Vision and Connection
“Shark Walk” was one way we brought joy and experiential norms to the virtual summit.
The Goal
Google Brand Studio needed to come together as a team and build a new vision—and they needed to do it virtually.
Applied Improvisation was used to facilitate
Strategy and vision work
High interactivity
Moments of joy
Connection among team members
What They Said
“Thank you again so much for an amazing four-day offsite! ‘Shark Walks’ were AMAZING! Already calls to do them more regularly.”
Natalie Miller, Strategy & Operations Leader for Google Brand Studio What Was Asked
In January 2022, we were asked to design and facilitate a four-day leadership offsite for Google Brand Studio.
Natalie Miller had worked with On Your Feet in her former job at Nike and believed we could accomplish the difficult task of bringing the same energy and results to a virtual offsite.
What They Needed
Candid conversations, real-time decisions, and excitement moving forward
Google Brand Studio had just produced some of the most powerful and viral content on Earth over the last year, so expectations to continue at this top-level were high.
Further, Google Brand Studio was coming together in a significant new reformation and had to figure out new ways of working together and influencing the overall story of Google.
What We Did
We brought more joy, less fear, and better results through interactive exercises.
These activities included using physical objects, playful shouting matches, storytelling, “Mini Manifesto,” “True for You,” “Scavenger Hunt,” and many more.
With each activity, we used creative ways to capture and remember the ideas learned by including song lyrics, one-sentence stories, drawings, or photographs, which we captured in an artifacts document.
Activity Example
In one exercise, we did an advanced version of “Shark Walk.”
We had the leaders pair up and go on a “Shark Walk,” which is a meetings done on the phone while walking outside—an activity inspired by sharks, which have to keep moving to survive.
For an entire afternoon, we created a scheduled series of one-on-one 12-minute “Shark Walks” with the prompt, “What is the single most important thing the two of you need to talk about?” The result was that every leader talked to every leader in an effective and joyful way.
Part of the reason the activity was such a big hit is because we had done activities in the hours before to set up the norms and conversational flow to allow it work.
What Happened
The team left feeling clarity and connection.
Google Brand Studio is one of the most influential brand studios in the world, but it was having trouble understanding its own brand. What did it mean to “tell the story of Google” and what actions were needed to “inspire the Google mission internally”?
After the sessions, Google Brand Studio had a greater self-clarity and focus than before.
