Applying a Visitor Services Lens to Team Building

Nothing makes our day like hearing a story from one of our creators.

When one of our creators, Ele, shared this story in the Goosechase community, The Nest (absolutely a plug), the whole flock was excited. Ele used Goosechase to carry out our exact company mission – to make the world more fun, playful, and human – and their organization was all the better for it!

Ele Hein is the Visitor Services Manager at the Chicago History Museum, which means it’s their job to provide a meaningful and inclusive experience to all the museum guests. Ele wanted to take that approach a step further and provide their colleagues the same care and attention.

Read on to see how their trial of the Goosechase platform resulted in staff selfies, (multiple) dance-offs, and a revitalized sense of community among the team.

Something really cool happened this past week. I’m currently in the process of getting the museum I work at on board with utilizing Goosechase in the work we do. In order to make my case, I put on a Goosechase Experience for our staff holiday party.

For context, our workplace is terribly siloed, with my front facing staff sometimes going months without seeing the face of some staff members who prefer to hide away in their top floor office or work from home. It has been a challenge to try to change that, to get staff to interact with one another in a way that feels meaningful and even-footed. 

Enter: the holiday party.

The Experience was a fun one to create, and seemingly equally fun to participate in. By including challenges to talk to someone you haven’t met before, to talk to high level staff about non-work topics (and take a selfie with the organization’s president!), to start a dance-off with at least 8 people, and more, I witnessed something really cool happen. The regular division between departments began to blur and, with each additional submission, it became clear that staff were learning more than one another beyond the small-talk that accompanies onboarding in most cases. 

I am mentioning this here for a few reasons. Firstly, I just think it is really cool to see regular social patterns interrupted to alter the flow of how humans experience otherwise “normal” scenarios. Also, I initially began to pursue Goosechase at my museum because I want visitors to the museum to feel like guests and not just attendees - they should have an experience that enhances their visit, and Goosechase really fits the need. Truly, what I think visitors (and most humans) want is a sense of community and belonging. I hadn’t even anticipated that the experience I made could generate that feeling of community among a group of people who were usually so estranged from one another.

I wanted to share this story here because, as a service professional, I have been puzzling over how to bring people together in a culture that is individualistic, and I think there may be even more possibilities that I am overlooking. I am wondering if others have had similar experiences to mine and/or what other applications have been used to create communities where there were none before. What a cool way to bring people together!

Thanks so much to Ele for sharing their experience! Have an idea for Ele, or just want to browse more creator conversations, stories, and queries? Fly over to The Nest!

Inspired to try a team building Goosechase with your own crew? Here’s an easy team building activity template you can get set up today:

What is Goosechase?

At Goosechase, experience is everything. Originally inspired by scavenger hunts, Goosechase is an online platform that enables organizations and schools to engage, activate, and educate their communities through delightful interactive experiences. Sign up and try creating a free recreational Experience, or check out our Pricing!