Cebu Teambuilding Services Does Air Doctor Cebu Team Building Program

We were greeted by the cold breeze of the mountains of Busay, Cebu City as we went towards our venue. A team building seminar was to be conducted by Cebu Teambuilding Services facilitators Thaddeau Engaling II and Clint Fuentes at Mountain View Nature's Park on 23 March 2016. 21 employees from Air Doctor Cebu will be participating in the team building program. They had a short hike towards the assigned hall as they were mistakenly dropped off a short distance from the intended destination. The facilitators joined them in that short hike. Despite the cold temperature, the facilitators were welcomed by the warm smile of the participants prior to the start of the activities.





The program started off with a getting to know you activity. It was done not only to introduce the facilitators but also to allow the participants to know more about their peers. Clint facilitated the World’s Record.
Right after the GTKY Activity, Thadz did the Expectation Setting and a brief talk to the participants about the upcoming activities. Structured learning activities or SLA's were conducted by the facilitators. Debrief was done after every activity gather the experiences, insights and realizations of the participants. Here are the SLA's as well as the significant inputs of Air Doctor Cebu employees during the debrief.

Helium Ring:

Using the hula hoop, the goal is to successfully bring it to the ground without any fingers being detached from the plastic ring. They can’t put weight on top of the hoop. They had to restart when any of the conditions were violated.


helium ring with Air Doctor Cebu
Helium ring with Air Doctor Cebu



For the purpose of easier activity management, they were split them up into 2 groups. The participants were really engaged with the activity and surprisingly, very competitive towards the other group. Even when the facilitators did not necessarily condition them to compete with each other. The facilitators pointed this out and the participants mentioned that the competitiveness came out naturally. Knowing there was another team, they became intensely conscious and ended up focusing more on thinking that they had to do it quicker than the other group. And at the same time losing concentration on what they were supposed to do to achieve their goal. It was also important to note that they experience this at work. They tend to lose focus on thinking there is competition. The group talked about their way on going about this competitive nature. It is to focus on the job at hand and think that they are members of the same company. That they are a team and not push each other down. Costumer's needs first not personal advantage or glory.
After lunch break, the facilitators decided to give a short challenge to break the ice. Chinese Handcuffs was the name of the activity. They had to solve this challenge with a partner.


Chinese handcuffs with Air Doctor Cebu
Chinese handcuffs ice breaker with Air Doctor Cebu


Make a Shape:

Using a webbing, participants are challenged to make a shape. The facilitators gave additional twist such as closing their eyes, or being unable to talk, or choosing someone in the group to guide making the shape. It created different situational challenges within one activity.


make a shape with Air Doctor Cebu
Make a Shape with Air Doctor Cebu


With this activity the participants were able to relay their own view on what a leader. They discussed if the leader should be the only person to be followed or a leader should be the one to gather the members ideas and consensus of the group. Despite some members of the Air Doctor Cebu team choosing their side, some opened up about how it depends on the situation at hand. This was reinforced by the facilitators that there are times that it would depend on the situation and what type of leader could benefit the group more. Another topic that was discussed with the group is the communication process within the group and towards their leaders especially in their company. One of the group members pointed out the importance of opening up their ideas and opinion on how to effectively and efficiently do the work they need to do. They realized that they could still improve their communication and relaying of information in their company which we left for them to figure out upon going back to work.



Minefield:

Monobloc chairs were placed as obstacles at the center of the hall that would create the "minefield". The Air Doctor Cebu staff need to go through the minefield in order to finish the challenge. They are not allowed to pass on the side where there is no obstacle. A chosen representative would shout out the commands on the other end where another participant is passing the obstacle with their eyes closed. If they hit the obstacles or if they opened their eyes while navigating through the minefield, they will have to go back to the starting line to start again.
Just like the Helium Ring challenge the group was split up into 2 groups with each group going into the "minefield" at the same time. The two groups decided that they will send 1 person at a time. First 4 persons of each group got through despite restarting after hitting the obstacles. Moments later participants who finished for their respective group decided to help and take the place of their original representative calling out the directions. The facilitators decided not to interfere but made notes to point out this dynamic during the debrief. Despite separated into two 2 groups, they started cheering for each other and rooting for whoever passes the obstacle course. They started taking turns in directing the other person on the other end and helped out in figuring the best way possible to pass through. They were having a lot of fun. During the debrief, they shared that it was difficult to hear the person directing them since there were a lot voices they were hearing. But despite that, they were able to be guided by them. Most of them pointed out that the fact that they were able to pass through and the restart gave them ideas on what to do and how to go about the obstacle course. They were able to commit a lot of errors. But that didn't budge them a bit since they learn more on how to pass the activity.
It was also important to note that in every SLA, participants were encouraged to be honest and display personal integrity if ever they felt that they didn't follow a rule. For helium ring, they would automatically restart if they realize that someone isn't touching the hoop. For the make a shape they were told to close their eyes without having blindfolds. And for the minefield they would restart if someone opens their eyes or hits an obstacle. It came as a pleasant facilitating experience for the facilitators because the participants would honestly restart. They didn't need the facilitator's intervention and pointing out their mistakes for them to restart. This also emphasized the choice they were given. To follow the rules of the activity or not. In their case, they chose to play fair. And upon discussing about this they said that it would not be a satisfying feeling for them if they finished the activity and allow themselves to continue despite being unable to follow the conditions with the mechanics of the challenges. As it is in their work, they wouldn't feel that satisfaction after finishing the job if they knew they didn't do a well-polished work.
At the end of the team building program, the facilitators shared to them some observations from being very competitive with each other in the Helium Ring activity to uniting as Air Doctor Cebu by the end of the program. They are able to open up their ideas about the challenges as well as ideas for the betterment of their company. In conclusion, they were gathered together to do a group huddle as a sign of their unity as one team. They were asked to give a chant as they do their huddle a la NBA teams.


Air Doctor Cebu team huddle
Air Doctor Cebu team huddle




This article is written by Clint Eduard Fuentes. Clint is a team building facilitator affiliated with Cebu Teambuilding Services since 2013. He was a facilitator for the Air Doctor Cebu team building event in 2016.

Share this:

CONVERSATION

0 comments:

Post a Comment