Sharing and Embracing Differences - Blue Chip Talent’s Celebrating Diversity Week 2020

In the midst of a highly unusual and tumultuous 2020, Blue Chip Talent banded together for one enlightening week full of discovery, education, bonding, and fun. From Monday, August 10 to Friday, August 14, the company held daily activities centered around diversity and inclusion and what exactly those topics mean for Blue Chip Talent in the present and moving forward. Much like previous Celebrating Diversity weeks, our team gained knowledge and grew closer together as each day passed.

Monday, August 10 – Appreciating Diversity

The first activity on Monday highlighted how we as a company can appreciate diversity for what it is and the positive benefits that can result from being diverse. We then turned our appreciation toward the United States veterans through the assembly of care packages for patients at the VA Medical Center in Ann Arbor, MI. Blue Chip Talent provided shaving cream, razors, body wash, soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and other toiletries for us to package together for donation. Each employee was responsible for creating a care package and completed the task by writing a small note of thanks and appreciation to include in the package. In addition to the care packages, we collected canned food items throughout the entire week to also support the VA Medical Center’s homeless veterans program. In total, Blue Chip Talent had completed over 35 care packages that will be delivered to the VA Medical Center this week.

Tuesday, August 11 – Understanding Diversity

On Tuesday, as part of the weekly Tuesday morning meeting, our team listened to an informative presentation on diversity and inclusion and how we can better achieve and practice diversity and inclusion in the workplace. The main takeaway from the presentation is that every one of us has something unique to bring to the table and we can thrive as a group when everyone is given equal opportunity to activate and leverage their unique talent, knowledge, experience or perspective. After the presentation ended, we had an icebreaker game where each person had a list of criteria to fill out by talking to and finding another person who met that criterion (e.g. “Who attended a high school in Macomb County?”). By the end of the meeting, we discovered new things about each other, and we had a new understanding of how diversity and inclusion can help us grow as a company.

Wednesday, August 12 – Celebrating Diversity

As with previous Celebrating Diversity weeks, Wednesday featured our world buffet lunch, except it became more of a world pre-packaged, individually served lunch in order to keep compliant with CDC guidelines. Nevertheless, our team enjoyed a menu of cultural foods from different parts of the globe. This lunch shows us how food is a great vehicle to bond people together while also a very vibrant and important facet of a culture.

Thursday, August 13 – Identifying Diversity

Thursday consisted of a show-and-guess team-building activity where we asked everyone to bring in an item that closely represented them or an item that is special to them. We then displayed these items for people to guess to whom they belonged to. Near the end of the day, each item’s owner was revealed, and they shared what that item means to them and why they brought it in. This activity helped give context and perspective into each person’s personality with their item acting as the window to view it through.

Friday, August 14 – Final Day and Scavenger Hunt

The final day of the week always concludes with a fun, company-wide team activity that incorporates all the teachings and themes of the previous days. In the past, this day usually included an “Amazing Race”-like road rally spread across different locations within Oakland County. However due to COVID and practicing responsible social distancing this year, the game was modified to become an exciting on-foot scavenger hunt throughout our office building. The teams were given a checklist of riddles that corresponded to various locations where they either found a letter of the alphabet or had to perform an activity to receive a letter. In the end, the letters unscrambled to spell out the address of the final destination where the finish line awaited. At the final destination, everyone was able to relax and enjoy an individually-wrapped BBQ meal and refreshments before departing for the weekend.

Blue Chip Talent’s Celebrating Diversity Week 2020 was a smashing success with full participation each day with many lessons learned and bonding moments along the way. We’re hoping that 2021’s celebration will return to its usual proceedings, but if not, then 2020 has set an amazing foundation to re-use and build off of.