The best team building we do at Westlake costs about $25/person and involves someone going home with something they definitely did not ask for.
We do two white elephant exchanges every year. One to kick off our July shutdown (summer swap). One to kick off our Christmas break (white elephant). We started with just the holiday one. Then we realized: why are we only doing this once?
Here is what happens that does not happen in any other team setting.
People are genuinely surprised. The laughter is not polished. Nobody is performing. When someone opens a truly terrible gift and their face does something completely involuntary, that moment is more honest than any team offsite I have ever planned.
The stealing is the best part. (We allow steals. It gets competitive. Someone on our team has strong opinions about a $25 item they did not pay for and I respect it deeply.)
And then we eat together. And everyone goes on vacation. And when we come back, something is slightly different. Not dramatically. Just slightly. The team that laughed together last week shows up to Monday a little more human with each other.
We close the office twice a year because I believe rest is not a perk. It is part of the operating model. But how you close matters as much as that you close. The white elephant is how we mark the transition. Work stops here. This week belongs to your family.
We are a family business in every sense of the word. That means our team is part of the family too. The white elephant is a small ritual that says so out loud.
What is the best or worst white elephant gift you have ever received? I'm expecting some good comments, so don't let me down!
Blast tax: my 2-year old daughter really loved the handheld massager I got for our summer swap. I left the massage oil and candle on my mom’s desk as a surprise for after the summer break… gotta love family business.
