Lawyers and Staff at Cona Elder Law Become Scavengers During Firm’s Team Building Day

On Friday, August 2nd from 10 AM – Noon, you won’t find the staff at Cona Elder Law, elder law and estate planning firm in Melville, at their desks.  Instead, the entire staff of 30 will participate in a teambuilding corporate scavenger hunt at the Long Island Museum in Stonybrook.   Following this activity, everyone is invited to a partner’s home for lunch so they can continue team building while having fun.   

Jennifer Cona, Esq., managing partner of Cona Elder Law, will orchestrate the event through Watson Adventures, a company based in NYC that develops and implements scavenger hunts for both businesses and the public at museums and historic places throughout the U.S.    During the Cona Elder Law program, five to six teams will solve riddles and puzzles as they try to find answers to tricky and humorous questions about intriguing objects on display at the museum.   The teams will find the answers as they walk through the facility consisting of an art museum, the carriage house, old school house, blacksmith shop and more.  At the end, a leader from Watson will tally up the scores to see which team is the winner.                        

While this is Cona Elder Law’s first scavenger hunt, it is their sixth team building day that is now conducted every August.  “The goal this year is two-fold:  I will team people up who don’t normally work together in the office to give those groups an opportunity to connect and I will also team up people who are not communicating well together to give them a different perspective and chance to appreciate other attributes that a staff member may have to offer.  It’s all about learning, growing and understanding each other.  Getting outside of the office environment is really good for that,” says Jennifer. “This camaraderie results in a more positive work environment which increases morale, motivation, cooperation and communication.”

Taking people out of their typical surroundings to actively work as a team helps to eliminate barriers, foster interaction and encourage the development of each other’s strengths in a trusting way.  According to Julie Jacobs, Chief Development Officer at Watson, everyone brings different and complementary skills to the hunt, and they need to use all of them to succeed.  As they work together, the individuals will realize if they are better at answering the big picture or the small detailed questions, reading maps, keeping track of time and other important skills.

Other team building activities Cona Elder Law has done with their staff include: trust games, advance directives day, crafts with residents at a local nursing home, and more.  During the year, they also participate in community programs where the staff gives back, such as collecting food for the LI Cares Food Bank, putting on a show with assisted living residents, providing caregiver conferences and senior strategies conferences, to name a few.

Cona Elder Law is recognized as a leading elder law and estate planning firm on Long Island.  The firm was ranked the #1 Elder Law firm by Long Island Business News in 2012.  The firm provides creative advocacy and cutting edge planning strategies and has been featured in many publications including: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Newsday, L.I. Business News, Kiplinger’s, Reader's Digest and many others.   Cona Elder Law attorneys are frequent contributors to Newsday’s Act II “Ask the Expert” column and have appeared as guests on WNBC-TV, CNN-fn, News 12, News 55, Channel 21 "Act II With Newsday" and many radio stations including WOR, WCBS AM and WFAN.

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