Senegal: One-Minute Workday Office Film Sprint for Teams

One-Minute Workday Office Film Sprint for Teams, Senegal

Context

Senegal has had an outsized influence in cinema. In the 1960s, novelist‑turned‑director Ousmane Sembène returned to Dakar from film school and, with works like Black Girl (La Noire de…, 1966) and Mandabi (1968), helped launch sub‑Saharan African cinema to the world, often called the “father of African film” for using moving images to reach mass audiences in local languages. His films made the everyday lives of Senegalese people visible and discussable, and they cemented a national pride in storytelling through pictures that endures today. * * *

That pride has renewed momentum. A new generation of schools and festivals, from the free, no‑diploma École Kourtrajmé Dakar launched in January 2022, to grassroots Ciné‑Banlieue workshops in the city’s suburbs, to a revival of screens and series, has renewed the place of “film as collaboration” in the cultural infrastructure of Dakar and other hubs. The official tourism board still promotes the spirit that makes those collaborations work: teranga (pronounced teh‑RAHN‑gah), a Wolof word usually translated as hospitality but better understood as a lived ethic of generosity and inclusion. Together, cinema and teranga offer one way to build teams in Senegal: create something visual and human together, make sure everyone feels welcome enough to try, use the name “Ciné‑Teranga” in Senegal, and use a generic name such as “One‑Minute Film Sprint” elsewhere unless co‑designed with Senegalese partners. * * * * *

Meet the Company/Cultural Tradition

ITTE Consulting, a Dakar‑based HR and training firm, has been running corporate team‑building programs across Senegal and West Africa for more than a decade. Their catalogue of “Nos ateliers” includes a Réalisation film option: teams conceive, shoot, and finish a short movie together, alongside theatre, quiz, and creative challenges. The whole premise is what they call Team Learning: use collective action to unlock energy and cohesion you can’t reach by training individuals in isolation. *

The approach often clicks in Dakar and Thiès formal‑sector offices because the format mirrors familiar practices for many teams while other regions, industries, and rural contexts may prefer lower‑tech or non‑media activities. In a city where a neighborhood ciné‑club can host masterclasses and weekend screenings, and where a new free film school recruits cohorts to write and direct in small crews, the idea of making a mini‑movie with colleagues can feel familiar rather than contrived. The ethic of teranga—ensuring everyone is at ease regardless of status or background—reduces the fear that often accompanies creative tasks. A teammate who doesn’t want to act can storyboard, record sound, or edit, and anyone can opt out of being filmed without penalty; there’s a dignified place for each person around the tripod. * * *

The Ritual

Minute	Scene	Purpose
0–10	Briefing: facilitator frames a one‑minute film challenge around a company value (e.g., “customer care = teranga”) with two constraints (genre and prop).	“Intelligent constraints” spark creativity while keeping scope safe and inclusive.
10–25	Story huddle: groups of 5–7 pick roles (director, camera, editor, actors, props) and sketch a 6–8 shot storyboard on a single page.	Rapid role clarity; low‑barrier planning anyone can join.
25–55	Shoot on phones around the office or courtyard; max three takes per shot.	Shared making under time pressure builds focus and flow.
55–70	Edit on mobile apps; add captions or music beds from license‑free clips.	Turn footage into a coherent story; give non‑actors a creative anchor.
70–85	Screening: all teams watch the one‑minute films; peers award three light categories (Best Story, Best Teranga Moment, Best Use of Prop).	Public celebration reinforces values and recognition.
85–90	Reset: save files to a shared folder; quick thank‑yous; photo of each crew with their storyboard.	Closure, artifacts, and easy internal sharing.

(Vendors like ITTE Consulting list “Réalisation film” among their team‑building ateliers and can facilitate on‑site with simple kits; some teams pilot the sprint over 6–8 weeks with 2–3 runs across 2–4 teams and then repeat it monthly or at the end of a project cycle.) *

Why It Works

First, filmmaking operationalises teranga at work. Stories demand empathy: you must imagine a customer or colleague’s feelings to shoot a scene that lands. Research in laboratory and field settings suggests that character‑driven narratives can increase attention and prosocial intent, which may deepen trust and willingness to cooperate. In practice, shared artifact creation, clear roles, time‑boxing, and peer recognition build psychological safety, belonging, and role clarity that translate into better turn‑taking, help‑seeking, and smoother handoffs. *

Second, the ritual introduces “intelligent constraints.” A one‑minute cap, a defined prop, and a handful of shots turn a blank page into a solvable game. Research and management practice alike find that well‑designed constraints focus attention, elevate inventive problem‑solving, and often produce more original work than unlimited choice. * *

Third, the format produces flow. Teams tackling short, time‑boxed creative challenges often report heightened immersion, and an adjacent randomized trial on team video games found post‑activity performance gains via increased flow, which is suggestive but needs testing in this film context. A quick collaborative shoot taps the same mechanism without requiring gaming or sports. *

Finally, it’s inclusive. Senegal’s film culture normalises crew diversity—writers, camera, sound, production assistants—so even shy or junior staff can contribute meaningfully off camera without the spotlight. That lowers barriers more effectively than rituals built solely on talk or extroversion. * *

Outcomes & Impact

Teams that adopt a recurring Ciné‑Teranga Sprint sometimes report clearer shared language around values (“What’s our teranga moment in this feature?”) and faster on‑the‑fly coordination, particularly for cross‑team handoffs and onboarding. That pattern is testable with a light measurement plan using short scales for psychological safety, belonging, and role clarity at T0 (1–3 days before), T1 (24–48 hours after), and T2 (30 days), behavioral proxies like cross‑team help requests and meeting turn‑taking balance, and success thresholds such as ≥80% voluntary participation, 0 safety incidents, and a +0.3 shift on 5‑point scales. In practice, the ritual creates tangible artifacts: 60‑second videos and single‑page storyboards that leaders can reuse in onboarding and customer briefings, and teams can connect mechanisms to metrics by watching handoff defects per sprint, cross‑team help requests, and meeting turn‑taking balance over the next month. * *

Because it is vendor‑supported in Senegal (e.g., ITTE’s Réalisation film), setup is lightweight: a facilitator, phones, and a quiet corner suffice, with a no‑vendor MVP variant available (one facilitator, two phones per crew, zero‑budget props), named owners for facilitation, communications, and data stewardship, and an estimate of all‑in cost per participant based on time × loaded cost plus any materials or vendor fees. That practicality matters in Dakar’s mix of legacy offices and start‑ups, where time and space are precious, and the format fits best for co‑located creative or knowledge teams while high‑security or safety‑critical settings may require a storyboard‑only or remote variant. As with other short, media‑rich team activities, the ritual’s flow and cooperative challenge can be associated with improved coordination on real tasks the same day. * *

Lessons for Global Team Leaders

Principle	Why It Matters	How to Translate
Anchor in local pride	Rituals stick when they echo national strengths (cinema + teranga).	Tie the brief to a local value or art form in your market.
Use intelligent constraints	Constraints focus teams and spark originality.	Cap films at 60 seconds; mandate a prop and genre.
Design for many roles	Inclusion builds belonging and psychological safety.	Offer crew roles beyond acting: camera, edit, props, continuity.
Make it repeatable	Repetition turns an event into culture.	Run monthly or at project close; archive films on the intranet.
Celebrate publicly	Recognition cements learning and motivation.	Screen in a common area; rotate peer‑voted micro‑awards.

Implementation Playbook

Book a local facilitator or brief an internal MC, and schedule the session on paid time with manager approval, shift coverage, an EHS walk‑through, and clearly marked safe filming zones where stairs, traffic, and trip hazards are off limits. Vendors in Dakar like ITTE list “Réalisation film” as an off‑the‑shelf atelier, and the organizer should circulate a one‑page briefing explaining why now and the strategy link, explicit opt‑in and no‑impact opt‑out, time and place and norms, data handling and a 90‑day retention window, anonymous feedback, and cultural origin and partner acknowledgment. *
Set “intelligent constraints”: 60‑second max, one prop, three genres in a hat. Share a simple 6–8‑shot storyboard template. *
Form crews of 5–7; assign roles so everyone has a job (director, camera, editor, actors, props/continuity), include contract, cleaning, and security colleagues where appropriate, make off‑camera roles equally valued for anyone who opts out of being filmed, and offer a remote or async variant using screen‑share editing and stock footage when filming is not possible.
Time‑box: 15 minutes planning, 30 shooting, 15 editing, 15 screening. Keep gear to smartphones and free editors to avoid skill barriers, provide captions or subtitles in the team’s working languages, ensure wheelchair‑accessible routes and sensory accommodations, prohibit filming non‑participants without their consent, and prohibit filming in sensitive or restricted areas such as prayer rooms, HR files, or secure screens.
Link to values: ask each crew to show a concrete moment of hospitality or inclusion (teranga in Senegalese contexts) without dialogue if noise is an issue, and schedule to respect prayer and holiday calendars. *
Screen and celebrate internally with anonymous voting, a leader‑speaks‑last norm, and supervisors abstaining from judging: three light appreciation awards (Best Story, Best Teranga Moment, Best Use of Prop) without rankings.
Archive and apply: save films to a restricted corporate folder with Legal/HR review and a 90‑day default retention, caption any external uses with who, where, when, and the consent context, comply with local privacy laws for cross‑border teams, and only share beyond the team or event with explicit written consent or by blurring names and faces on request.
Iterate: every third sprint, invite and compensate a local film student or facilitator to give a two‑minute tip—story beats, framing, or editing flow—crediting partners by name with permission and offering an optional give‑back such as equipment or honoraria. *

Common Pitfalls

Over‑producing the session with heavy gear or long shoots; keep it light and phone‑based.
Letting a few extroverts dominate; enforce role rotation so every voice is useful.
Turning it into mere “screen time”; protect hands‑on making and limit monologues.
Treating it as a once‑a‑year off‑site; the cultural payoff comes from cadence.

Reflection & Call to Action

Senegalese teams show that when you blend a widely referenced local practice, film as shared craft, with a widely referenced value, teranga as generous welcome, you get a ritual that is simple, frequent, and deeply human when adapted with respect. Try it: one hour, one phone, one prop, one minute of story. When colleagues co‑create a tiny film about how they treat each other and their customers, they don’t just talk about culture: they make it visible. And once culture is on screen, it’s much easier to replay.