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If you called our office yesterday, you would have been surprised to find the phone answered by voice mail, a very unRoundpeg kind of thing. But we have a good excuse.  We were out in the community as part of Indy Do Day, a citywide people-powered community day of service. This is the second annual event, with thousands of residents of Indianapolis taking ownership of their neighborhoods and taking care of their neighbors. Although it is called,  Indy Do Day it actually runs from October 2-4, 2014 so there is still time for you to get involved this weekend.

Why did I take the entire company off site for this event when there is so much work to be done here at Roundpeg? I wanted to do this because I know focusing exclusively on work isn’t healthy for me, the team, the company or our community. Here are four very good reasons why we get involved, in community projects as a company, and why I think you should too, regardless of whether you have 1, 100 or 10,000 employees.

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For you:  When you focus on the same thing day in day out you get stale. Taking a break lets you clear your head. There is even some research which shows when you are concentrating on one thing, your brain will actually continue to try to solve problems in the background. So, turning your attention to something completely unrelated can actually bring you fresh insights to issues you have been trying to resolve.

For your team: Having a chance to work side by side on something fun and meaningful, without the stress of production deadlines is a great team building experience.  Giving your team a chance to have input into the project you choose will give them ownership.

For Indy Do Day there were lots of projects to choose from.  We decided to make flowers from recycled material to be sold as part of the fundraising activities of the Peace Crew. It sounded like fun, something we would be good at and a cause we thought was worthwhile.

For your company: Community service is good for the company image. If conveys your interest in being part the community in which you operate. Will you close sales because of your community efforts? Maybe not, but in an increasingly noisy world, community service gives you a chance to broaden exposure to your brand.  If you are going to do a team community service project remember to take pictures to share on the company Facebook page or a blog post like this one.

For your community: You don’t operate in a vacuum. Your business will be positively (or negatively) effected by the health of the community in which you live.  Programs like Indy Do Day improve the overall community, making the city a better place to live and work. Improved quality of life attracts more people and more businesses who may become your customers. We are all connected inside a local economy.

Whether your are part of this week’s program or plan to participate in an event at some point in the future, get out into the community and do something!

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About the Peace Learning Center’s Peace Crew:

This is a group of high school students who have spent the past year volunteering every Friday at local elementary schools teaching their elementary peers about peace, conflict resolution, and the importance of graduating.  After serving locally for over a year it is their dream to spend a week doing service in the Big Apple! The flowers we made from recycled material will be sold to raise funds for their trip!

Looking for ways to reach out to your local community with your messaging, culture, and business? Join us on Oct. 15th for our Local Blitz seminar at the Monon Community Center! You can find more information on our seminar announcement page.

How Can You Give Back?

Our friends at the Peace Learning Center have given us access to tickets to this weekend’s Sport and Fitness Show at the Indianapolis Fair Grounds. The ticket will grant you free admission and you can print off as many as you’d like. The Sport and Fitness Show coordinators have offered to grant the Peace Crew participants $5,000 towards their trip if they can attract 200 people to the Fair Grounds by using this ticket.