By Bill Mah, Edmonton JournalDecember 22, 2009
You're chairing a meeting when suddenly the eyes around the table glaze and the yawns gape.
It's time to let the monkeys fly!
Not the winged simians unleashed on Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, but the fun kind sold by Edmonton online store High 5 TeamBuilding.
The e-tailer claims its products will do the seemingly impossible -- enliven tedious business gatherings and boost the morale of stressed workers.
The Flingshot Monkey, for example, is a plush toy that a worker grabs by the furry arms and tail, stretches and releases. Once launched, the monkey soars as far as 15 metres and screams as it hurtles over desks and cubicles.
"You don't have to shoot it at people," clarifies High 5 co-owner Robin Hardin, with a laugh.
High 5 has an older, more conventional division that helps plan corporate events and facilitate team-building activities.
"We were constantly being asked by clients what we had for meetings; they're doing a meeting and just needed something fun."
But at the same time, Hardin noticed companies, watching costs in a downturn, were balking at bringing in a professional to energize meetings.
"They were looking for something affordable, and something they could do for just five minutes as a break in a meeting. There just wasn't anything out there."
So High 5 branched off into providing do-it-yourself products for employers to add a little fun for staff into the work day.
Paradoxically, clowning around can make work more productive, Hardin says. "A lot of times in meetings, after the first five minutes of a speaker talking, people's minds are drifting. It's just a natural occurrence," she said.
"In the studies we've researched, they find that if they have five-minute breaks every 20 minutes to get people up and energized, their retention levels soar."
One suggestion involves placing a flying monkey at every meeting participant's spot to spark immediate interest as soon as they arrive. Some clients have broken up meetings with flying-monkey bowling using water bottles as pins.
"We're very particular about what we carry. ... We test it on people that are hard to entertain."
bmah@thejournal. canwest.com
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