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Thursday, August 17, 2006

First team building

Our project had its team building on Saturday, July 29. The venue of our team building is called Lembah Pangsun, which is an hour away from our office. Based from the leaflets given to us, the meeting time at the office is at 7:15 AM and the buses will depart at 7:30 AM. Since I leave on the other side of the city, that was a challenge for me (I used to live 30 – 40 minutes at work). Even though the time zone is the time zone is the same as with Manila, the sun would usually rise at 7:00 AM and will set at 7:00 to 7:30 PM. I guess Malaysia synched its time with Hongkong. Usually, I wake up at 6:30 AM but it is really dark and I get lazy to get up.

Anyway, I woke up at 7 AM (hey! It’s a Saturday) so needless to say, I got into the office at around 8 AM. It was too embarrassing because everybody is waiting for me! Pero pinanindigan ko na hehe.. I boarded the 3rd bus, where all my fellow Filipino co-workers had stayed and the funny thing is that the bus was labeled as a school bus (BAS SEKOLAH) – field trip! Of course, the Filipinos in the bus are funny. There was no dull moment on our way to Lembah Pangsun. At around 10 AM, we arrived at the venue. Our first activity: breakfast. We were served with Malaysian food – Nasilemak (this is the typical Malay breakfast that is a mixture of rice, fried peanuts, anchovies and chili), scrambled egg and tea (their tea has its own creamer). After eating, an ex-military gave us a description of the place (the equipments that we’ll be using and the activities that we’ll be doing) and some safety precaution.

For the team building, there are 8 groups composed of 9-10 people. I’m with the chocolate (brown) team. All teams must to the following activities: flying fox, river crossing and obstacle course. For flying fox, we need to slide 10 meters above ground while we are hanging on a harness with 2 cables. The good thing about it though, was that we got to do it in pairs (at least it was not scary). For river crossing, there are 6 life-preservers (pardon me.. I don’t know the exact term of salbabida in English) that were tied together with a rope and wood. This was our so-called boat. Meanwhile, the obstacle course, each team were given a pail of water and we need to ensure that the bucket is still full after we pass the obstacle course.

Flying fox

The Green and Brown teams were asked to walk on a 45-degree slope (it was muddy) to get to the starting point. I was really scared when I saw the view from the top. I don’t think I have the guts to go for it. Good thing that we had to do it by pairs. My team mate Kirpal, the manager who did my final interview, motivated us by saying that we should learn to conquer our fears. The fear is still there if we decide to stay and we would not know what its like to “fly” and the fear is still there. If we conquer our fear, it will be gone after a while but we would know what its like to “fly” if we let ourselves do it.

Our turn finally came and my partner, Man Peng and I just motivated each other (we were both scared!). Finally, we were tied to the cable and we both jumped! IT WAS FUN! I really enjoyed it and I’m not that scared after a few seconds! =D This is the activity that I really enjoyed.

Obstacle course

Each team were given a bucket of water. We need to go to an obstacle course and all 10 of us would need to pass through. The obstacle course includes the abseiling (7 ft high), climbing on a block 5 feet high and passing a tunnel with its diameter just enough for a person to crawl (take note, I’m a big woman! Haha!). Can you imagine doing that with a bucket of water! Teamwork is really essential to survive this activity. My body ached the day after our team building because of this. We ended up on the top of an elevated area that is near the starting point of the flying fox. We need to go down and pass on a steep staircase that has inconsistent gaps. So we all need to hold together as team to assist each other as we go down the stairs. Just when I thought that we’re done with the obstacle course!

River Crossing

There are 7 of us who rode the so-called boat. Half of our body is submerged in water; from our waist to our feet. The river crossing is the longest activity and it came to a point where I got bored (we sailed for an hour). The river is pretty shallow but its not that clean though because I saw some empty bottles, plastic bags and Styrofoam containers floating on the river. The river has some obstacle course as well such as branches or trees blocking the way and rocks that would keep the boat from sailing so the people riding the boat would need to push it. We had to be careful with this because one of my colleagues got injured while pushing the “boat” because his leg hit a rock and he got 2-3 stitches. We also saw some spiders and snakeskin while crossing the river. Most people liked this activity most and it also required teamwork.

After river crossing, we took a bath and ate lunch – rice, beef curry, egg and some veggies. After lunch, everyone gathered in a hall. This was the cheesy part (and corniest) of the team building because we need to share all the things that we learned in the activities that we did earlier. The activities that we did are sleeping (seriously!), massaging each other to the tune of Macarena (yeah baby!), sharing what we learned and playing an activity where we need untangle our arms (more known to Filipinos as Dr Quack Quack) where communication is needed to last on this activity. This was also the time when I was introduced to my teammates at work; there are 10 of us with my Malaysian boss, 3 Filipinos, Chinese, 2 Muslim women (1 is a Malaysian and the other one looks like a Persian).

After our hall activities, we had our snack – laksa, which I can describe as the spicy sinigang, gulaman and a dessert that is similar to maja blanca. After the snack, we rode the (school) bus back to the office. I was so tired that I fell asleep. After an hour, Zari (my bus seatmate) woke me up and I found myself staring at a Brad Turvey poster with the ad in Bahasa Melayu.

This was the first time that I experienced a real team building activity that emphasized the values needed at the workplace and I enjoyed it (even if we relate each obstacle as an issue in UAT or the steep stairs in after the obstacle course as a production issue). The team building activities that I attended in my previous company only allowed us to bond with my teammates (but I liked it as well) and I’m glad that I got a chance to know these kinds of team building activities.

posted by subhuman @ 1:17 PM

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