IT'S two weeks before the company's scheduled Team Building and seeing that I'm not grouped on the same day with my constants (the usual people I am with) in the office, I panicked and started convincing the HR to swap me for Team Friday instead.
SunStar Davao's Production, Admin, Editorial, and Marketing departments are shuffled and divided into two groups-one scheduled to have the activity on Friday and the other was set on Saturday. And just about five days before the company event, Sir Leo called me over the phone to ask if I still want to swap with someone from Team Friday. I know it's just a click away but I thought for a second, I've already been here long enough so why should I limit myself to the same circle I have been with for the last two years? So I just shrugged it off and said, game on Team Saturday, hoping it will be a good one.
Since the other group went first, Team Saturday already had a hint of what's about to happen in Outland Adventure. There's gonna be blindfolds and extreme activities- emphasis on the extreme because Ma’am Donna, our supervisor, said that it was her first time to hear Ate Cristina can spitting a lot of swear words in the 16 years that they worked together. Ate Cristina is our benchmark for a nice person and knowing that the activity made her curse, we knew it's going to be tough.
Team Saturday started with a few fun games to hype up everyone's energy, and it's nice to see that although nobody was seated next to someone from the same department as he is, we all paid attention and tried to get a grasp of what the facilitator briefed us. Everyone was excited to learn from everyone.
Then, we got divided to smaller chunks of three: Team Manggahutay, Team Charot, and Team Bugan (you would know the personalities of the members with their team names).
I got in with Team Manggahutay along with Kuya Eric, Ate Chara, Sir Leo, Sir Bernie, Ate Gieboy, Teenay, and Adam. We were so diverse in my team as we have some from every department, as well as supervisors and subordinates, I think that also went for the other two teams.
Straight to the Island Challenge where we need to pass through the suppose water using tiny and long wood blocks without touching the surface, everyone expressed their ideas and everyone's idea, in fact, is right. But we became so ecstatic to win the challenge and reach the other island that we forgot how to communicate well, as punishment, the facilitator said that only one shall speak and take the command, and voila! He picked Ate Gieboy, the silent member. I was not surprised that he was able to deliver but I got amazed that my team was able to work with the punishment and accomplish the task. The lesson was just to silence our voices and listen to one person to get the work done.
On to the next challenge, which is the Trust Fall, we were obviously nervous as the sizes of the members were quite varied as well. But with our optimism to catch everyone no matter the weight, we actually did it. After all, we figured that the obstacle is all in the mind, and most importantly, we should trust our teammates to catch us because they will.
We were already on the log challenge, the last one. We were made to balance on a huge post that was laid horizontally. The goal is to arrange ourselves alphabetically without getting off the log and keeping the stones from falling. Coming from two wearisome challenges, we were already worn out and unfortunately, did not complete the challenge.
But as my team was feeling negative from losing, we were made to realize that the goal of this team building is not winning the challenges but maintaining our characters. I am proud that nobody scolded anybody during the last challenge. We struggled to win but with every fall, no matter how frustrating. I saw that everyone managed to stretch their patience, to focus on optimizing a solution.
Nobody got the blame because the team worked as one and if one wins, everyone wins. If we lose as one, we could still emerge as one by the time we already figure out the right thing to do.
We actually built a team out of that Team Building, it was not just a scrappy event made just to check it off our company's to-do list.
And most important of all, we enjoyed the company of our "non-constants." Indeed, happiness is being in a team.
At the end of it, the team that worked is the team who learned. I am glad we all did.