Team building – we’ve all been there. Remember your last trust fall? That happy hour with stale nachos? What if there’s a better way? That’s what Nasdaq recently asked themselves.
Back in 1971, Nasdaq revolutionized electronic trading. And in 2018, they’re still transforming the way financial information gets shared and important decisions get made. Stemming from their nearly 50-year history in tech innovation, something else in their DNA is quietly taking shape—a hyper focus on company culture and how they can help other companies improve it.
Nasdaq’s alternative data squad, a new team, gives clients access to improved types of data so their businesses can compete more effectively, from investment strategies to reading the numbers. Knowing how critical a partner-based approach is to collaboration, Nasdaq set out to foster engagement among this new team.
For the alternative data squad’s first initial team-building offsite, Nasdaq knew getting the team to be more open in front of one another could help deepen their relationships and spur better collaboration. By using Airbnb for Work, Nasdaq was able to find locally-led activities that brought their team together and cultivated meaningful connections.
Breaking the mold
In what can be described as creating something from nothing, the squad chose a pottery-making class to learn how to center, open, and shape an ideal into a reality—all from a lump of wet clay. In a Brooklyn-based studio, the participants learned the fundamentals of throwing pottery, some with wobbly success. Throughout the experience, the squad members instinctively encouraged one another, helping those who were new to the craft discover and trust in their own innate skills.
Watching a team member struggle at the wheel to smooth out a tough situation, then learning to jump in to support them, ultimately helped bring Nasdaq’s team closer together.
The experience, which the team went on compliments of Airbnb for Work, encouraged attendees to rely on one another’s expertise to drive creativity and innovation, whether they were crafting a lopsided vase or tasked with refining the way a FinTech startup uses data. The day’s display of openness, vulnerability, failure, and success triggered free-flowing dialogue about the future of the squad and their business.
The Airbnb experience helped us bring a cross-functional squad together and foster the qualities that help team members better coach the companies who rely on them, our customers. The experience encouraged a collaborative approach, which helped the squad bond in a way that continued after the offsite and to this day.
Bill Dague, Head of Alternative Data Research, Nasdaq
What belonging means at work
Feeling a sense of belonging is equally important during your day-to-day work as it is when you get together outside your working environment.
Jeff Thomas, senior vice president of Nasdaq’s Corporate Services business unit sat down with Andrea Robb, Airbnb’s director of talent design, to discuss and share insights on ways to foster belonging and engagement at work.
From sailing lessons to pastry-making classes with a Michelin chef — Airbnb Experiences help teams bond and form meaningful connections.
There’s a better way for teams to bond and companies to keep employees happy. Experiences on Airbnb offer new learning and development opportunities in more than 800 cities globally in a number of categories, including wellness, team-building, and Social Impact.
Learn more about team-building experiences on Airbnb here.
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