Businesses step in to provide personal connections through leagues for sports

Businesses step in to provide personal connections through leagues for sports like kickball and dodge ball. Creating Win-Win Thinking, one of the agreements in the book Four Agreements. Great wisdom from books like this one are being further incorporated into the fabrics of corporations, companies and organizations around the world that place a premium on long terms success. Many companies are realizing that they can improve bottom lines, outcomes, personal / group performance, and job satisfaction through promoting camaraderie rather than competition. We are currently working with an organization that will have an amazing race in the fall. In preparing their company for this event, we are working with them on a set of monthly activities that focus on understanding and applying on core team principle per month; this month is about camaraderie. What does this look like for you individually? What is the camaraderie culture at your organization? What is your organization doing to promote camaraderie? Here is a good article from the New York Times where companies are using  league sports like kickball and dodgeball to build camaraderie rather than competition.     https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/14/business/smallbusiness/millennials-social-sports-kickball.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share One of the most valuable lessons I learned as a very competitive youth was while traveling in Europe on the international junior tennis circuit. I had just won my first match after arriving in Belgium and was instructed by the tournament director after winning, a long highly contested match, that it was the responsibility of the winner to buy the opponent a drink. Thus, my celebration was spent sharing drinks and developing a rapport with the young man that I had just struggled out on the court with. The importance of this moment allowed for me to have an opportunity to talk with someone I just has spent 3+ hours of sweat, tears, and all emotions running though my mind and body. By the end, he was not my opponent, but Jacob someone I had developed a bond with bound by the athletic arena we had just shared. The lesson learned was regardless of the outcome, compassion and empathy (two necessary ingredients in camaraderie) are the foundation for future success as sometimes we win, other times we loose. What really matter is the connections we make with others. This connection lasts far longer than the outcomes. Life is really about relationships. Successful companies realize that in order to truly succeed, investing in relationships will produced the most sustainable and best results.