I’VE been involved in quite a number of team buildings before, but last Friday was for keeps.
We were told to bring extra shirts, insect repellant, and wear active attires, rubber shoes, and remove any accessory from our body as the activities will require lots of moving, shaking, crawling, and jumping. Right then and there, I knew it will be fun. Well, it ended up more fun with lessons learned and stronger team bond.
Usually, during events, I have my camera to capture moments but this time, I was asked to hand over my camera to someone so I can participate, fully, in the activity. I gave it to our General Manager, ma’am Tessie, since she was just supervising the activity. I’m glad I passed the lens to ma’am Tess, my focus was into the activity and not in the camera angles and shots. (Btw, our GM have nice shots, yey!)
The activity started with a blindfold challenge wherein we fall in line, boys and girls separated, and follow the leader, the one who is placed first in the line, and listen to the commanding voice (from the instructor of Outland Adventure). After reaching our destination – the kubo, we had few fun games to set the mood and had a simple introduction to get to know more our workmates.
For batch Friday (The SunStar Davao team was divided in two batches, Friday and Saturday since we can’t afford not to produce a paper, of course, we produce daily) we were grouped in three: team Mansanitas, Santol, and Atis. I am a proud team member of "Team Santol," I was with ate Rhona, Karla, Irish, Kuya Dodoy, Kuya Alex, Boom, Kass, and Jona.
Before performing our group tasks, we were gathered first by our activity instructors, the instruction was to shut our mouths, not say a word, and never create a single sound. We agreed. No sweat. But when we are told to arrange ourselves by our birthdates, everyone was shouting, informing the team about their birthdays (I am guilty, hehe) forgetting the first instruction: keep silent. As punishment, we were asked to perform jumping jacks 194 times.
Lesson: Always, always follow instructions amid distractions.
Fast forward to our first group task, we had the “Island to island” challenge, where we need to transfer from one supposed island to another using tiny and long wood blocks without landing the surface and bringing all the resources with us as we transfer to the next island. I’m glad our team did it strategically, not fast, but surely.
Lesson: Sometime, things may seem impossible but with strategy and teamwork, it is possible.
Next challenge was the “Trust Fall.” In a team, trust in your mates is important. Jona, ascended to the platform, not that high but enough to give one the chills of falling, at first, she was hesitant, she even suggested to not try the task and forever let fear reside inside her, but all my teammates assured her that we will catch her no matter what, gladly she listened and trusted us. She ended up thanking us and herself for finishing the challenge. Fulfilling.
Lesson: To trust is never easy. But in a team, having faith in your mates’ abilities and trusting that they will never let you down is essential. Trust builds an empire. However, know that it also takes trust to destroy it. Always, value and keep your mates’ trust.
For the last group task was the log challenge. We were asked to maintain balance on a horizontally-laid huge post. The goal is to arrange ourselves alphabetically by name and age without getting off the log and keeping the stones from falling. Being as a brilliant team (WAHAHAHA), it only takes us seconds to figure out how to successfully do the challenge. We just let our members sit and allow one to pass above him/her to get through the log and arranged ourselves. It is, for us, the easiest task, maybe because our team already got through two challenges which made our bond stronger, hence, better teamwork.
Lesson: Balance is key. Also, the gesture of sitting down, allowing your teammates to pass over you is a show of humility. Indeed, being humble and knowing the balance of life will get you through whatever challenge ahead.
Our team did overcome all the challenges, the other two teams went well as well. Why? Because we trust our teammates, we think of strategies and find our balance.
What I like most about the activity was every after challenge we gather and discuss what went wrong, right and share what lessons we gained out from the challenge. Indeed, there is no “I” in “team” and happiness in being in a team.
But above all the group challenges, my favorite part was the Outland Adventure’s ropes course. We proved to ourselves that we can do things we thought we can’t. The course enabled us to get out from our comfort zone, and be the “adventurous and brave” version of ourselves.
Also, I love the zipline over the green, calm Davao River.