Why Can't Life (Work) Be More Like Camp?

For anyone who has known me for any length of time, they know that I am a camp person.  I come from a long line of camp people, going all the way back to my grandmother who went to camp almost one hundred years ago.  I have spent 16 summers at camp, first as a camper and later as a counselor.  That does not include the many years in between when I was a camp parent as my two children were campers and then counselors.  So this camp thing runs very deep for me.

This summer after a 15-year hiatus, I returned to my camp (Aloha Hive) in VT as a counselor, heading up the performing arts department.  It was a blast. It was hard work with plenty of challenges and abundant rewards.  And since for most of the last 15+ years, I have toiled at a range of companies, I spent a lot of time thinking about how organizations run, how they inspire (or not) their people.  I mostly pondered how the principles that guide building a camp community could apply to companies. 

I marveled as I watched the camp community come together.  I observed the power of simple living, of hard work and pitching in, of silliness and fun, of being present in the moment and appreciating the beauty around us.  I was astonished to watch the counselor staff become confident young women and commit to bringing their best selves to their work at camp.  I was inspired by their hard work and their adventuresome spirit and by their great sense of fun.

There was a moment towards the end of the summer that crystallized for me the spirit of the place.  By the end of the summer, the staff was pretty well spent.  They’d devoted their entire lives over 8 weeks to a group of kids and to each other as members of the community.  Before everyone could say their goodbyes and head home to their “other life”, we had to close up camp and do a series of work projects, many of which were not very glamorous.  I was given the task of dolling out these projects.  One counselor, when asked to clean the “dungeon”, the area below the kitchen that is dark and dank and riddled with spiders, looked at me with a smile and said, “I am the luckiest person alive!”

How often does that happen at companies?  Not often enough. In many companies, employees become expert at dodging the unpleasant tasks.  So how do we inspire our people to bring more of themselves, to commit more, to truly share the best version of themselves?  My camp has a core mission statement- to create fine people.  Imagine if more companies, as part of their corporate mission statement had “creating fine people” on the list.

Each company that I have worked at over my career has had their own set of practices that are intended to create loyalty and company spirit.  One company stands out for me- Eons, founded by Jeff Taylor (founder of Monster.com) Jeff is not only an extraordinary entrepreneur but he is an inspired leader.  At Eons, Jeff believed in creating memorable moments and rituals. The company spent every Wednesday night working late, eating dinner together, celebrating individual and team accomplishments and often having fun.  He inaugurated an annual “Leap” into Boston Harbor.  This typically happened in the early fall, when the water was still relatively warm.  The entire company would walk down the pier from our offices and take a leap into the harbor.  Apart from just being a wacky and fun thing to do, there was a lot that was unspoken about this ritual.  It was a leap of faith, a leap of solidarity, a leap of shared celebration.

While Eons did not succeed, the esprit de corps was remarkable and the things that bound us together reflect many of the principles that are at play at camp.

  

When I was interviewing to join my last company, BiddingForGood, I told the CEO, that apart from my skills and experience, I was really a camp counselor at heart.  At that moment in the life of the company, that resonated with him.  He hoped that having a “camp counselor” join the company would go a long way towards uniting the employees and would help bring out the best in them.  I’m proud to say that I think we did that. Our holiday videos became an annual ritual that has been immortalized on YouTube.  While not everyone was enthusiastic about participating, most people did.  We were silly.  We sang and we danced and we laughed at ourselves. And our customers loved it.

There is much that has been published and disseminated on creating a positive company culture.  It is my sincere belief that if more companies were more like camp, we would make the world a better place. So herewith is my checklist of simple things you can do at your organization:

  

1.     Spend time together away from technology.  Have meetings with no phones and no computers.

2.     Eat meals together. 

3.     Be silly.  Allow time for laughter.

4.     Do skits.  Instead of long boring memos on new company policies, demonstrate through skits.

5.     Celebrate creativity with costume parties, holiday videos.

6.     Take recess.  Get outdoors.  Do walking meetings.

7.     Sing.  For birthdays, for holidays, for fun.

8.     Have rituals. Leap into Boston Harbor.

9.     Set lofty goals.  To create fine people.

 If you have been lucky enough to go to camp and have brought some of your camp experience to your workplace, I’d love to hear about it.  Share your stories with me. I might just put them in a book.