that the workplace can become almost mechanical.
However, what happens when the office becomes a living breathing version of Steve Harvey’s Family Feud or even a lighthearted version of HBO’s Game of Thrones?
At EchoHouse, the goal has always been to inject some form of work culture that brings different work teams together beyond the task of delivering on timelines. Internal engagement at EchoHouse, since the introduction of the EchoHouse Tribes early last year, has become one filled with passion and healthy competition. This has completely changed what is possible with internal engagements at various workplaces.
So, here’s the backstory: our Team Members have been grouped into four tribes after the corporate colors of EchoHouse. They are Black Out, Pink Flame, Purple Haze, and Blue Magic.
These tribes are in a year-long challenge of gathering points that will be used to crown the winning tribe at the start of the year strategy session – a decade-old tradition at EchoHouse.
We do not have an Iron Throne, but the tribes are already showing out and bringing out their own version of dragons and wolves to ensure that they stand tall at the end. There have been no red weddings yet, but trust, we’ve gone close to that in a way only EchoHouse can.
Tribe Points
The tribes gather points in two main formats. The first format is when tribes go head-to-head to win various challenges. We started the tribe challenges this year at the start of the year strategy session where the tribes competed in team bonding activities and dress-to-kill challenges. Subsequently, the tribes also had another opportunity to go head-to-head by undergoing a logo rebranding challenge.
The second avenue for tribes to win points is through the performance of their tribe members. At the end of each month, department heads award points to their team members who have gone the extra mile in executing responsibilities. This could be in the form of providing value to clients, suggesting innovative ideas, seamless execution of projects, and taking initiative, among others.
The points awarded to the individual tribe members are paid out in cash to the awardee, and the points awarded are added to the general tribe points to which the person belongs. For instance, if a team member in the Public Relations team who belongs to the Purple Haze tribe, makes certain impactful suggestions for changes on the corporate website, the head of the department could award 2,000 points to the team member or team members. These 2000 points are then paid as cash to the team member(s), and the same 2000 points are added to the points gathered by Purple Haze. At the end of the year, the Tribe with the most points is declared the winner and gets to cash out their points in prize money.
So, for now, the tribes will keep building their armies and sending out bannermen in their quest to occupy Kings Landing and sit on the Iron Throne (or Money Throne if you like).
Family Meetings
The first Thursday of every month is a special day at EchoHouse. That is the day, we hold what we call Family Meetings. These meetings are filled with energy as we receive updates on the Tribe leaderboard. We receive updates on Tribe points, mostly those awarded by the functional heads. Sometimes, when there have been Tribe challenges, such as the logo challenge that happened, the winning Tribe is announced at the Family Meetings. However, the Family Meeting is also known for one major activity – Tribe Inductions.
Think of the Family Meetings as the ultimate power move meeting between Cersie and Daenerys Targaryen.
Tribe Inductions
This is often the high point of the meeting. Tribe inductions, which are held at almost every Family Meeting; are when new team members are inducted into a particular Tribe. After new Team Members join us, they fill out a personality questionnaire and based on the answers, they are assigned to any of the four Tribes. The tribes then execute an induction ceremony to publicly welcome the new Tribe member. The creative induction ceremony is a whole activity where the tribes show off and want to upstage the other. Remember the elaborate ceremony that leads to Mufasa proudly showing off Simba on Pride Rock? Just that what the EchoHouse Tribes do is at least 5x more dramatic!
The Tribe Parties
Besides the Family Meetings, the various tribes have been given the task of hosting end-of-quarter parties. At the end of each quarter, one tribe hosts a party for the office. This year, we have already had two of such parties. As the first tribe to host one, Pink Flame threw the “Maison de Rose” party at the end of March. This was an exclusive event that converted the entire EchoHouse building into a Party House, with multiple events happening at the same time. The upper floor was converted to give attendees a galactical experience, the ground floor was turned into an upscale club. The bunker of the building was given a more premium invite-only club experience.
Blue Magicians followed that with a throwback party which they aptly named “Deja Blue”. This was a full experience, where we went back in time and boarded a time machine to go back in time, especially fashion-wise. We threw it back to as far back as the 50s. The office had several photo ops that truly brought OG fashion back in style. The highlight of the night was the Adaha Live Band, who gave back-to-back performances of hits from back in the day. Two further surprise acts featured cameos from award-winning musician and MC, Mr Drew and Kojo Manuel, respectively. The stops Blue Magic pulled for this party made Mission Impossible look like a circus. The music policy was provided by DJ Dials.
It was a Money Heist extravaganza when Purple Haze came to town with La Casa De Purple. It was full of activities and surprises. From La Casa De Purple’s own bank notes to a crime scene that mimicked both a kidnapping scene and a jeopardized bank vault. Team members were attending the party costumed as various characters in the Money Heist series. While some were The Professor, Berlin, Tokyo among others. Others were also dressed as police officers and detectives. The day was crowned with amazing performances from Samini, and Tulenkey. It once again elevated the internal engagement.
We closed off the year with a spectacular Check Mate experience brought to us by the Black Out Tribe. Team members were asked to show up to the experience wearing either black or white outfit and they were supplied with headgear designed as the various pieces of the Chess Board, from the Pawns to the Bishop, to the King, the Queen, the Knight, and the Rook. While team members mingled, they were treated to music from Kuami Eugene, JoeyB, DJ Vyrusky among others. This experience created unforgettable memories that provided a good end of the year at EchoHouse.
For 2024, the EchoHouse Tribes are making a comeback with brand-new experiences and points to be collected. The next Tribal journey has a lot of promise for internal engagement at EchoHouse and one key thing is that it is going to be challenging and it has got all of us being very excited at work. It is bringing a lot of color and warmth to the workspace at EchoHouse.