Good players inspire themselves, great players inspire others. That is one of the few quotes that describe this team building that happened in Pacific Cebu Resort last October 22, 2016. The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Region 7 had its Teambuilding conducted by the Cebu Teambuilding Facilitators Network (CTFN).
As most of us are familiar, the Department of Social Welfare and Development or DSWD is the government institution responsible for the protection of social welfare rights and promotion of social development. Due to size of the entire organization, the team building done by the CTFN was primarily for the administrative department including human resources, maintenance, general services, and some of other supporting departments.
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| DSWD team building training |
The creativity – inspired team building was held at Pacific Cebu Resort, a beach resort that also serves as a good place for team building activities. The day started with the Opening Remarks and the introduction of the CTFN facilitators by the DSWD Regional Director, Mrs. Ma. Evelyn Macapobre. A short ice breaker was conducted to energize the participants and is followed by a Human Bingo getting-to-know-you activity. The next activity Design Your Own Flag allowed the participants to get in touch with the team members and use their creativity in order to create their own flag which represented their team. Each group presented their own flag. Some group even created their own cheer and dance just to stand out with other groups. To further utilize their creative thinking, the next activity – One Less Problem was done. This allowed the each participant to think of a solution on their feet when face with a problem at hand. This activity enabled the participants to always think of the bright side despite the routines of everyday work.
A lecture on Organizational Energy was then discussed in order to wrap up the activities during the morning. The lecture talks about the Energy Matrix in which there are Four Energy States each organization possess depending on the emotional, cognitive, and behavioral drive all employees are giving off in their work. The four energy states are Productive Energy, being most healthy, Comfortable Energy, the second best but breeds complacency, Resigned Inertia, a warning sign for any organization which breeds frustration and withdrawal, and lastly, Corrosive Energy, the worst of the four energy states which brings about violence and destructive tendencies when left unresolved. The lecture provided awareness for participants to determine the energy states among their team and departments in order to check how well the overall group are doing.
Lunch immediately followed after the lecture. Another icebreaker, the Biggest Fan, was done to re-energize the participants after a hearty lunch. There was a short lecture on Creativity in the Workplace that focused on useful tips on how to convert the workplace into a fun and exciting place rather than a place of dreading. After the lecture, the Chinese Handcuffs activity was introduced. This activity enabled the participants to utilize creative problem solving with the pair and as a group.
The final activity – Victoria’s Secret was then done to culminate all the creative ideas of all participants. The goal was to designate a model from each team where members trade their clothes for materials to be used to beautify their respective model. This activity had simple economics in place in order to place value on materials and how much clothing it required in order to achieve the team’s creative appetite. Some team members went all the way to taking most of their shirts, shorts and even undergarments in order to trade greater quantities of raw materials in order to have the edge in beautifying their model. Quantity of materials is only the beginning. The design, usage of materials is another challenge that participants need to hurdle. In the end, all teams had exhausted their creative ideas and have presented a worthy model that represents their team. Indeed, the saying “Good players inspire themselves, Great players inspire others” has become a metaphor that best describes the final activity. The team building ended with a group integration activity, giving of certificates and a group picture with the participants.
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DSWD newspaper models
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| CTFN facilitators receiving their certificates from DSWD |
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This article is written by Christopher Douglas Avila, an affiliate facilitator of the Cebu Teambuilding Facilitators Network. He was the Main Lecturer along with Edelyn Codera, the Main Facilitator and 8 assisting facilitators in the Team Building Event for Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) – Region 7 held at Pacific Cebu Resort, Mactan, last October 22, 2016.
