Moulding Connections: How One Pottery Day Reshaped Our Team
- hazelthom
- Aug 8
- 4 min read
Clay, Laughter and the secrets of Team Building
Staff takeover blog written by Hazel Thom
Our team is full of high performing, high energy and often highly caffeinated individuals. Driven people that often find it challenging to stop, guilt free. When my boss suggested a “team day” my first instinct was fight or flight, visions of awkward icebreakers, team-building clichés, and forced fun spun wildly through my head.
But when he sent us an invite to a pottery studio for a “Happiness Day” my interested was at least piqued. We walked into the Pottery Studio, bantering and joking around. Loud voices, some retelling holiday stories, sharing pet photos and normal office chit chat. I was looking forward to a fun day away from the regular routine.
In every team, there are competitive spirits, you know the ones, the kind that LOVE Monopoly. Our team is full of them! Even in a zen pottery studio filled with aromatic candles and a rustic log burning fire, the banter started, trying to one-up each other “Mine’s going to be a masterpiece!”, “I’m going to win!”.
Our day started with the instructor sharing a vulnerable account of why she got into pottery making, the personal story of finding herself again through clay after years as a stay-at-home mum. Some of the group visibly moved, others discretely felt emotion while some fought hard feelings. Her vulnerability shifted the room. We felt it. Quietly. Collectively. It laid the groundwork for real connection.
Those competitive amongst us rallied a little after but when the pottery spinning demonstration began. Just like that, we were all humbled, equalised in our inexperience.
We spun our pottery wheels in the sunshine, getting ludicrously messy each ending up with a vague interpretation of a mug. No one was the expert. There was no PowerPoint deck to hide behind, no metrics to meet. Just clay, hands, and effort. In that moment, we were equal — sharing laughs, frustrations, and surprise pride in what we made.
The next activity was freeform clay modelling. We each decided what we wanted to make, our creativity (and skill) was the limit. Some made dishes, others vases (a few unintentionally questionable shapes emerged!), but every piece was an expression of self. There was gentle empowerment in giving us choice.
After a slow lunch, we gathered by the crackling fire for a feedback session. It turned into something else entirely — a spontaneous moment of gratitude. Not the awkward, forced kind — but a real, honest celebration of connection, rest, and shared experience.
Some of us had never met in person before. We largely work remotely. But that day we sat around one table, worked on one task, and shared one fire.
In a world of multiple open tabs and constant motion, the simplicity of this day felt radical. And restorative. Our clay covered hands couldn’t hold phones, the concentration on doing something new which looked easy but was certainly a challenge, gave our minds a singular focus and a surprising rest.
The slowness was a juxtaposition for almost everyone in the room. It takes a lot to make a group of high functioning people slow down and still. In my brain, I had permission to stop because pausing was the task.
Moulded by the moment
Happiness days are not about getting-to-know-you games and trust exercises. They are a mid-year pause designed not to push harder, but to breathe, to bond, and to reset after the end-of-financial-year sprint.
This day offered exactly what was needed: a reset without guilt, a shared challenge without pressure, and a connection that built quietly — through clay, not conversation prompts.
And here’s what I’ve come to believe:
If you want your team to move fast for the next six months, you need to let them slow down — together — at least once.
More organisations should seriously consider building something similar into their leadership calendar.
Shaping Success
If you’re a leader or team organiser, here’s what made it work:
Pick your activity wisely. Something slow, unfamiliar, and tactile helps equalise and connect the group.
Keep it small. 6–10 people is ideal. Too many, and connection dilutes.
Let the day breathe. Don’t pack it with workshops or “outcomes.” The outcome is the experience.
Don’t replace — complement. Your Christmas party drinks for your entire staff don’t count. There’s a place for seasonal parties, but this is something else.
Build on the pause- Pair a “Happiness Day” with a Twenty2 Collective “High-performance team day” or a “Ways of Working” session for long-term cohesion.
Model the pause. When leadership visibly values rest, the team follows — with trust and energy.
The Trifecta: Happiness, Clarity, Connection
In Twenty2 Collective’s programs, we often talk about the trifecta of high-performing teams:
Clarity of goals and strategy
Understanding how to work together
Trust and psychological safety
A Happiness Day contributes to all three — just from the side door.
Think of it like crafting a pot on the wheel. If the clay isn’t centred, the air bubbles aren’t wedged out, or it’s not properly attached, then as soon as the wheel speeds up — things go flying. And if it somehow survives shaping but goes into the kiln full of unseen cracks? It risks exploding under pressure.
The same is true for teams. Invest early in connection, alignment and trust — before the pace picks up and the heat is on. That’s how you avoid fractures, friction, and strategic drift. A team that’s centred and supported from the start won’t just hold together — it’ll fire beautifully.
Wheel Wisdom: What We Learnt by Slowing Down
What we shaped together wasn’t just clay — it was trust, alignment, and momentum. It was a pause. A shared experience. A chance to be before we go back to doing. And it left our team not just rested — but reconnected, realigned, and ready.
Make time for your version of a Happiness Day.
Your team — and your strategy — will thank you for it.
[For more information about Twenty2Collective's Team Building workshop or Priority Planning Workshops click here]
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