The first task my colleague and focused on was ramping our internal project team's facilitation capabilities. We conducted facilitation training workshops, Zoom and Slack deep dives, and worked with project leadership to create facilitation deck templates to use across workstreams. Our work helped the team have greater confidence delivering sessions with the client and helped deliver a consistent experience across the many workstreams.

Going into an intense testing phase the team was collectively missing the in-person experience- the seamless nature of working side-by-side testing the system and resolving issues. I worked with a copywriter and designer to imagine a fun way to brand the Zoom breakout rooms for the teams. We were inspired by the board game "Clue" and the connection the rooms naturally had with the project workstreams. 

This "Big Rocks" exercise conducted virtually on Zoom and Miro with the project leadership team from the client helped them see what's really keeping them up at night. They were surprised and delighted by using a tool like this. Everyone was able to participate and share their thoughts, writing on a sticky. The team realized they were away of major concerns from smaller conversations, but it was great to see them all in one place.

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This activity also sparked the desire for more virtual, collaborative activities throughout the project.

With such a large project team, over 60 internal members, all working from home during a pandemic I saw the need to recognize the great work the team was doing and find ways of connecting. I worked with the Project Manager to start monthly internal Townhalls and establish "Happy Bunny" awards (all-star awards branded after a collective team joke) for 3-4 team members.