Notes from Blake · 20 posts · Recently updated
Notes from Blake.
On team building, workplace culture, and making work a little less like work. Mostly opinions, occasionally data.
Field notes from the founder
Start with the pinned essay below
The Case Against Forced Fun at Work
Mandatory team socials, compulsory icebreakers, and enforced enthusiasm are killing your team's morale. Here's what to do instead.
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Team Building Activities for Work: How to Pick One That Fits
Most team building activities fail because they ignore the room. Use this simple filter for team size, time, format, energy, and awkwardness before you choose.
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New Employee First Week Plan: A Manager's Day-by-Day Template
A practical first-week onboarding plan for managers: what to do before day one, what to cover each day, and how to help a new hire feel useful without flooding them.
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How to Run Breakout Rooms Without Making Them Awkward
Breakout rooms fail when people arrive with no job, no timer, and no way back. Here's the simple structure that makes them useful, plus a free team pairing tool.
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Async Games Beat Virtual Team Building Events
Live virtual team building events need calendars, hosts, and forced energy. Async games give remote teams a smaller ritual that survives busy weeks.
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Employee Engagement Activities for Small Teams: A Manager's Operating System
A practical employee engagement operating system for small teams: five loops, a weekly cadence, and activities that create real participation.
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Team Morale Ideas That Don't Feel Like Forced Fun
Practical team morale ideas for remote, hybrid, and small teams that need connection without mandatory fun, calendar bloat, or awkward oversharing.
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How to Schedule Meetings Across Time Zones (Without the Slack Back-and-Forth)
Cross-timezone scheduling fails because teams treat it as a calendar-comparison problem. It's actually a fairness problem. Here's the working system.
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Meeting Agenda Templates: 8 That Work, and the Reason Most Get Ignored
Most meeting agendas are wallpaper. Three lines, no time blocks, ignored once the meeting starts. Eight templates that actually hold the room, plus the four-ingredient structure that makes any agenda work.
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Kahoot Alternatives for Work: More Than Just Trivia
Looking for a Kahoot alternative that does more than trivia? Eight honest picks for workplace teams, from live polls to daily team games.
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A Tier List of 20 Corporate Buzzwords
Twenty corporate buzzwords, ranked from genuinely useful to absolutely unforgivable. Plus a free tool to build your own tier list and send it to your team.
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1:1 Questions That Actually Get a Real Answer
Most 1:1 questions get a status update. These get a real answer. 50+ one-on-one meeting questions sorted by what kind of conversation you need to have.
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How Much Does a Meeting Actually Cost?
Most meetings cost more than the combined salary in the room. Here's the actual math, plus a tool to run the number before you schedule the next one.
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Retrospective Ideas Your Team Won't Dread
Your retros are stale because you're retroing a two-week block instead of something specific. Here's how to fix that, plus five formats worth rotating through.
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100 Would You Rather Questions for Work
100 would-you-rather questions for team meetings, standups, and Slack. Categorised by vibe. Ready to copy-paste, no preparation, no awkward fun facts.
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Icebreaker Questions for Work That People Actually Enjoy
18 icebreaker questions your team won't hate. Plus a free tool to generate them randomly.
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Daily Rituals Beat Quarterly Offsites for Team Building
Your company spends thousands on offsites that produce one group photo and zero lasting habits. There's a better way.
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Why Fun at Work Actually Matters
The business case for not being miserable at work. With actual research, not just vibes.
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15 Quick Team Building Games for Remote Teams
Short games that remote teams actually want to play. No downloads, no facilitators, no one pretending to enjoy themselves.
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Why Halftime Exists
After 10 years of scraping together free tools for team socials, I decided to build the thing I kept wishing existed.
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Try a game, on the house.
Two minutes, no signup. Free for teams up to six when you're ready to bring them along.