Yesterday, we had a day-long team-building session as a part of our Strategic Business Negotiation course. It started at 7:15 am and went on till 6:30 pm. We had lot of activities in the time in-between. They call it "Experiential Learning". The entire day program was conducted by a team from STEP consulting, Delhi. We were about 175 students separated into 8 teams engaged in various activities at different venues all around the institute. We were 22 in our team. Our team started with rappelling. The task is simple - come down from the top of 3rd floor to the ground using a rope. Some of us had an initial apprehension about the task, but each one of us finally made it to ground. In fact, it was totally safe as it was coordinated and controlled by professional men. Still, you can't do away with the basic instinct - fear! Next task was called "Toxic Waste". It was a team game. There were 4 buckets in an encircled area. One of the buckets contained 15 balls. The objective was to transfer the equal number of balls to all the 3 empty buckets. We were given with a bicycle tyre-tube and a few ropes. The rule was not to touch the balls or buckets with the hand and also not to move the buckets which were initially empty. We figured out a way, though not very much implementable, after a lot of confusion. We managed to transfer 7 balls in one of the buckets and 3 balls in another and spilled 5 balls. We made several attempts. That was the best we could get.
The next one was a blind-folded game. We were given a long rope from which we were asked to make a square. Remember, all of us were blind-folded. Again, it started with lot of commotion, but after a few minutes Arun Moolchandani came forward and guided the way to make a square, though not a perfect one. All of us were giving our own ideas and were also listening to others and accepting the ideas which suited the task at hand. We accomplished the task well ahead of the time given to us. But, we did not use the entire length of the rope. On finishing the square, we were asked "If you are the customer, would you buy this square?" We answered in negative. But given the time constraints, and knowing that the same constraints are with everyone else in the market (read as other teams) that was one of the best that could be possible and customer had no option!
After this was the wonderful activity called "Trust Fall". The task is to fall backwards from a height of about 1 metre. 9 of us would be on ground to catch the person who free falls. I thought this was simple activity, but it was like jumping into the water. We feel very comfortable from a distance, but once we are near to water, we feel really scary. Though I knew that nothing would happen and there were people to catch me, I could not make my free fall elegant. I bent my knees and fell in an awkward position making it difficult for the people to catch. Thank god, nothing happened to any one of us. There is a very good chance of getting hit by the elbow of the person who is falling, if he does not adhere to the rules of the game. The objective of the game is to understand “trust”.
After this, we had carpentry. We were divided into 3 sub teams. Each team was given a set of raw materials consisting of wooden plank, nails, hammer and saw to make a stool out of that. We were also given instruction that we needed to finally sell our product and the customer would buy a stool from one of the teams. We started our task immediately and were able to make a stool in the allotted 30 minutes. After the task, we were stumped with a question, "You know who your customer is. Did you guys ask what kind of stool he actually needs?" Surprisingly, this very basic question did not strike to any of us in the 3 sub teams.
We had a few more games in the afternoon like "pipe-bomb" where we need to transport the bombs (marbles) using bamboo pipes without touching the marbles and dropping them in-between, and "web" where we need to cross through the shapes just about a person to enter, made of ropes tied between two trees. The "Web" was interesting where we lifted persons and passed him or her through to the other side of the web. It required good planning and coordination. In this game, the objective was to pass everyone across the web in the allotted time. But, it was also said, for every member successfully passed through the other side, we scored 10 points and for every member left behind without getting passed through, we scored a -20. Every time, any one touches the rope, the score comes down to -5 and the entire team had to restart. Because of the scoring system, we concentrated on the numbers and missed the objective that everyone had to be passed on to the other side. This was very good example of how certain not-so-important and important things make you miss the focus on the objective.
The next one was an awesome "Valley Crossing". One had to travel via rope between two trees tied at the height of about 3 metres from the ground on one end and about 4 metres from the ground on the other end. The distance between the trees was around 15 meters. The team scored 5 points for every member who did downstream and 10 points for every member who did upstream. As I now believe I have improved my stamina because of regular jogging, I tried the upstream. It was actually easy than what I had initially thought. The thought was based on the stories that a very few people did the upstream in the entire day. Now, I think that either those stories were untrue or the teams did not try to take chances going upstream. In our team, we had a good number of people going upstream.
The final one was an interesting activity, the name of which I forgot now, but we may call it "Lava and Stone". This was played with a huge team of about 40 members, 10 on each side of a square. The objective was that the teams on opposite sides of the square should exchange places. The area inside the square was supposed to be lava and there were a few stones(bricks) inside, only on which a person can step. Further, there was a center stone, on which every person crossing had to necessarily step on. Once a person steps on a brick, the human contact with that brick had to be maintained failing which the brick would disappear. If any one person stepped on the lava or the human contact with the center-brick got missed, the entire process had to be restarted. There was a lot of commotion again initially, also there were fights regarding which team gets on to the process first. Initially one team started, they goofed up, then they wanted to try again, which the other teams refused and another team started again, this time they goofed up. It was a hell lot of fun. Finally, we all managed to accomplish the objective. In the end, a solid support was given by Sreejith (who is also my neighbour in the hostel) who maintained the contact with the center-brick till all of us passed on to other side. He made a triumphant jump to mark the eventful end.
All-in-all, it was a nice Sunday which was well spent.
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